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December 27, 2018
Question

Multi-state Withholding

  • December 27, 2018
  • 36 replies
  • 155 views

I'm having a difficult time getting a clear answer from Quickbooks as to what payroll service I need for multi-state withholding.  Our service business has employees that work in Kansas and Missouri and are required to withhold tax in each when working in those states.  An employee may work 35 hours in kansas and 5 in Missouri just within one week.  I am not seeing ANY payroll service that is capable of handling this situation.  Any help or advice would be greatly appreciated!

36 replies

December 27, 2018

Unfortunately there is no Intuit payroll service that can properly handle this - no matter what support says.

 

It's been a common request for 20 years.

April 26, 2019

I too, am grappling with this issue. I live on the border of WA and OR, with WA having no income tax, and Oregon having income tax and requiring withholding for employees that earn more than a couple thousand dollars throughout a year in Oregon. We have many jobs (construction) in Oregon, and will continue to do so. I even called ADP, and their basic service also does not offer multi-state payroll. To get that level of service with ADP you must have at least 25 employees. We have just 2 employees. All is not lost, however: After an Intuit "Payroll expert" flatly told me that NO QB Payroll service accommodates multi-state payroll, I closed that chat and proceeded to set it up as follows: The work-around solution is to simply set up 2 employees of the same name. You will have to differentiate them as follows (add a code enclosed with [for example in my case {OR}] in the last name. Put the full real name in the Legal Name field. Simply enter the hours for each state in the applicable employee. The employee will receive 2 paychecks per pay period that they work in two (or more) states. At the end of the year they receive a W-2 for each state they worked in. Dang, I should bill Intuit a fat consulting fee for this advice on how to use their product to accomplish something that "people have been asking for for 20 years." :-)

August 2, 2019

dkarl789

How did this work for you?  Were there any problems when you did your W-2's for your employees or other issues that you ran into.  I have a similar situation.  We're an electrical contractor in SD; have a project in ND and 2 Employees that live in SD, work on a project in SD and the one in ND.  ND has W/H; SD doesn't.  Waiting to hear about your problems if there were any.  Thank you for your comments.

October 24, 2023

Hello,

I have been processing payroll for multiple states each payroll period for about 8 years...the following has worked for me and I have no issues with my w2's (for the most part) 

 

Simply create "Payroll Schedules" and called them by the States you currently have employees working in.

No need to create an extra employee profile for the same person.

Go to the employee profile and payroll tab then change the payroll schedule and state tax information. 

 

 


Are you suggesting you run a separate payroll for each state? That was not previously necessary. I ran all my states in one payroll schedule.

November 5, 2019

Does anyone know for sure if Quickbooks Online supports multi state employees?

Angelyn_T
Moderator
November 5, 2019

Thank you for joining the thread, @cmrapp.

 

Yes, QuickBooks Online (QBO) supports multi-state employment. 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.

 

Also, you can contact our QBO Support Team with regards to your payroll questions. From the Help menu, select Contact us to connect to a payroll representative.

 

This article is another great resource to know more about multi-state employment payroll situations in QBO: About multistate employment payroll situations.

 

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

October 14, 2021

Any updates to the DESKTOP PAYROLL in being able to handle multi-state payroll?   This is a very common issues these days - I sure hope that Quickbooks doesn't forget about their Desktop payroll users - I've used the Online Payroll before, I don't like it, and much prefer the Desktop version.  PLEASE update the Desktop payroll version to accommodate multi-state payroll for employees who work in multi-states within one pay period!