Troubleshoot no unemployment tax withheld from a paycheck

by Intuit •

14 •

Updated 8/5/2026 02:12

Find out why the State Unemployment Insurance (SUI) is showing zero from an employee’s paycheck in Intuit QuickBooks Workforce and QuickBooks Desktop Payroll.

QuickBooks calculates State Unemployment Insurance (SUI) tax based on the SUI tax setup in your payroll product.

If the SUI shows 0.00 on a paycheck, this may be because:

Your employee already reached the SUI wage base limit
Your employee is marked exempt from SUI

Here’s how to check your SUI setup, and update it as needed.

Check if your employee reached the SUI wage base limit

If the SUI is showing 0.00 on recent paychecks but calculating correctly on previous ones, this may be because the employee has already reached the SUI wage base limit.

Check out Understand payroll tax wage bases and limits to learn more.

Check for SUI tax exemptions

If you or your employee should be or shouldn’t be exempt from SUI tax, check and update your tax exemptions if needed in your payroll product.

Note: Not sure which payroll service you have? Here's how to find your payroll service.

Intuit QuickBooks Workforce

Employee

Go to All apps A bunch of numbers and letters on a tile wall. , then Payroll, then Employees (Take me there).

From Tax withholding, select Edit.
Review the SUI checkbox and correct if needed.
Select Save.

Employer

Go to Settings ⚙, then Payroll settings.
Select Edit ✎ next to your state.
In the Unemployment Insurance (UI) section, select Edit.
Select Continue.
Review the rate and effective date, then update if needed.
Select Save, then Done.

QuickBooks Desktop Payroll

Go to Employees, then Employee Center.
Double-click the employee’s name.
Select Payroll Info, then Taxes.
Review the SUI checkbox and correct if needed.

Update your SUI rate

Once you verify your current SUI rate from your state agency, update the SUI rate and its effective date in QuickBooks.

QuickBooks Desktop Payroll BasicQuickBooks Desktop Payroll EnhancedQuickBooks Online Payroll CoreQuickBooks Online Payroll EliteQuickBooks Online Payroll PremiumQuickBooks Desktop Payroll Assisted

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