Tax Setup Administration: Federal & State Taxes

Setting Up a New Tax in Zenefits Payroll

The Zenefits Payroll system automatically detects when a new tax type needs to be set up based on your employee's work and home addresses.  Once detected, a new agency card will appear in the Federal & State Taxes page under the Taxes tab in Zenefits Payroll.  The payroll administrator for your business will need to complete any required information and update the Level of Service in order to authorize Zenefits to collect, pay, and report taxes for the new tax.

NEW! Tax Setup Page

In 2022, Zenefits is releasing a new experience for administrators to setup and manage tax agency cards which will now allow administrators to update their Level of Service directly in the agency card.  Zenefits Payroll administrators will be notified when this new page is activated and available for use on their account(s).  

• Not all agencies will be eligible for administrators to update Level of Service.  
• Administrators will be able to revert to the legacy setup page if needed.  

The guide below provides more information about how to setup and manage tax agency cards in this new page.

Updating Level of Service

In order to update your Level of Service for an agency, you will first need to input the information required for Zenefits to provide tax payment and filing services on your behalf.  Once these required fields are completed accurately, you will be able to change your Level of Service to Full Service.

Selecting an Effective Date

When changing your Level of Service to or from Full Service, you will be required to select an effective date of either the current or future filing period for the agency you are updating.  It's important to note that the start date of a filing period for a specific agency could vary depending on the frequency of reporting required by the agency.  e.g. if the agency reporting is quarterly and you select Current for the effective tax period, the effective date that the system will display and use for services will be the first day of the current quarter.

Authorizing a Transfer of Responsibility

When you select the current filing period as your effective date for a Level of Service change, the system will automatically review the tax deposit history for agency card you are attempting to update and prompt you to transfer responsibility for undeposited amounts:

• You will not be able to transfer responsibility for deposits with a due date in the past.
• Some deposits may have future due dates that are four or fewer business days in the future.  In the case of updating to Full Service, Zenefits may not be able to collect the funds from your account within the time frame needed to make the deposits to the agency in a timely manner.  In the case of updating to Self-Service, you may need to send your payments to the agency prior to receiving a refund from Zenefits.

If you need assistance or have questions about the transfer of responsibility process, our Customer Care team will be able to assist you.

Viewing Past Authorizations

Anytime a payroll administrator authorizes a transfer of responsibility for tax deposits to or from Zenefits, the details are captured and visible withing the Authorizations page under the Taxes tab in Zenefits Payroll.