California Company hiring a Georgia resident

Thank you for posting here, @MKlein1.

Let me share info about hiring a resident from Georgia to work with your company.

When recruiting a resident from the state you mentioned, you must abide by the Georgia Employment Registration. Apart from that, there are tax requirements that are different from California.

With this, I suggest consulting a tax agency, preferably from Georgia, to guide you in hiring a resident in that state.

Then, to set up and find out where to input their state taxes in QuickBooks Online (QBO). You can follow the steps below:

1. Select Employees from the Employee Center.
2. Click New Employee.
3. Select the Payroll Info option. Then, pick Taxes.
4. Choose the State tab.
5. From the State Worked dropdown, choose the state where you pay the State Unemployment Insurance. If they work remotely, the state work is distinct from where they physically report.
6. In the State Subject to Withholding, pick the state where you pay Income or Withholding tax for your employee. If you must file State Withholding tax for having more than one state, you can use QuickBooks Online Payroll. 
7. Then, if you see a prompt to set up the new taxes, you can follow the instructions for setting up new state taxes. 
8. If a message asks if your employee is subject to a list of additional taxes, select Yes from the Other tab. Then, click Delete when it doesn't apply. Or choose No if your employee has no added taxes.

You can read this article for more info: Set up employees and payroll taxes in a new state.

Do you need help updating your tax table in QBDT? Check out our guides here: Get the latest tax table update in QuickBooks Desktop Payroll.

Feel free to return here if you have more questions about setting up an employee from a different state in QBO. We'll give guides and pointers to help you with your payroll or QuickBooks Online tasks. Keep safe always.

Thanks so much for the reply.  However, we are not necessarily conducting a business there but employing a Georgia resident to work remotely from their home.  Do we still need to register as a foreign entity?  I reached out to their SOS, and they sent me a link to their DOL portal, which didn't help much.

Hi there, @MKlein1. I'm here to provide clarification. 

While a business may not be conducting business in the traditional sense, hiring an employee from a different state may still require the business to register as a foreign entity in that state.

This allows the employer to comply with state employment laws and tax obligations. Since reconciling conflicting laws between the states where the employee works can be tricky, I suggest collaborating with a tax professional.

To get further information on tax forms, withholdings, unemployment and other tax, e-file and pay information, general state and agency information, and employer registration, refer to this article: Access state agency websites for payroll.

However, consulting with an accountant or a tax professional is highly recommended to help set up the employees correctly so QuickBooks will calculate and deduct taxes accordingly.

Drop a post if you have any other concerns and clarifications, I'm always here to help however I can. Wishing you continued success!