system says my NC unemployment tax is not ready to file & pay

We see how urgent this is so I'll direct you to the best help, @realestatecourtney.

I recommend contacting QuickBooks Online (QBO) Payroll Live Support to help pull up your account in a safe environment and find the root cause of this issue. This way, they can thoroughly explain how you can pay your NC unemployment tax. Here's how:

1. Hover your cursor to the (?) Help icon and click it.
2. Select the Search tab and enter a brief description of your concern below. Then, press Enter on your keyboard.
3. Click the Contact Us underneath.
4. Choose either Chat or Callback.

I'll also share this article to help you scrutinize pay bases and ceilings for federal or state taxes: Understand payroll tax wage bases and limits.

Click the Reply button for additional queries.

@Bryan_M  RE : I recommend contacting QuickBooks Online (QBO) Payroll Live Support

How completely unhelpful.

I have the same issues. And also the NC NCUI 101 (Q1) - NC Employer's Quarterly Tax and Wage Report (Q1) disappeared under filling. I saw it was there last week but I could not file because of the same error. Today I came back and found it disappeared. I can't pay NC Unemployment Tax and can't file the NC NCUI 101 (Q1). I called Quickbooks support and they told me something is under investigating on their end, and the agent told me to come back on the 25th, I would be able to pay then. I am not sure if this is true but I will check next week to see. It's so frustrating because I don't want to forget and have to keep coming back to check on it. I've never seen something like this before.

Same problem here using Desktop program and QB online payroll.  

it's worked perfectly for 10+ years.  Suddenly...it's broken with no fix in site.

This happened to me for NCUI 101 for 4Q 2024. It turned out to be a back-end problem of a "clog in the submission pipeline," which I know because the support person I got was a very determined young woman. The person I talked with today was able to confirm that QBO is aware of the problem and supposedly working on it. 

Please note that the final date to submit through QBO for 1Q 2025 is Monday, April 28. If they don't get it fixed, we'll have to file directly and then get QBO sorted out after the fact. I am not looking forward to that possibility.