Last updated: May 15, 2026
Payrollix operates as a regulated payroll and tax-filing platform. This page documents the federal and state e-filing authorizations, regulatory frameworks, and operational controls that govern how we transmit tax returns, move money, and safeguard taxpayer data on behalf of accountants and their clients.
Payrollix is an IRS-authorized e-file transmitter and software developer for the federal 94x family. We transmit returns directly to the IRS via the Modernized e-File (MeF) Application-to-Application (A2A) channel — there is no intermediary transmitter or third-party software in the path.
Every return transmitted by Payrollix is generated in-house, validated against the IRS schema, signed, and archived to encrypted storage before submission. Acknowledgements are polled directly from the IRS and matched back to the filing record.
| Form | Purpose | Channel |
|---|---|---|
| Form 941 / 941-X | Quarterly employer's federal tax return; amended return | IRS MeF (direct A2A) |
| Form 940 / 940 amended | Annual FUTA return | IRS MeF (direct A2A) |
| Form 943 / 943-X | Agricultural employer's annual return | IRS MeF (direct A2A) |
| Form 944 / 944-X | Small-employer annual return | IRS MeF (direct A2A) |
| Form 945 / 945-X | Annual return of withheld federal income tax (non-payroll) | IRS MeF (direct A2A) |
| Form W-2 / W-3 | Annual wage and tax statement / transmittal | SSA Business Services Online (EFW2) |
| Form W-2c / W-3c | Corrected wage and tax statement / transmittal | SSA Business Services Online (EFW2C) |
| Form 1099-NEC / 1096 | Non-employee compensation reporting / transmittal | IRS IRIS (end-to-end pipeline live) |
Backup withholding (B-Notice / CP2100) handling is on the roadmap; we already withhold at the statutory backup rate when payee TIN matching fails.
Payrollix calculates withholding, unemployment insurance (UI / SUTA), and paid family and medical leave (PFML) contributions for all 50 states and the District of Columbia. Filing and remittance coverage is rolled out state-by-state and tracked publicly on our state-build scoreboard.
Payrollix maintains active third-party administrator or bulk-filer credentials with 25+ state agencies. Operational logins / agent IDs are live with:
In-house return-generation, wage-detail, and / or UI-quarterly builders are production-ready for the following jurisdictions:
IL, CT, PA, OH, GA, IA, NC, DE, DC, UT, MN, AL, AR, NE, VT, NJ, MA, IN, MI, WI, TN, SD, WA, NH, AK, NV, ND, CO, MO, MS, MT, HI.
The federal Personal Responsibility and Work Opportunity Reconciliation Act of 1996 (PRWORA) requires every employer to report each new hire to their state directory of new hires within 20 days. Payrollix transmits new-hire reports on a per-hire cadence (not quarterly) on behalf of clients. Utah is live; additional state directories are shipping incrementally.
Payrollix operates an in-house e-signature service that complies with the federal Electronic Signatures in Global and National Commerce Act (E-SIGN, 15 U.S.C. ch. 96) and the Uniform Electronic Transactions Act (UETA) as adopted by the states. We do not relay signing through DocuSign, Dropbox Sign, or any third-party signer.
Every signature event captures and persists, alongside the signed document, an audit record containing:
Signed documents and their audit trails are archived to encrypted S3 using the same storage and retention controls applied to filed tax documents.
Before Payrollix transmits a single return on a client's behalf, the client signs an onboarding packet that bundles every federal and state authorization required to act as their reporting agent and TPA.
Because SMBs must personally sign IRS Form 8655 (an accountant cannot sign it on their behalf), the onboarding packet is structured as a two-layer authorization: SMB to Payrollix / ReasonWorks for IRS and state filings, and accountant to SMB for the engagement.
Payrollix does not hold client or employee funds on its own balance sheet. ACH origination, fund holding, and payouts are orchestrated through licensed partners under a regulated account architecture:
All filed tax documents — XML payload, MIME package, generated PDF, and IRS / state acknowledgement — are archived to encrypted Amazon S3 immediately before transmission. Storage applies AES-256 encryption at rest and TLS 1.2+ in transit, with access scoped to a single keyed prefix per client and tax year.
Payrollix reimburses IRS and state penalties & interest that result from a provider-side error — for example, a return Payrollix calculated correctly but transmitted late, or a return Payrollix mis-built against a schema. This is the same scope of coverage offered by Gusto and ADP.
The protection does not cover:
Full claim mechanics are governed by the Payrollix Terms of Service. We do not currently operate as a Certified Professional Employer Organization (CPEO).
Compliance, audit, regulator, and security-questionnaire inquiries:
The authorizations, identifiers, and coverage described on this page reflect production-verified state as of the "Last updated" date. State-by-state build progress is continuously updated; contact compliance@payrollix.com for the most current scoreboard.