PAYROLL TAX AND ANNUAL FILING GUIDELINES 2025 – 2026

New York State Sick Leave (NYSSL) – New York State is requiring all employers to provide sick leave to employees. Some of the key points of the law includes:
• Employers with at least 100 employees must provide 56 hours of paid sick leave;
• Employers with 5 – 99 employees must provide 40 hours of paid sick leave;
• Employers with fewer than 5 employees and a net income in excess of $1 million in the previous tax year must provided 40 hours of paid sick leave; and
• Employers with fewer than 5 employees and a net income of less than $1 million in the previous tax year must provided 40 hours of unpaid sick leave.

For more information on this please visit: https://ny.gov/programs/new-york-paid-sick-leave.

New York Paid Family Leave (PFL) – PFL benefits are required for most private sector employers with one or more employees. The cost of coverage may be funded through employee payroll deduction. The maximum employee contribution for 2026 will be 0.432% of an employee’s gross wage, and is capped at annual amount of $411.91 per employee. An employer may choose to pay for the paid family leave benefit on behalf of employees. For more information go to: https://paidfamilyleave.ny.gov.

Social Security and Medicare for 2025 – The total withholding for social security continues at 6.2% for the employee withholding and 6.2% for the employer match. The wage base for 2026 increases to $184,500 and the maximum tax is $11,439.00 (6.2% of $184,500). There is no limit on the amount of earnings subject to Medicare tax. The Medicare tax rate remains at 1.45%, with the exception of “Additional Medicare Tax” for higher wage earners (explained below). The employer match also remains the same at 1.45% of gross wages with no ceiling.

Additional Medicare Tax – Employers are required to withhold an Additional Medicare Tax of .9% on wages and other compensation that is paid to a single employee in excess of $200,000 in a calendar year. There is no employer match on the compensation subject to Additional Medicare Tax.

NYS Sexual Harassment Prevention – All employers are required to adopt a policy and training program or establish a prevention policy and training program that “equals or exceeds the minimum standards” established by the Department of Labor and the Division of Human Rights (see model policy at NYS website). For more information, go to: ny.gov/programs/combating-sexual-harassment-workplace.

Minimum Wage for 2025 – The minimum wage increases to $16.00 per hour for wages paid in the greater area of New York State.

Federal Unemployment Insurance – The federal wage base for unemployment insurance continues at $7,000 for 2025 with the effective tax rate of .6%

NYS Unemployment Insurance – NYS unemployment wage base for 2026 has been raised to $13,000.

Notice and Acknowledgement of Pay Rate and Payday – Forms LS 54 – 57 – You must have a completed Form LS 54, 55, 56 or 57 (depending on the type of employee), on file for all employees. This form should also be updated every time a change in wages occurs. A signed, completed copy must also be provided to the employee and one copy is to be retained in the employee file. A copy of these forms can be obtained at https://dol.ny.gov. (Labor Law 195(1))

PAYMENT OF WITHHOLDING TAXES

Federal Payment Requirements:

IRS should have notified you during the fourth quarter of 2025 of your depository status for 2026. This status is determined by your history of total withholding liability for the period 07/01/24 through 06/30/25. If that total is more than $50,000, you are required to make semi-weekly deposits. If your accumulated liability for a quarter is over $2,500, you must make monthly deposits. IRS must notify you of being a 944 filer. The computation of liability remains the same:

Total Deposit = (Social Security W/H @ 6.2% X 2) + (Medicare W/H @ 1.45% X 2) + Federal W/H
(also include “Additional Medicare Tax” withholding for wages greater than $200,000)
Payment of payroll tax liability is determined by the following:

Federal tax deposits must be made by electronic funds transfer (EFT). You must use EFT to make all federal tax deposits. An EFT can be made using the Electronic Federal Tax Payment System (EFTPS), IRS Direct Pay or your IRS business tax account.

New York State Payment Requirements:
Liability is computed based on actual total withholding of New York State tax and is summarized as follows:

NYS mandates electronic filing of forms NYS-1 and NYS-45.

If you have filed at least once during the calendar quarter (using Form NYS-1) and have an unremitted balance of tax withheld that is less than $700 after the last payroll of the quarter, remit this amount with your quarterly return, Form NYS-45, instead of with Form NYS-1.

QUARTERLY REPORTING REQUIREMENTS
(Due the last day of January, April, July and October)

FORM 941 – FEDERAL WITHHOLDING TAXES – “Employer’s Quarterly Federal Tax Return”, used by employers who withhold income, social security and medicare from employees’ wages, must be filed every quarter (with the exception of seasonal employers), even if employees had no wages.

FORM 940 – DEPOSITS OF FEDERAL UNEMPLOYMENT INSURANCE TAX –Federal Unemployment Insurance (FUTA Tax) is computed on a quarterly basis at the net rate of 0.6% of the first $7,000 in gross wages paid per employee per calendar year.    No deposit is required for any quarter in which the liability plus the accumulated liability for the previous quarters is less than $500 (except for fourth quarter).  You must make your deposit using EFTPS if over $500, (see annual reporting requirements below).

FORM NYS–45 QUARTERLY COMBINED WITHHOLDING, WAGE REPORTING & UNEMPLOYMENT INSURANCE RETURN – There are new changes to Form NYS-45, New York State will continue to use it to report quarterly liability for unemployment insurance along with reconciling NYS withholding for the quarter. The Wage Base for NYS unemployment has been increased to $13,000 for 2026. You must complete all of Form NYS-45, Part C Columns A thru E, each quarter for all employees. NYS mandates electronic filing of these forms.

ANNUAL REPORTING REQUIREMENTS

FORM 944 – This is the ANNUAL form designed for small businesses whose annual liability is less than $1,000 to file and pay.  This form along with payment of tax due must be filed and paid by January 31st. The computation of liability is (Social Security withholding @ 6.2% X 2) + (Medicare withholding @ 1.45% X 2) + Federal withholding.  NOTE:  If your liability increases during the year, you must make monthly payments using the $2,500 rule.

FORM 940 – This is the ANNUAL Federal Unemployment Insurance Tax form for employers, which reconciles all payments made, if any, for the year to quarterly liabilities.  The balance, if under $500, may be paid with the form, all others must make the deposit using EFTPS.

FORM W-2 – “Wage and Tax Statement.”  Wage statements must be completed and distributed to employees by February 2, 2026.  Please review the instructions before completion.  Use forms W–2C and W–3C to correct errors on previously filed W–2’s and W–3.

FORM W-3 – “Transmittal of Wage and Tax Statements.”  This is a transmittal and reconciliation form required to accompany the W-2 Forms. Form W–3, together with W–2’s are to be filed by February 2, 2026 with the Social Security Administration.

FORM 1099 and 1099-NEC – Form 1099-NEC (Non-Employee Compensation) will be used to report any payments to nonemployee service providers.  Form 1099-MISC will be used to report rent paid, legal settlements, prizes or award winnings and other income not subject to self-employment taxes.  Make sure to have recipients fill out a W-9 before payment is made to ensure that proper tax reporting information is obtained for required 1099 Filing. 

If you do not obtain a completed W-9, you must withhold and submit 24% federal withholding to the IRS from the payment made to the recipient. You must provide the recipient with a copy of Forms 1099-NEC or 1099-MISC and also file with the IRS on or before February 2, 2026.

FORM 1096 – “Annual Summary and Transmittal of U.S. Information Returns.”  A separate transmittal Form 1096 along with prepared Form 1099’s must be filed with the Internal Revenue Service.  Please refer to www.irs.gov/pub/irs-pdf/i1099gi.pdf regarding due date for 1099 filings.

If you do not receive the forms from the taxing agencies, you should contact those agencies and request the missing forms be mailed to you as soon as possible. Telephone numbers of the various agencies are:

Most forms and publications can be downloaded by going to the following websites:

This payroll tax and annual filing guideline has been prepared as a guide and does not attempt to take the place of any of the publications provided to you by the various taxing authorities.

If you have any questions, please do not hesitate to call our office at (607) 432-8700.

Mostert, Manzanero & Scott, LLP