Can't Setup Payroll Tax for Nonprofit Church

Thank you for notifying me of your query, yaccma. I can see you're unable to proceed with your payroll tax setup since it needs an ESD number or account number in QuickBooks Online Payroll. Let me help you how you can acquire them.

Let us navigate to your Payroll Settings to set up payroll tax details and get your ESD number.

Here's how:

1. From the Gear icon, locate the Payroll Settings.
2. Locate the Washington Tax and tap the Pencil Icon.
3. Once the State Tax Info screen appears, press the Get your account number under the ESD field from the Unemployment Insurance (UI).
4. After that, fill in your information on the Add or review your business info and State Information.
5. Follow the steps on you screen.
6. Once completed, you'll get the ESD number.

If you want additional information about the payroll tax set up, please refer to this article: Set up Washington Cares Fund payroll tax. IT will help your learn with Washington Cares Fund long-term care insurance advantage and how it influences you and your workers.

Furthermore, will you need to access your state agency websites? Select the links for your state to find details on tax forms: Access state agency websites for payroll.

That should do it! Feel free to click the Reply button if you have follow-up questions about setting up your State Payroll taxation. I’m always here to support you.

Hi, 

I forgot to state it clearly. We are a church so we are exempt from state unemployment. Thus, looking up our ESD number would find nothing since we don't have one. 

The trouble I am having is that I cannot proceed without a number, or I would have to make one up. 

All employees have state unemployment ticked as exempt on their individual profiles. 

Is there an override? 

Hello there, @yaccma.

I understand you don't have an ESD number to be able to proceed in setting up Payroll tax.

To be able to get your ESD number, you can contact your state tax agency to ask for assistance. Once you have the ESD number, you can try setting up again your payroll taxes.

For more tips and information about how QuickBooks Online Payroll Core works, check out this article: Payroll Core.

Let me know if you have questions about setting up taxes in QuickBooks Online. I'm always here to help. Have a great day.

No, that's not the solution. We don't have AND don't need an ESD number. So getting one assigned is futile. It's a number for a certain tax for which we are exempt. 

I understand the efficiency of setting up employee payroll taxes for your Nonprofit organization, yaccma.

When managing state tax IDs or ESD numbers, it's best to reach out to the Washington State Employment Security Department to seek further guidance and information if your non-profit business is also required to submit a zero unemployment tax form. Let them know your books require to have them for setting up your automated taxes.

If they continue to advise you don't need one, I'd recommend requesting more information about why that is, since QuickBooks displays that this needs for setting up taxes properly.

Moreover, you may utilize this resource about working with taxes which may come in handy moving forward: Set up Washington Cares Fund payroll tax.

I'll be on this thread anytime you need further assistance managing taxes in your account. Please don't hesitate to reply to this post, and I'll make sure to get you covered. Stay safe!