September 2024 and I'm here, cap in hand, having this issue AGAIN. Unfortunately, I've seen several threads like this and there isn't ever any resolution offered on QB's side of things. Which, knowing others are in the trenches with me at least helps me to feel less alone in with this frustration.
I am a non-profit 503c and we are legally exempt from paying unemployment insurance. Therefore, we have never been and never will be given a WA ESD number. Somehow, this does not compute with QBO, and I'm stuck in this frustrating cycle that can't ever seem to be solved wherein I'm commanded to retrieve a number the state will not give me.
Nevertheless, every few months, QBO has some sort of update and suddenly they are telling me I absolutely have to enter a number I do not have. I get passed around to several different reps, finally someone finds a loophole to this maddening rule and the issue is "solved" with whatever dummy number the system is currently accepting. All is well for a few months until the next update where I again am asked to input a number I will never have and I am then back to being bounced around endlessly until the next dummy number is discovered. I continually find myself in this frustrating cycle where I can't win and I'm honestly tired of wasting my time.
Within QBO help desk, there seems to be a large lack in help between state and federal taxes. I've placed multiple tickets and been transferred all around for a problem regarding WA State L&I taxes. Sometimes a ticket is entered, I get an email from whatever specialized help desk that it will be resolved in 30-40 days, and then I'm ignored and never hear from them again. Other times I'm told I can't be helped and am transferred around or given numbers to call of other people that cannot help me. In the end, I'm 9 months in and that problem still isn't solved. And now I get to fight about the ESD number again. Which is a separate frustration, but somehow still never-ending.
Something needs to be done to fix the way QBO handles state taxes, particularly requiring a number we do not and will not have, because it's incredibly frustrating for customers who spend hundreds a month on this program.
