Wage Reporting: Need to Know
Employers must issue the first dollar in payroll to an employee performing work in Indiana before proceeding with registration. |
DWD does not register employers in anticipation of liability. Unless you have actually paid a worker in Indiana to perform services as described in the section titled Registering for an Unemployment Tax Account , please do not attempt to establish a user account in E S S.
Employers are required to report wages for all workers that are engaged in covered employment. Unless a worker or a type of payment to a worker is specifically excluded, employers must report all remuneration (value) received in exchange for services, including the value of non-cash compensation.
Please see Wage Reporting: Common Situations and Questions.
Examples of excluded payments included deferred income, Cafeteria 125 (pre-tax) distributions, and payment for service on behalf of a church. To learn more about what to report (subject wages) and what not to report (excluded or exempt wages) please refer to the section titled Special Types of Employment and Payment for additional information.
Note – Deferred income becomes subject wages when distributed.
Employers can enter their workers on the Wage Reporting screen in the E S S web application if they have fifty (50) or less workers to report. Employers may also use a file for less than fifty (50) workers. Employers are required to use a file to report more than fifty (50) workers.
Employers may create a quarterly report file using either Comma Separated Values (.CSV) or American Standard Code for Information Interchange (ASCII).
- .CSV files can be created in spreadsheet applications like Excel.
- ASCII files are not recommended for users that do not have specialized computer experience.
If the employer is using accounting software, they may want to call their service provider and ask how to export a file. The employer should also ask the provider if the exported file is formatted as a .CSV file or an ICESA file. Please call DWD at 800-891-6499 and select the employer option for help creating a comma separated values (.CSV) file. DWD cannot assist with creating a modified ICESA file.
