Tax Configuration

An Admin manages company tax setup, including Business info, State tax registrations, and Retry tax sync. Admin and Payroll teammates can manage an employee’s tax-setup link; Approvers can read the employee’s withholding status.

Your FEIN

Your company's FEIN is entered once, as part of General Information's Business info stage — it isn't a separate tax setting. New York withholding and the commuter tax (MCTMT) are both filed under it, which is why the State tax stage doesn't ask you for either account number.

State tax registrations (Company Setup)

The fourth stage on the Company Setup checklist collects what our tax partner needs to compute and file New York employer taxes correctly. After Greenroom approves your company, the same form is the State tax registrations group of Settings → Company, which shows your answers first; Edit opens the form (see On Settings after approval). The state itself isn't a field: it's the state of your business address, shown as a fixed label (NY). With no business address on file yet, the stage says "Set your business address on the Business info stage first — the primary state seeds this form."

What the stage asks

The illustration below includes the unemployment fields shown once your first employee exists with our tax partner. They are hidden during initial company setup.

NY

Unemployment tax rate?

4.025

%

Don't include New York's 0.075% Re-employment Service Fund: it's calculated automatically, on its own line. If your rate notice shows a total that includes it, enter the total minus 0.075%: a 3.4% total is 3.325%.

Does anyone work in New York City? *?

Yes▾

The five boroughs: Manhattan, the Bronx, Brooklyn, Queens and Staten Island.

Does anyone work in the suburban counties? *?

No — nobody works there▾

We’ll file 0% for this zone.

Nassau, Suffolk, Westchester, Rockland, Orange, Putnam and Dutchess.

Getting the unemployment fields right

Use Look up your New York unemployment rate to open New York's employer sign-in site. It points you to your assigned rate, also printed on the annual Unemployment Insurance Rate Notice (Form IA 97). The link appears before the first employee's unemployment fields open, beside an empty NY rate field, on the first-payroll checklist when the rate is still owed, and in the payroll's unemployment-rate notice.

Under the rate field, and wherever else Greenroom asks for the rate (the payee page's unemployment prompt and the payroll's unemployment-rate notices), it says what to leave out: "Don't include New York's 0.075% Re-employment Service Fund: it's calculated automatically, on its own line. If your rate notice shows a total that includes it, enter the total minus 0.075%: a 3.4% total is 3.325%."

A total copied from the notice into the rate field gets a one-click fix too: 4.1 or 4.10 reads "That looks like New York's total rate for new employers, which includes the 0.075% Re-employment Service Fund." and offers Use 4.025%, and in 2026 any whole tenth from 1.7 to 9.5 offers the total minus 0.075% (3.4 offers Use 3.325%). A total typed as the notice's decimal gets the same offer, and the note names the total: 0.041 reads "That looks like the decimal of New York's total rate for new employers, 4.1%, which includes the 0.075% Re-employment Service Fund." and offers Use 4.025%. These fixes are suggestions: what you typed still saves.

The account-number check catches a number typed in the wrong shape before it is sent. It uses the formats our tax partner publishes, or the recorded New York formats when none have been published yet, and spells out the expected shapes beside the field. Our tax partner still validates the number itself, so a number that passes here can still be rejected there (see Our tax partner rejected one of my New York numbers).

Once your first employee exists with our tax partner, the Payees list and that employee's page ask for what New York still needs, for example "New York needs your unemployment account number and rate." The ask names no moment: it stays on the Payees list, every employee's page and the first-payroll checklist until it's answered, and payroll runs meanwhile. Under its rate field, after what to leave out, the prompt says what payroll calculates at until you add your rate, as of today: "Until you add your rate, payroll calculates at [rate]%, the rate on file with our tax partner. If New York assigned you a different rate, enter the one on your rate notice.", the 4.025% sentence quoted above while our tax partner holds no rate, or that its rate couldn't be read. Only an Admin may save here, with Save unemployment details, the same save as on State tax registrations; a Payroll teammate sees the prompt but reads "Only an admin can save New York unemployment details. Ask an admin on your team." in place of the form. The page then confirms "New York unemployment details saved.", or shows the save's own message, and the prompt goes once nothing more is owed. A save our tax partner didn't accept keeps its message on the prompt, so you can correct the answer there, and an answer it refused is asked for again: "Our tax partner didn't accept what was last saved. Compare it with your state notice and save it again."

The Submit step asks you to choose how to proceed only on your first payroll that includes an employee when the rate is missing. A payroll containing only contractors, loan-outs, or vendors does not need that decision. An earlier contractor-only payroll does not count as your first employee payroll.

When your answers reach our tax partner

A box headed What New York needs before you can sign tracks the answers New York requires before your signer can sign the filing authorizations. Until they're all answered it reads "Our tax partner can’t send your New York filing forms for signature until these are answered: …", naming them. An answer you've marked applied-for is listed as "filed as applied-for", with "You can complete company setup with these open items. Greenroom will follow up on anything still needed." (after approval, just the second sentence).

Before Greenroom approves your setup, nothing on this stage is sent to our tax partner: your answers are saved in Greenroom ("State tax registration saved for NY"), and the State tax registration status card at the top of Company Setup reads Not sent yet. Saved answers are all this stage needs before approval: it counts as done, and reads Answers saved — sent to our tax partner at approval (a demo company, which is never sent, reads Answers saved — a demo company is not sent to our tax partner). Approval sends them with everything else, and approval stops if our tax partner rejects one.

After approval, each save goes to our tax partner and is verified by reading the registration back, not just trusted. The Registration status panel shows what our tax partner actually holds when it's reachable, one line per jurisdiction: New York: 8 items registered once it holds them all, or otherwise New York: 8 items and the reason they share, such as "Opens when your first New York employee is set up.", or how many are in each state, such as "3 open when your first New York employee is set up, 5 registered." Show the 8 items lists them one by one. Anything you need to act on (a number to enter or correct, or a value that conflicts with one our tax partner holds) has a line of its own under the jurisdiction's, and the rest fold behind Show the other 7 items. The save message tells you anything that didn't land. For example:

• A value that has to wait. Our tax partner only opens some New York slots once the company has an employee, and the employee is created there when you approve their setup. So the message reads, for example, "Saved. We'll register your New York unemployment account as soon as your first employee is approved. Nothing for you to do.", and the registration row says "Opens when your first New York employee is set up." A first contractor doesn't open these slots.
• A value our tax partner rejected. The message starts "Saved here, but our tax partner rejected your", names the value in Greenroom's own words, the ones its correction messages use (your unemployment account number, for example), quotes its reason, and ends: "We won't re-send it automatically until 24 hours after it was rejected. If it's wrong, correct it and save. If you're sure it's right, choose Retry tax sync under State tax registration status in Company setup, or contact Greenroom." Once you're approved it names Settings → Company, where that card is by then, just above the State tax registrations group. A rejected value is held rather than re-sent on every save, and the registration row says the same thing.
• A connection problem, not a rejection: "Saved. We couldn't reach our tax partner to register these details just now — we'll try again automatically, and your setup checklist shows the current state."

After approval, what counts is what our tax partner has confirmed, not your saved answers. While it hasn't confirmed an answer it can take now, the State tax registration status card above the group says so, for example Sent to our tax partner, 1 item pending: followed by the item's name; the group itself shows no status line. An unconfirmed status alone does not lock payroll. Payroll is still blocked when our tax partner reports a blocking jurisdiction or task; the checklist identifies the outstanding requirement. Submitting your setup for review only needed the answers saved.

On Settings after approval

Once Greenroom has approved your company, State tax registrations is a group of Settings → Company that shows what's saved before you change anything. Under a NY label it lists the Unemployment account number (once it's asked for, or Applied for when you've marked it so), the Unemployment rate, the Withholding deposit schedule, the Withholding EFT debit PIN (Not enrolled in PrompTax, Enrolled, PIN on file or Enrolled, PIN not arrived yet), and Anyone working in New York City and Anyone working in the suburban counties (Yes, No or Not set), then the registration status, when Greenroom can read it from our tax partner. Once your first employee exists with our tax partner, a 501(c)(3) or government-entity nonprofit also sees Reimbursable unemployment election (Reimburses the state fund or Pays contributions). Edit opens the form described above, and Cancel closes it again. The group opens on its form by itself while none of its answers are saved, while your EFT debit PIN is an open item, or while a registration needs a number entered or corrected.

The unemployment rate is the figure payroll uses, with whose it is under it:

When our tax partner holds the figure shown, the date it took effect there follows, for example On file with our tax partner, effective January 1, 2026. Change rate, or Add rate while no rate is saved and none is on file with our tax partner, opens the form on the rate field.

Here the rate can be added at any time, even before your first employee. Until then it's kept, and sent when New York's unemployment registrations open; the save says "Saved. We'll register your New York unemployment account as soon as your first employee is approved. Nothing for you to do." With no rate saved, the field's "Until you add your rate, …" line shows only while the group reads New York's rate for new employers, until you add yours.

Correcting a tax value after payroll has run

A payroll's own figures don't change once it's approved. What happens to it when you correct a tax value afterwards depends on the value.

Your unemployment rate

After approval, each rate you save reaches our tax partner dated the first day of the current quarter. Change it again in the same quarter and the new rate replaces it from that same day. A change in a later quarter starts on the first day of that quarter, and the earlier quarters keep the rate they had.

Once our tax partner takes your rate (after your first employee's setup is approved), typing a rate on Settings → Company or on the Submit step's unemployment rate card adds a line under the field saying when it would take effect, for example "A rate saved now takes effect October 1, 2026. Payrolls from that date on, including ones already paid, are recalculated at it." From October 1 to December 31 it adds "If this is your 2027 rate, add it on or after January 1, 2027.", because a rate saved before then would also apply to this year's last quarter. The line is only for a rate a save would send, so it isn't shown for the rate already saved or the one our tax partner holds, or while our tax partner holds a rate Greenroom didn't send, which a save doesn't overwrite (see When our tax partner already holds a value).

The save message then says what happens to this year's approved payrolls with employees (those with a pay date from January 1 on), judging each one by the rate it was calculated at:

When the same save also corrects another value that approved payrolls used (below), that value's message comes after the rate's and opens with the value's name, so its correction can't be read as the rate's. If the rate you typed sends nothing because our tax partner already holds it, the message says so first: "Your unemployment rate, [rate]%, was already on file with our tax partner, so there was nothing to send for it." And when the message says that payrolls will be recalculated, but a value in the same save wasn't sent, because our tax partner rejected it, holds a value Greenroom didn't set (see When our tax partner already holds a value) or can't take a number in that shape, it says what wasn't sent first, then the notice.

Your reimbursable election and MCTMT answers

When a corrected reimbursable election, MCTMT zone answer or nonprofit answer reaches our tax partner, the save message names what it corrected, such as "Your unemployment reimbursable election is saved.", "Your nonprofit status is saved." or, for both zones at once, "Your MCTMT rate for New York City and MCTMT rate for the suburban counties are saved." It then says when the correction applies: from a date, such as "The correction applies from October 1, 2026", or, for the nonprofit answer, which has no date of its own, "The correction applies to payrolls you approve from now on". It does not recalculate payrolls you have already approved — that's how our tax partner works, not a Greenroom limitation, and it has a real consequence: a quarterly return computes from payrolls as they were run, so a payroll that used the wrong value produces a wrong return.

So the message counts every payroll with employees you've already approved, whatever its date, and names their quarters. A payroll paid on or after the date used the old value where the new one now applies, so its filing is wrong. One paid earlier, or any payroll when the answer has no date, is wrong only if your corrected answer already applied then, which Greenroom can't know, so the message says if: "Your MCTMT rate for New York City is saved. The correction applies from October 1, 2026, but it does not recalculate the 5 payrolls you've already approved, Q4 2025 – Q4 2026. They used the old value, so the Q4 2026 filing is still wrong, and so are the earlier ones if the new value already applied then. Ask Greenroom to contact our tax partner about an amended return; Greenroom can't amend a filing itself." Where it names two or more values, value reads values.

If no payroll with employees has been approved yet, it says so plainly instead: "No payroll with employees has been approved yet, so no quarterly filing is affected." A value fixed before your first payroll is a clean fix and reads as one.

When our tax partner already holds a value

If our tax partner holds a dated value for your company that Greenroom didn't send, a save doesn't overwrite it, because the overwrite couldn't be undone. The message reads "Saved here, but we did NOT send your [setting] to our tax partner — it holds a value for a period we didn't set, and sending yours would overwrite it permanently. Someone needs to check which is right.", naming the setting in Greenroom's own words (your unemployment tax rate, for example). Contact Greenroom to settle which value is right.

A value Greenroom sent itself, but couldn't confirm had arrived, doesn't stay one of these: once our tax partner is found holding exactly that value, for the date Greenroom sent it for, Greenroom counts it as its own, and later changes to it are sent. If a save of yours is what finds it, and payroll calculates with that value, the save's message also says what it means for payrolls already approved, as above.

The Submit step's unemployment rate card does the same for a rate saved there: it keeps your rate in Greenroom, sends nothing, and says so under its choices, starting "Saved your rate here.", then what it found, such as "Our tax partner holds a value for this dated to a period we didn't set. Sending yours would replace it permanently, so we've stopped.", and ending "Contact Greenroom to check which rate is right." When it couldn't read the rate's history from our tax partner, it says so and ends "Try again; if this keeps happening, contact Greenroom."

Nonprofit status

On the Business info stage, you answer whether your production is run by a nonprofit — not a nonprofit, a 501(c)(3), or a government-entity 501(c). It's a real tax setting that goes to our tax partner, not a cosmetic field: it changes federal unemployment (FUTA) treatment, and either nonprofit answer makes the SUI reimbursable election available once your first employee exists with our tax partner. Saving a nonprofit answer re-sends it to our tax partner immediately if your company already exists there, rather than waiting for the next state-tax save. A changed answer that lands there gets the correction message described under Your reimbursable election and MCTMT answers, without a date.

Employee tax withholding — handled by our tax partner, not Greenroom

Federal (W-4) and applicable state withholding (New York's IT-2104, and NYC's sub-form for city residents) are normally filled out by each employee directly, through a secure link to a page our tax partner hosts — not through a Greenroom form. Greenroom deliberately doesn't build a withholding form and doesn't store filing status, allowances, or other withholding details; it only reads back our tax partner's status per jurisdiction and displays it.

The one exception is paper. On an employee's setup page you choose how the W-4 gets recorded: the payee completes it themselves in a secure hosted flow, you enter it from a signed paper W-4 they gave you (Enter from a signed paper W-4), or Skip for now. The paper option appears only once the employee exists with our tax partner, which happens when their setup is approved. Values entered from paper go straight to our tax partner; Greenroom doesn't keep them.

On a payee's profile, you'll see their withholding status per jurisdiction as one of:

Unfinished withholding forms don't stop a payroll. When you submit, Greenroom reads each employee's status live from our tax partner (not the cached status on their profile). Anyone whose forms aren't finished is paid with taxes withheld at the standard single rate, and the Submit page lists them under Tax forms not finished. Submit is still refused for an employee our tax partner reports as blocking, one whose status Greenroom couldn't read, or one who isn't connected to our tax partner at all. If a status read fails, the message asks you to try submitting again and contact Greenroom if it keeps happening.

Employer-side payroll taxes

Employer taxes — Social Security, Medicare, federal unemployment (FUTA), New York state unemployment (SUI), and MCTMT where it applies — are calculated and paid through our tax partner as part of running payroll. They show up as a line item on funding documents and payroll reports; they aren't something you configure by jurisdiction ahead of time.

Until our tax partner has calculated a payroll, a draft shows Greenroom's own estimate, built from what's on this stage. New York unemployment (the NY SUTA line) is estimated at your own rate from State tax registrations, at 4.025%, New York's rate for new employers, when none is on file, and not at all for a qualifying nonprofit that elected reimbursable status; that election also removes the draft estimate's re-employment service fund line. It's charged on the year's New York wage base ($17,600 for 2026), with a separate NY Re-employment Service Fund line at 0.075% of the same wages. The MCTMT estimate uses the higher usable stored rate from the zones where payroll has not been ruled out; it does not allocate each payee's wages between zones. If both applicable rates are zero, there is no MCTMT line. A missing or unusable rate also contributes zero to the estimate, so absence of a line does not establish that no quarterly tax will be due. Our tax partner's own figures replace the estimate when the payroll syncs.

Company-level tax filing authorization

Once Greenroom approves your setup, you can send your authorized signer a link to e-sign the payroll tax filing authorizations, in our tax partner's own signing ceremony on a Greenroom-branded page. See Tax Authorization Forms for how that signing works.

SDC and USA 829

For payees who are already set up as Contractor, Loan-out, or Vendor type (never for W-2 employees — see Union Setup for why union assignment can't change that), SDC and USA 829 (United Scenic Artists) payments can be split across two different 1099 forms — 1099-NEC for fees and guaranteed weekly compensation, and 1099-MISC for advances or royalty overages after recoupment — rather than reporting entirely on one form. See Union Setup for the full union list and Union Rate Reference for confirmed vs. pending rates. Fee, advance, and royalty pay itself is set up on each payee; see Fees, Advances & Royalties.

Common issues

An employee is listed under "Tax forms not finished"

Review the employee's Tax withholding card for the unfinished forms or missing setup details. If the only outstanding issue is withholding forms, payroll can go ahead at the standard single rate. A blocking employee status or an unreadable status still stops submission. When the card offers Send tax setup link, use it to ask the employee to finish.

Our tax partner rejected one of my New York numbers

The save message and the registration row both quote its reason. If the number was mistyped, correct it and save. If you're sure it's right, use Retry tax sync on the State tax registration status card (at the top of Company Setup, or just above the State tax registrations group on Settings → Company once you're approved, only while there's something to send: a send that failed, or an answer our tax partner hasn't confirmed and can take now), or contact Greenroom. Saving the same value again won't re-send it for 24 hours. If our tax partner can't be reached when you retry, nothing is sent, and the card says "We couldn't reach our tax partner just now, so nothing was sent. Try again in a few minutes."

The status card says "Not sent yet"

Nothing goes to our tax partner until Greenroom approves your setup. Your answers are saved; approval sends them.

Looking for a "Tax Configuration" settings page

State-level tax registration lives on the State tax registrations stage of Company Setup, covered above, and on Settings → Company once you're approved. Employee withholding is still handled entirely by our tax partner; FEIN lives in Business info; employer taxes are calculated automatically when you run payroll.

Next steps

See Tax Authorization Forms for how the tax-filing signature works, or continue to Adding Payees to begin building your payroll roster.