What payroll returns does a New Jersey employer file?

Before the first paycheck, register with the Division of Revenue and Enterprise Services on Form NJ-REG, the business registration that also opens your payroll accounts. The Department of Labor treats you as an employer once you employ one or more people and pay $1,000 or more in wages in a calendar year (register as an employer). After you register, the Division of Taxation mails a welcome letter with your NJ taxpayer ID and a PIN for online filing (Reporting and Remitting).

New Jersey sets your schedule from what you withheld before (Reporting and Remitting):

• Weekly payers: prior-year withholding of $10,000 or more. Tax is due by the Wednesday after the week containing payday, and you file Form NJ-927-W each quarter instead of the regular quarterly return.
• Monthly/quarterly payers: everyone else. If tax withheld in the first or second month of a quarter is $500 or more, send it with Form NJ-500, the monthly remittance, by the 15th of the next month. The third month is paid with the quarterly return. Smaller amounts can wait for the quarterly return.

Household employers file once a year: Form NJ-927-H plus a WR-30 for each of the four quarters, all due by January 30. All returns and payments are electronic (file and pay online).

The quarterly return reports income tax withheld and the contributions below; the wage report lists each employee and their wages. Both are filed online. The Department of Labor says they must be received by the 30th with no extension when the 30th falls on a weekend or holiday (due dates); the Division of Taxation's NJ-WT instructions move the NJ-927 to the next business day. Filing by the business day before is on time under both. A registered employer files both forms even for a quarter with no wages (Labor FAQ), and seasonal businesses file all four quarters (NJ-WT instructions).

Federal dates fall to the next business day on a weekend (IRS Publication 15). For the New Jersey pair, January 30, 2027 is a Saturday: filing by Friday, January 29 is on time under both agencies' rules.

These are the published rates for the year (rate table). Employer rates run on a fiscal year, July 1 to June 30. Worker rates and the wage base run on the calendar year.

• Unemployment insurance: new-employer rate 2.6825% (unchanged for July 2025–June 2026 and July 2026–June 2027); worker 0.3825%.
• Disability insurance: new-employer rate 0.5%; worker 0.19% for 2026.
• Workforce development/supplemental workforce: employer 0.1175%; worker 0.0425%.
• Family leave insurance: employer 0%; worker 0.23% for 2026.

The 2026 taxable wage base is $44,800 per worker for unemployment and workforce contributions (employer and worker) and employer disability. Worker disability and family leave apply up to $171,100. For 2027 the page already lists a $46,400 base, $177,100 for worker disability and family leave, and worker rates of 0.24% for both.

New employers keep the new-employer rates for their first three calendar years. After that the rate is calculated from your reserve ratio: what you have paid in minus benefits charged to your account (how rates are calculated). Each year at the end of summer the rate notice for the new fiscal year appears in Employer Access. If you think it is wrong, you must protest in writing within 30 days of the notification date (rate notice).

A physical therapy clinic opened in 2025, so it is still on new-employer rates. Its six employees earn $90,000 in total in the first quarter of 2026, $15,000 each, all under the wage base.

• Employer unemployment: $90,000 × 2.6825% = $2,414.25
• Employer disability: $90,000 × 0.5% = $450.00
• Employer workforce: $90,000 × 0.1175% = $105.75
• Employer total: $2,970.00
• Withheld from workers: unemployment $344.25, disability $171.00, workforce $38.25, family leave $207.00, total $760.50

All of it goes on the quarterly return. In the third quarter each employee passes $44,800 year to date, so only $14,800 of each person's wages counts for unemployment, workforce and the employer's disability contribution that quarter and none in the fourth. Workers' disability and family leave keep coming out of their pay.

Form NJ-W-3, the annual reconciliation of income tax withheld, is due February 15; for 2026 wages that is Tuesday, February 16, 2027, because February 15 is Presidents' Day and the date moves to the next business day. The state copy of every W-2 goes with it. It is required even if you paid no wages, and must be filed within 30 days if the business closes (NJ-W-3). Employees must get their W-2 earlier, under the federal rule: for 2025 wages the IRS date was February 2, 2026, since January 31 fell on a Saturday, and for 2026 wages it is February 1, 2027. New Jersey's own February 15 date for employee copies (NJ-WT instructions), February 16 in 2027, does not move the federal one.

You also withhold federal income tax and Social Security and Medicare, and report them on Form 941 each quarter. Deposits are monthly (by the 15th of the next month) if you reported $50,000 or less in the lookback period, and semiweekly if more. Once $100,000 or more of tax builds up on any day, it is due the next business day, and a monthly depositor becomes semiweekly from then on. Federal unemployment tax goes on Form 940, due January 31, which for 2026 is February 1, 2027 since January 31 is a Sunday (IRS Publication 15).

• Quarterly return, Labor side: $10 a day for the first five days, then $10 a day or 25% of contributions due, whichever is less. A late "no liability" report costs $10 a day up to $50. Unpaid contributions carry interest of 1.25% a month (interest and penalties).
• Wage report: $5 per employee for the first late, incomplete or inaccurate report, $10 per employee for a second within eight consecutive quarters, $25 per employee for the third and later ones (interest and penalties).
• Income tax withheld: 5% a month of the tax due (up to 25%) plus $100 a month for a late return, 5% for late payment, and interest at 3% above prime (NJ-WT instructions). Owners and officers can be held personally liable for tax they should have withheld.

Every New Jersey employer, of any size, must give full-time, part-time and temporary employees (except union construction workers and per diem health care workers) one hour of earned sick leave for every 30 hours worked, up to 40 hours per benefit year, or grant the 40 hours up front (earned sick leave). Up to 40 unused hours carry over.

Numica runs payroll for New Jersey employers, and every date above is also on our New Jersey tax deadlines calendar.