Withholding tax filing requirements

Employers paying wages or other payments subject to income tax withholding must file a return and pay the New York State, New York City, and Yonkers taxes required to be withheld.

NYS-45

All employers required to withhold tax from wages must file Form NYS-45, Quarterly Combined Withholding, Wage Reporting, and Unemployment Insurance Return, each calendar quarter.

If you withhold less than $700 during a calendar quarter, remit taxes withheld with your quarterly return, Form NYS-45. See NYS-1 below if you withhold more than $700 during the calendar quarter for additional filing requirements.
Generally, employers must file quarterly, even if they did not pay wages during the quarter and have zero withholding. See Instructions for Form NYS-45 for exceptions.

NYS-1

If you withhold $700 or more during a calendar quarter you must remit the tax with Form NYS-1, Return of Tax Withheld, within 3 or 5 business days after the payroll that caused the accumulated tax withheld to equal or exceed $700.

If you have more than one payroll within a week (Sunday through Saturday), you are not required to file the NYS-1 until after the last payroll in the week.
When a calendar quarter ends between payrolls paid within a week, any accumulated tax required to be withheld of at least $700 must be remitted with Form NYS-1 after the last payroll in the quarter.
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.

Reporting annual wage and withholding totals

You are required to report annual wage and withholding totals for every employee you employed during the year on the last NYS-45 filed for the calendar year.
Employers do not submit a copy of federal Form(s) W-2 to New York State.

Due Dates

Resources

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