PUB-72.5

(2/25)

Electronic Reporting of Form NYS-45 Information

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Section 1 – Introduction 

This publication supersedes Publication 69, Electronic Reporting of Quarterly Combined Wage and Withholding Tax Information, Publication 72, Electronic Reporting of Form NYS-45 Information, and Publication 911, Electronic Reporting of Quarterly Wage and Withholding Tax Information Based on Federal Formats.

This publication describes specifications, formats, and layouts for reporting Form NYS-45, Quarterly Combined Withholding, Wage Reporting, and Unemployment Insurance Return, using the Tax Department’s Online Services at www.tax.ny.gov.

While some information on wage reporting and withholding is included in this publication, specific definitions and requirements are in Publication NYS-50, Employer's Guide to Unemployment Insurance, Wage Reporting, and Withholding Tax, and Form NYS-45-I, Instructions for Form NYS-45.

The upload submission will include data from Form NYS-45, Part A – Unemployment insurance (UI) information, Part B – Withholding tax (WT) information, and Part C – Quarterly employee/payee wage reporting and withholding information.

Payroll services that report for at least 10 employers may volunteer to use this upload. Prior approval by the New York State Department of Taxation and Finance is required.

Payroll services electing to file by upload must submit a test file for approval.

Note: The approval process involves several steps, and it can take up to 30 days for you to complete testing, receive your agent identification number, and become certified to submit an upload.

Section 2 – Filing requirements 

Employers/payers must report total unemployment insurance (UI) remuneration, gross federal wages or distribution subject to withholding, and total New York State tax withheld, total New York City tax withheld and total Yonkers tax withheld each calendar quarter for each employee/payee paid during the quarter you are reporting for.

Note: The amounts you report are only the amounts paid or withheld within the quarter you are reporting.

The Tax Department will accept amended information through the NYS-45 upload application using the same file layout as an original filing. An amended return must be a complete filing that will fully replace the original return.

The specifications below indicate which additional fields are required for an amended return. For tax years 2024 and prior, returns must be filed using the current layout. You will be unable to submit returns created using older layouts in the upload application.

Record retention

Employers/payers must retain a copy of the uploaded files, or be able to reconstruct the data, for at least four years after the due date of the returns submitted in the upload.

Penalties

Failing to electronically file your quarterly wage reporting and withholding tax information may subject the employer/payer to penalties.

Section 3 – Submission of test upload 

Payroll services electing to file by upload are required to submit a test upload using the format specified in this publication. The testing process reduces the potential for upload submissions that cannot be processed. Upload submissions that cannot be processed constitute a failure to file that may result in penalties.

Test upload submissions must be submitted using an agent identification number 490 in the same upload format that will be used to submit actual return information. Test submissions should include at least 10 employer records.

Transmitters will submit a test upload file using the Web application and receive immediate results on the success or failure of the file. If there are fatal errors contained in the file, the errors will be displayed within the Web application. All errors must be corrected before uploading the test file for the file to be successful.

The test file must be a complete submission containing all UI, WT, and wage reporting information in a single return. The Tax Department will notify the payroll service if it has been successfully processed and certified. Submission of a successful test will determine the amount of time it takes to be approved to use the upload.

Section 4 – File preparation 

Payroll services must consult Publication NYS-50 for definitions and descriptions of the information that must be reported.

Payroll services should also consult Forms NYS-45 and NYS-45-I to understand how these specifications are structured. You must submit your file in an acceptable upload format. The Tax Department will notify you if it is unable to process your upload.

Refunds of UI cannot be requested by upload. Returns resulting in overpayments can be filed using the upload application.

Multiple uploads can be submitted for a single quarter under the same agent identification number. Uploads can be submitted for the current quarter or for previous quarters. However, all returns within a single upload file must be for the same quarter. Each return in the upload must be a complete report of all UI and WT information including all regular and other wages for that employer for the quarter.

If you have questions about what to file and when, see Need help?. If you have technical questions about this publication, call 518-457-7105.

Separate remittances must be submitted with each upload. You can pay via ACH debit or by check. If paying by ACH debit, there are two separate payment pages in the application, one for UI liability and one for WT liability. If paying by check, you must send separate remittances for the total UI liability for all employers labeled UI Payment on the memo line of the remittance, and separate remittances for the total WT liability for all employers labeled WT Payment on the memo line of the remittance.

If either remittance exceeds $99,999,999.99, the Tax Department recommends that the upload be divided into two or more separate submissions to bring the remittance totals under the limit. However, if a single employer’s amount due is over the limit, only one submission should be made. Follow the guidance in the Submission Requirements section for submitting multiple checks.

Section 5 – Submission requirements 

Agents reporting for one or more employers/payers must advise those employers not to submit separate reports to the Tax Department.

The due dates for Form NYS-45 returns are as follows:

* When the due date falls on a Saturday, Sunday, or legal holiday, New York State Tax Law permits you to file on the next business day.

Payment is required with the return. Payroll services using this format may pay by ACH debit in the Web application or by check. If paying by check, payroll services:

• must print their Form NYS-45-V, Payment Voucher for NYS-45 Upload; this voucher will show the total UI and WT amounts due.
• cannot send individual checks or money orders for each employer.
• must create a separate check or money order for each liability as follows:

• • the UI liability payment for all employers reported on the upload must equal the amount displayed in the Total UI box on Form NYS-45-V; and
  • the WT liability payment for all employers reported on the upload must equal the amount displayed in the Total WT box on Form NYS-45-V.

Note: If the liability amount due for one UI or WT payment exceeds $99,999,999.99, submit multiple checks or money orders that total the amount due for that liability. The department cannot process any one check or money order for an amount greater than $99,999,999.99.

The checks or money orders and the payment voucher must be sent in together for your file to be processed. Write the upload confirmation number and NYS Employment Contributions and Taxes on the checks or money orders and mail them with your Form NYS-45-V*, postmarked on or before the due date, to:

NYS TAX DEPARTMENT
RPC-NYS-45-V UPLOAD PAYMENT
PO BOX 15148
ALBANY NY  12212-5148

Private delivery services

If you choose, you may use a private delivery service, instead of the U.S. Postal Service, to mail in your form and tax payment. However, if, at a later date, you need to establish the date you filed or paid your tax, you cannot use the date recorded by a private delivery service unless you used a delivery service that has been designated by the U.S. Secretary of the Treasury or the Commissioner of Taxation and Finance. (Currently designated delivery services are listed in Publication 55, Designated Private Delivery Services. See Need help? for information on obtaining forms and publications.) If you have used a designated private delivery service and need to establish the date you filed your form, contact that private delivery service for instructions on how to obtain written proof of the date your form was given to the delivery service for delivery. If you use any private delivery service, whether it is a designated service or not, send the form(s) covered by these instructions to: NYS Tax Department, RPC-NYS-45-V Upload Payment, 90 Cohoes Ave, Green Island, NY 12183.

*Do not send any other returns, correspondence, or payments to this address. The amount of the check or money order must match the payment voucher.

Section 6 – Technical specifications

All data records must have a fixed length of 512 bytes. Deviations from the prescribed format are not acceptable.

Field values that are alphanumeric (such as name and address) must be left-justified, filled with blanks, and not have any special characters.

Field values that are numeric must be right-justified and zero-filled with implied decimal (if applicable). Data must be recorded in uppercase letters only.

File names must conform to Windows file naming conventions, have no spaces, and end in
.RPT, .ZIP, or .TXT.

File must be created in a text-based application using ANSI encoding.
Caution! Importing, copying, or converting file data from one format to another may cause file failures.

Transmitters should use consolidated files, rather than a separate file for each employer or client of the transmitter. Submissions must be sorted in ascending Employer Identification Number (EIN) order.

Print files are not acceptable. A properly composed file contains the following records in sequence:

• Record RA – Transmitter record (occurs only once before all employer/payer records)
• Record RE – Employer/payer record
• Record RS (36) – State employee record
• Record RV– State total record
• Record RZ – Final record (occurs only once after all employer/payer records)

Repeat records RE and RV for each employer in the file. Repeat record RS for each employee receiving UI remuneration or wages subject to New York State, New York City, or Yonkers tax withholding.

Note: Only RS records containing a value of 36 in the State Code field (locations 3 and 4) will be processed for New York State purposes.

The EIN in New York State is primarily the federal EIN with two exceptions:

• Temporary nine-character numbers beginning with TF are used until the federal EIN is assigned; and
• decentralized employers may apply for a location suffix to their federal EIN.

Wage reports

Beginning in tax year 2019, if the employee/payee does not have any gross wages covered by UI in New York State, gross federal wages or distribution subject to withholding, and New York State, New York City, and Yonkers tax withheld in the calendar quarter you are reporting, the employee/payee should not be reported.

If the employee/payee did not have any gross wages covered by UI, or if the employee is not covered by UI in New York State in the quarter you are reporting, the UI remuneration paid this quarter field should be zero-filled. However, if the employee/payee had gross federal wages or distribution subject to withholding, and New York State, New York City, and Yonkers tax withheld in that quarter, you are required to report those amounts for each employee/payee paid during the quarter.

Employers who are liable under the Federal Unemployment Tax Act (FUTA) must include a separate employee record for any employee receiving these payments, reporting payments of severance pay and the first six months of sick pay. This additional employee record must be identified by entering a letter O for other types of wages at position 195 of the RS record. Specific details related to these types of other wages are available in Publication NYS-50.

All gross federal wages subject to withholding, New York State tax withheld, New York City tax withheld, and Yonkers tax withheld must be reported in the RS employee record containing regular wages (that is, with the letter W in position 195).

Money amounts

All money fields are strictly numeric. Include dollars and cents with the decimal point assumed, except for fields to report Part A, lines 1, 2, and 3, UI total remuneration, UI excess remuneration, and UI wages subject to contributions and their amended counterparts, which are whole dollar amounts. Do not use any punctuation in any field.

• Right-justify and zero-fill all money fields. In a money field that is not applicable, enter zeroes.
• Negative money amounts are not acceptable. Enter absolute values in the difference fields for amended returns.
• High-order signed fields are not acceptable.
• In general, State quarterly UI remuneration must include wages that are subject to Article 18of the Labor Law. These wages are the basis for claims for unemployment insurance benefits in New York State.
• In general, Gross federal wages subject to withholding is the amount of wages subject to withholding tax.
• Total tax withheld in the RV record is the sum of all taxes withheld for New York State, New York City, and the city of Yonkers for all employees for that employer.

Employee/payee name formats

Left-justify the name, in uppercase only. Connect parts of a compound surname with a hyphen.

Separate single letter prefixes (such as O or D) from the rest of the surname with an apostrophe or be contiguous with the rest of the name. Do not use a space.

If you have questions regarding technical specifications, call 518-457-7105.

Section 7 – File formats

Each record is 512 bytes in length.

A. Record name: RA — Transmitter Record

B. Record name: RE — Employer Record

C. Record name: RS — Employee Record

D. Record name: RV — State Total Record

E. Record name: RZ — Final Record

Section 8 – Special characters: only specific ASCII characters are allowed in the upload

Contact information

Need help?

Visit our website at www.tax.ny.gov

• get information and manage your taxes online
• check for new online services and features

New York State Department of Labor Unemployment Insurance (UI) Division

Telephone assistance is available 8:30 A.M. to 5:00 P.M. (eastern time), Monday through Friday.

For information on UI rates or registration: 1-888-899-8810

To confidentially report employer fraud call toll free: 1-866-435-1499

For additional UI phone/fax numbers and addresses, see Publication NYS-50, Section 6, Need help? or visit the Department of Labor’s website at dol.ny.gov.