New Hampshire Payroll Tax Guide (2026)

New Hampshire taxes no wage income, so payroll comes down to a single employer tax: unemployment insurance on a 14,000 dollar base, recalculated every quarter rather than once a year, with 0.4 percentage points of every net rate carved out as an administrative contribution.^[4]

10 min read • Reviewed by Rajanikant Patel CPA • Verified Oct 1, 2026 • Sources: NHES, IRS

Quick Facts

New Hampshire payroll at a glance

New Hampshire has one state payroll tax: unemployment insurance, paid only by employers on the first $14,000 of each worker’s wages, with no income tax withholding and nothing deducted from employee pay.^[4]

State income tax withholding

None on wages ^[9]

UI taxable wage base

$14,000 per employee ^[4]

New employer UI rate

2.70% ^[4]

Experienced UI rate range

0.10%–7.00% ^[4]

Employee-paid state payroll tax

None ^[4]

Administrative Contribution

0.40% ^[6]

Social Security wage base

$184,500 ^[2]

FUTA net rate

0.6% = $42 per employee ^[14]

State minimum wage

$7.25 per hour (federal floor) ^[8]

Local minimum wage ordinances

None ^[8]

UI registration trigger

Causing gross wages of $1,500 or more to be paid or payable in any… ^[4]

Exempt salary threshold

$35,568 per year ^[13]

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What changed for New Hampshire payroll in 2026

Six items moved for New Hampshire employers this year. Anything below is what have changed since the 2025 tables, so a rate card carried over from last year will be wrong in at least one place.

No individual income tax at all UI wage base stays at 14,000 Rates still change every quarter Employer rates run 0.10% to 7.00% Minimum wage stays at 7.25 Exempt salary back to 684 a week

Adding the administrative contribution on top of your rate: New Hampshire does not stack the 0.4% administrative contribution onto your unemployment rate. Every employer’s rate was cut by two fifths of one percent in the fourth quarter of 2019 and the same amount is collected as the administrative contribution, so a 1.7% net rate is shown as 0.4% administrative contribution plus 1.3% unemployment insurance. The second half of the trap is timing: rates are redetermined every quarter, so an employer who locks in the first quarter rate for the whole year will misreport for the other three.^[6]

Estimate

2026 New Hampshire payroll tax calculator

Enter one employee’s annual gross wages to see what the employer owes, what comes out of the paycheque, and the true cost of employment.

New Hampshire · 2026 rates · per employee, per calendar year

Annual gross wages ($)

Cash wages subject to payroll tax, before any withholding.

Your UI contribution rate

Your exact rate is on the quarterly tax rate determination, viewable for the current and prior quarter through WebTax.

Custom UI rate (%)

FUTA basis

FUTA is 6.0% less a 5.4% credit where the state has no outstanding federal loan.

Employer pays

UI, on first $14,000–

Administrative Contribution, on first $14,000–

FUTA, on first $7,000–

Social Security, 6.2%–

Medicare, 1.45%–

Employer payroll tax–

Withheld from the employee

Social Security, 6.2%–

Medicare, 1.45%–

Additional Medicare, 0.9% over $200,000–

Withheld from employee–

True cost of employment–

Employer tax as % of wages–

Total payroll tax, both sides–

New Hampshire does not withhold state income tax from wages, so there is nothing to add here.

Rates & Nexus

Payroll tax rates & the nexus question

New Hampshire runs two state payroll taxes. The table below is the whole state layer for 2026.^[4]

The state payroll taxes

Tax	Paid by	2026 rate	Wage base
UI	Employer	0.10%–7.00%; 2.70% new	$14,000
Administrative Contribution	Employer	0.40%	$14,000

RSA 282-A:87 holds three merit rating schedules. Schedule I runs from 2.6% down to 0.05% for employers with the strongest reserve positions, Schedule II from 2.8 to 6.5% and Schedule III from 3.3 to 7.0%. RSA 282-A:82 then adjusts rates quarterly against the trust fund balance: 0.5 percentage points come off when the fund stayed above 250 million dollars throughout the preceding quarter, 1 point above 350 million and 1.5 points above 400 million, and the minimum rate cannot fall below 0.10%. The Department of Labor’s January 2026 table shows New Hampshire employer rates spanning 0.10 to 7.00%.^[4]

Who has to register

Causing gross wages of $1,500 or more to be paid or payable in any calendar quarter in the current or preceding calendar year, or having one or more individuals in employment for some portion of a day in each of 20 different calendar weeks.^[4]

Multistate and remote employees

When an employee works in more than one state, the four-part test below decides which state the wages are reported to. The tests run in order: you stop at the first one that gives an answer.

1. Localisation of service→
2. Base of operations→
3. Place of direction & control→
4. Employee’s residence

One remote employee is usually enough. A single person working from home in New Hampshire generally creates an obligation to register and report wages here, even if the business has no office, property or customers in the state.

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Compliance

Registration & return filing

Registration is online and free. The unemployment account and, where one exists, the withholding account are opened separately and carry different numbers.^[4]

How to register

Cross the wage threshold→
WebTax at www2.nhes.nh.gov/webtax→
Receive account number→
quarterly tax rate determination, viewable for the current and prior quarter through WebTax→
File & deposit online

Returns, reports & due dates

Form	What it is	Due
Employer Quarterly Tax and Wage Report	Quarterly unemployment return	April 30, July 31, October 31, January 31
Form 941	Federal quarterly return	Last day of the month after quarter end
Form 940	Federal unemployment, annual	January 31
New hire report	Report of newly hired employees	Within 20 days of start date

Quarterly unemployment returns are due April 30, July 31, October 31, January 31. A return filed one day late is delinquent, and in most states the penalty attaches to the return, not the payment.^[4]

Pricing

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Setup fee

one-time onboarding

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Every payroll run

each pay cycle

billed
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Off-cycle payroll

corrections & bonuses

billed
extra

Year-end filings

W-2s, 1099s & more

billed
extra

All you actually pay

Per employee, per pay run

$6 /emp

Plus a flat $40 minimum per pay run. That’s the whole bill.

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Wage Base

Subject wages vs. exempt payments

Not every dollar an employee receives is a taxable wage. The split below governs what goes into the unemployment wage base and what is reported at year end.^[4]

Subject wages

Salaries, hourly pay, overtime and piece rates
Commissions, bonuses and incentive pay
Most cash tips reported by the employee
Vacation, holiday and paid sick leave when taken as wages
Severance and payments in lieu of notice
The cash value of meals and lodging provided as compensation
Employer contributions to a non-qualified deferred compensation plan

Not subject

Reimbursements of genuine business expenses under an accountable plan
Employer contributions to a qualified retirement plan
Employer-paid premiums for accident and health insurance
Most third-party sick pay after the sixth calendar month
Payments to a genuine independent contractor
Workers compensation benefits

The wage base is per employer, per year, not per job. If you hire someone in August who already earned $14,000 elsewhere, your unemployment clock still starts at zero. The one exception is a successor employer taking over an existing payroll, who inherits the wages already paid.

Reference

Glossary of key terms

Taxable wage base: The slice of each employee’s annual pay that unemployment tax is calculated on. In New Hampshire that is $14,000 for 2026. Earnings above it are still wages, they are simply no longer taxed for unemployment.
Experience rating: The method New Hampshire Employment Security uses to set each employer’s own unemployment rate from its history of claims. Employers with fewer charged claims move down the schedule; those with more move up.
New employer rate: The rate assigned before an employer has enough history to be experience rated. It normally applies for two to three years, then the account moves onto the experience schedule.
Reserve account: The running balance of contributions an employer has paid in, less the benefits charged against it. The ratio of that balance to taxable payroll is what drives the assigned rate.
Successor employer: A business that acquires another’s payroll may inherit both its experience rate and the wages already paid toward the wage base for the year. Getting this wrong is a common acquisition error.
Localisation of service: The first of four tests deciding which state a multistate employee’s wages are reported to. If substantially all the work is in one state, that state wins and the remaining tests are never reached.
FUTA credit reduction: A reduction in the 5.4% federal unemployment credit applied to states that have carried an outstanding federal loan for two or more consecutive Januaries. It raises the effective FUTA rate and is settled each November.
Supplemental wages: Bonuses, commissions, awards and similar payments made outside the regular payroll cycle. Many states set a separate flat withholding rate for them.

Federal, State & Local

New Hampshire payroll tax, layer by layer

Federal tax applies everywhere and is the larger number. The state layer is what changes when you cross a border.

Layer 1: Federal

Tax	Rate	2026 base
Social Security	6.2% each side	$184,500
Medicare	1.45% each side	No limit
Additional Medicare	0.9% employee only	Over $200,000
FUTA, standard	0.6% net	$7,000
Federal income tax	Per Form W-4	No limit

New Hampshire has no FUTA credit reduction for 2026, so the standard 0.6% net rate applies, $42 per employee. The final list is not published until 10 November 2026.^[14]

Layer 2: State

Tax	Rate	2026 base
UI, new employer	2.70%	$14,000
UI, experienced	0.10%–7.00%	$14,000
Administrative Contribution	0.40%	$14,000
Income tax	None on wages	n/a

Layer 3, county & city: no payroll tax, but a wage floor

No county or city in New Hampshire levies its own payroll or income tax withheld by employers. The local layer shows up as minimum wage, not as tax.^[8]

The state minimum wage is $7.25 an hour, which is the federal floor, effective 2009-07-24. The tipped cash wage is $3.27. No local ordinance sets a higher floor. RSA 279:21 ties New Hampshire’s minimum to the federal minimum wage law, so $7.25 an hour applies statewide with no local variation. Tipped employees of a restaurant or similar establishment who customarily receive more than $30 a month in tips must get a base rate of at least $3.27 an hour, which leaves a maximum tip credit of $3.98.^[8]

Overtime exemption is a separate test. A salaried employee is exempt from overtime only above $35,568 a year ($684.00 a week) federal FLSA, and only if the duties test is also met. Paying a salary is not by itself enough.^[13]

FAQ

New Hampshire payroll FAQs

No. The Department of Revenue Administration states plainly that New Hampshire does not have an income tax on an individual’s reported W-2 wages, so there is no state withholding certificate, no deposit schedule and no annual reconciliation. The interest and dividends tax, which applied to investment income rather than wages, was repealed for taxable periods beginning after 31 December 2024.

Because New Hampshire rates are quarterly, not annual. RSA 282-A:82 subtracts 0.5 percentage points when the trust fund stayed above 250 million dollars throughout the preceding quarter, 1 point above 350 million and 1.5 points above 400 million, with a floor of 0.10%. When the fund crosses one of those lines your rate moves for the next quarter, so check WebTax each quarter rather than once a year.

No. Under RSA 282-A:87, IV every employer’s contribution rate was reduced by two fifths of one percent starting in the fourth quarter of 2019, and the same amount is collected as the administrative contribution. New Hampshire Employment Security shows a 1.7% net rate as 0.4% administrative contribution and 1.3% unemployment insurance, so the two components add back to the same net rate.

RSA 282-A:69 sets the standard rate at 2.7% of wages, and the Department of Labor’s January 2026 figures list 2.7% as the New Hampshire new employer rate. You pay it on the first $14,000 paid to each individual in a calendar year until you have enough experience to be merit rated.

New Hampshire follows the federal minimum wage law under RSA 279:21, which means $7.25 an hour. Tipped employees of a restaurant or similar establishment who customarily receive more than $30 a month in tips must be paid a base rate of at least $3.27 an hour, leaving a maximum tip credit of $3.98. Tips must make up the difference to $7.25.

No. The Granite State plan is a voluntary insurance program rather than a mandatory payroll tax, and premiums are paid by participating workers and employers. State law caps the cost of an individual plan at no more than $5 a week. An employer that buys the 6 week plan can claim a Business Enterprise Tax credit equal to 50% of the premium it paid that year.

$14,000 per employee per calendar year. Once an employee reaches that in wages from you, no further unemployment tax is due on that employee for the rest of the year. The count restarts on 1 January and does not carry over from a previous employer.

No. New Hampshire does not impose an income tax on wages, so there is no state withholding certificate, no deposit schedule and no annual reconciliation. Federal withholding still applies in full.

$7.25 an hour, which matches the federal floor. No local ordinance sets a higher rate. The tipped cash wage is $3.27.

April 30, July 31, October 31, January 31. A return is delinquent the day after the deadline even if the tax itself was paid on time, so file the return whether or not you can pay.

Verification

Sources & methodology

Methodology: every rate, threshold and due date on this page was taken from the administering agency’s own published material for the 2026 tax year, checked on Oct 1, 2026. Where a federal figure applies it comes from the IRS, SSA or US Department of Labor. 7 data points on this page could not be confirmed against a primary source and are either omitted or marked as not published, rather than estimated. Rates change, and some change mid-year, so confirm against your own rate notice before running a payroll.

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