Rhode Island Payroll Tax Guide (2026)

Rhode Island is one of the few states where employees fund a disability program directly: 1.1% comes out of the first $100,000 each worker earns in 2026 for TDI and TCI. Employers sit on unemployment Schedule F with a 30,800 dollar wage base plus a 0.21% Job Development Assessment.^[5]

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

Quick Facts

Rhode Island payroll at a glance

Rhode Island has four state payroll taxes: graduated income tax withholding and a 1.1% TDI and TCI deduction taken from employees, plus unemployment insurance and a 0.21% Job Development Assessment paid by employers.^[5]

State income tax withholding

3.75%–5.99% ^[2]

UI taxable wage base

$30,800 per employee ^[5]

New employer UI rate

1.00% ^[5]

Experienced UI rate range

0.90%–9.40% ^[5]

Temporary Disability Insurance and Temporary Caregiver Insurance, withheld from employee

1.1%, $100,000 ^[9]

Job Development Assessment

0.21% ^[5]

Social Security wage base

$184,500 ^[2]

FUTA net rate

0.6% = $42 per employee ^[13]

State minimum wage

$16.00 per hour ^[10]

Local minimum wage ordinances

None ^[10]

UI registration trigger

The liability date is the first date wages were paid in Rhode Island, so… ^[5]

Exempt salary threshold

$35,568 per year ^[12]

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What changed for Rhode Island payroll in 2026

Six items moved for Rhode Island 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.

Minimum wage rises to 16.00 TDI and TCI base is 100,000 Unemployment moves to Schedule F UI wage base 30,800 TCI leave reaches 8 weeks New employer rate 1.00%

Budgeting the new employer rate without the Job Development Assessment: Rhode Island quotes the new employer unemployment rate as 1.00%, and DLT says plainly that this figure does not include the Job Development Assessment. Every contributory employer also owes 0.21% on the same 30,800 dollar wage base, so the real first-year cost is 1.21%. Keep that separate in your head from the 1.1% TDI and TCI deduction, which is employee money and never an employer expense.^[5]

Estimate

2026 Rhode Island 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.

Rhode Island · 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 Annual experience rate notice; DLT notifies each employer of its individual tax rate in late December.

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 $30,800–

Job Development Assessment, on first $30,800–

FUTA, on first $7,000–

Social Security, 6.2%–

Medicare, 1.45%–

Employer payroll tax–

Withheld from the employee

Temporary Disability Insurance and Temporary Caregiver Insurance, 1.1%, to $100,000–

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–

State income tax withholding is not included above: it depends on the employee’s Form RI W-4, Employee’s Withholding Allowance Certificate, 2026 version and filing status, so it cannot be estimated from gross pay alone.

Rates & Nexus

Payroll tax rates & the nexus question

Rhode Island runs four state payroll taxes. The table below is the whole state layer for 2026.^[5]

The state payroll taxes

Tax	Paid by	2026 rate	Wage base
UI	Employer	0.90%–9.40%; 1.00% new	$30,800
Job Development Assessment	Employer	0.21%	$30,800
Temporary Disability Insurance and Temporary Caregiver Insurance	Employee	1.1%	$100,000
Income tax withholding	Employee	3.75%–5.99%	No limit

Rhode Island is on Schedule F for 2026. Nine experience rating schedules exist in law and the schedule is chosen from the state’s account reserve position. DLT publishes the 2026 range as 0.90% to 9.40% and separately shows 0.69% to 9.19%, the difference being the 0.21% Job Development Assessment. Employers whose experience rate reaches 9.19% pay on a higher taxable wage base of $32,300 instead of $30,800.^[5]

Supplemental wages have their own rate. Bonuses, commissions and other supplemental payments are withheld at 5.99% when paid separately from regular wages. That is a state rate only; federal supplemental withholding is a separate 22% layer.^[2]

Who has to register

The liability date is the first date wages were paid in Rhode Island, so there is no general dollar threshold for commercial employers. Employers of domestic workers become subject to the Employment Security and Temporary Disability Insurance acts once they pay $1,000 or more in total cash wages in any calendar quarter.^[5] Income tax withholding is administered separately by Rhode Island Division of Taxation, so most employers end up with two state account numbers, not one.

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 Rhode Island 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.^[5]

How to register

Cross the wage threshold→
RI DLT online employer registration and online tax reporting→
Receive account number→
Annual experience rate notice; DLT notifies each employer of its individual tax rate in late December→
File & deposit online

Deposit schedule

Frequency follows the amount withheld in a calendar month. Withholding of $600 or more in any calendar month means weekly remittance. From $50 up to $599.99 a month means monthly remittance, due within 20 days after the close of the month. Under $50 a month means quarterly reporting and remittance.^[2]

Returns, reports & due dates

Form	What it is	Due
Form TX-17, Quarterly Tax and Wage Report	Quarterly unemployment return	April 30, July 31, October 31, January 31
Form RI-941M for monthly filers, Form RI-941 Employer’s Quarterly Tax Return and…	Income tax withholding returns	Frequency follows the amount withheld in a calendar month. Withholding
Annual reconciliation	Year-end withholding reconciliation	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.^[5]

Pricing

Payroll Pricing

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Every payroll run

each pay cycle

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Off-cycle payroll

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Year-end filings

W-2s, 1099s & more

billed
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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.^[5]

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
Wages subject to the employee-paid contributions listed above

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 $30,800 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 Rhode Island that is $30,800 for 2026. Earnings above it are still wages, they are simply no longer taxed for unemployment.
Temporary Disability Insurance and Temporary Caregiver Insurance: An employee-funded contribution withheld from pay at 1.1%. It is the employee’s money, so it is withheld rather than paid by the employer, but the employer is responsible for remitting it.
Experience rating: The method Rhode Island Department of Labor and Training, Employer Tax Unit 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.
Form RI W-4, Employee’s Withholding Allowance Certificate, 2026 version: The state withholding certificate. It sets how much income tax comes out of each cheque and is filed with the employer, not with Rhode Island Division of Taxation.
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

Rhode Island 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

Rhode Island 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.^[13]

Layer 2: State

Tax	Rate	2026 base
UI, new employer	1.00%	$30,800
UI, experienced	0.90%–9.40%	$30,800
Job Development Assessment	0.21%	$30,800
Temporary Disability Insurance and Temporary Caregiver Insurance, employee	1.1%	$100,000
Income tax, standard	3.75%–5.99%	No limit
Income tax, supplemental	5.99%	No limit

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

No county or city in Rhode Island levies its own payroll or income tax withheld by employers. The local layer shows up as minimum wage, not as tax.^[10]

The state minimum wage is $16.00 an hour, effective 2026-01-01. The tipped cash wage is $3.89. No local ordinance sets a higher floor. No Rhode Island city or town sets its own minimum wage, so the 16.00 dollar state rate applies statewide from 1 January 2026. The tipped cash wage of $3.89 is set in the wage statute and has not moved with the general minimum wage, so the available tip credit widens each time the minimum rises. $17.00 an hour commencing 1 January 2027^[10]

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.^[12]

FAQ

Rhode Island payroll FAQs

Employees, entirely. TDI and TCI are financed by payroll deductions, so employers withhold 1.1% of the first $100,000 a worker earns in 2026 and send it to the Employer Tax Unit quarterly, but contribute nothing themselves. The 2026 maximum weekly benefit is $971 for TDI and $1,552 for TCI.

$30,800 per employee. Employers whose experience rate reaches 9.19% or higher pay on a higher base of $32,300 instead. Rhode Island is on Schedule F for 2026, with a published employer rate range of 0.90% to 9.40%.

It depends on how much you withhold in a calendar month. $600 or more a month means weekly remittance, 50 to $599.99 a month means monthly and due within 20 days after the close of the month, and under $50 a month means quarterly. The annual reconciliation on Form RI-W3 is due on or before 31 January.

The Rhode Island supplemental withholding rate is 5.99% for 2026, which matches the top marginal rate. Regular wages are withheld using the allowances claimed on the RI W-4 and the state withholding tables, which step through 3.75%, 4.75% and 5.99%.

1.00% for unemployment insurance on the first $30,800 per employee, plus the 0.21% Job Development Assessment on the same wages, which is 1.21% in total. You also begin withholding the 1.1% TDI and TCI deduction from employees from the first payroll, and your liability date is the first date you paid wages in Rhode Island.

The direct cash wage for a tipped employee is $3.89 an hour under the state wage law. With the minimum wage at $16.00 in 2026 that leaves a maximum tip credit of $12.11, and the tips the employee actually receives must bring total pay to at least $16.00 an hour.

$30,800 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.

$16.00 an hour. No local ordinance sets a higher rate. The tipped cash wage is $3.89.

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. 3 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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