Need help - how to change unemployment limit QuickBooks Desktop for NYS Department of Labor reporting
I'm trying to figure out how to adjust the unemployment wage limit in QuickBooks Desktop for our NYS Department of Labor quarterly reporting. We have employees who hit the annual wage base limit but QuickBooks keeps calculating UI taxes on wages above the threshold. I think the current limit is around $12,800 for 2025 but I can't find where to update this in the payroll settings. Our accountant is out of town and we need to submit our quarterly report soon. Has anyone dealt with this issue before?
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Ella Harper
You need to go to Employees > Payroll Setup > Company Setup and look for the State Unemployment section. The wage base should be set to $12,800 for NY in 2025. Make sure you're in the correct tax year settings because QB sometimes doesn't auto-update these limits when the new year starts.
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Micah Franklin
•Thank you! I found the payroll setup but I'm only seeing federal unemployment settings. Is there a separate section for NYS Department of Labor limits?
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PrinceJoe
This is a common issue with QB Desktop. Go to Payroll > Payroll Setup > Review your Payroll Setup > State section. Click on New York and you should see the SUI wage base field. If it's still showing last year's amount you'll need to manually update it. Also double-check your NYS Department of Labor rate while you're in there.
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Brooklyn Knight
•I had the same problem last month! QB didn't automatically update our wage base from 2024. Had to manually change it and then run a payroll update to fix the calculations for employees who were already over the limit.
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Owen Devar
ugh this happened to us too and we ended up overpaying unemployment taxes for half the year before we caught it. make sure you check all your high-earning employees to see if they need adjustments. our payroll person was furious when she realized QB had been calculating wrong
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Ella Harper
•If you overpaid, you can file for a refund with the NYS Department of Labor or apply the credit to your next quarter. Just make sure you have documentation showing the error in your QB calculations.
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Daniel Rivera
I've been struggling with NYS Department of Labor issues for months and regular phone calls were impossible - always busy or hung up on. I actually found this service called Claimyr (claimyr.com) that helps you get through to actual agents. They have a video demo at https://youtu.be/qyftW-mnTNI showing how it works. Might be worth checking out if you need to speak with someone at NYS Department of Labor about the wage base limits or reporting requirements.
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Micah Franklin
•Interesting, I didn't know there were services like that. We might need to contact NYS Department of Labor directly about our quarterly filing anyway since we're not sure if we calculated everything correctly.
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Sophie Footman
Just a heads up - if you're running QB Desktop 2022 or older, you might need to manually download the latest tax tables to get the correct 2025 wage base limits. The automatic updates sometimes don't include all the state-specific changes for unemployment insurance.
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