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Unsupported Tax Guide

Unsupported Tax Guide

Explain why taxes are unsupported, identify them, and guide communication with customers.

The Unsupported Tax Guide is a partner-facing resource that will explain the following:

  • Why are some taxes unsupported
  • How to identify an unsupported tax
  • What unsupported taxes mean for your customers
  • How to communicate to a customer when a tax is unsupported

Why are some taxes unsupported

Check supports thousands of employment, income, and local taxes. However, there are some smaller, less common taxes that Check does not currently support. The taxes that are not supported by Check are also commonly not supported in the payroll industry. This means that employees or employers in these locations may not have these taxes automatically calculated and deducted from each paycheck.

The main reasons for this are:

  • Constantly Evolving Tax Landscape: New taxes are frequently introduced, and Check may not yet support them.
  • Additional Information Requirements: Some taxes, like expense-based employer taxes, require data that isn’t typically captured in payroll systems.
  • Changing Collectors: Certain local collectors have frequent changes and cannot be remitted by Check due to shifts in ownership.

How to identify an unsupported tax

There are two ways to check whether Check supports a given tax:

1. Programmatically, via the API (recommended)

The GET /taxes endpoint returns Check's full tax reference catalog, and each tax carries two flags that tell you exactly where responsibility sits:

  • supported — whether Check calculates and files this tax. If false, the tax is effectively invisible to Check: it won't be calculated, withheld, or filed, and the employer/employee is responsible for it.
  • remittable — whether Check remits payment for this tax to the agency. A tax can be supported: true but remittable: false, meaning Check calculates and files it but the employer must send the payment themselves. (Because Check can't remit a tax it doesn't support, remittable is always false when supported is false.)

Each tax also returns id, label, jurisdiction, payer, effective_from, and effective_to.

You can filter the catalog with query parameters including jurisdiction, supported, remittable, effective, and id. A few common patterns:

  • Look up a specific tax — GET /taxes/tax_2YFN8rOCjoHMMSviUJVZ and read its supported / remittable flags. Retrieving a tax by its ID works for any tax, including repealed ones.
  • Find every unsupported tax currently in effect in a jurisdiction — GET /taxes?jurisdiction=al&supported=false. By default the list returns only currently-effective taxes; add effective=false if you also want repealed or future-dated ones.

This lets you build your own flow to flag unsupported taxes to employers. For example:

  1. As companies onboard and add their workplaces, note the relevant jurisdictions.
  1. Query GET /taxes for those jurisdictions and inspect the supported / remittable flags.
  1. Surface an in-product notice for any tax that is supported: false (employer/employee must file and pay it) or supported: true, remittable: false (Check files it, but the employer must remit payment), using the communication templates below.

For full field and parameter details, see the Taxes API reference in the developer docs.

2. Manually, via the unsupported tax list

You can also review Check's Unsupported Features and Taxes, which lists the taxes Check does not currently support (these are commonly unsupported across the payroll industry).

If there's ever uncertainty, reach out to Check's support team with the following information:

  • Name of the tax you are looking to verify support for
  • Work/Resident address of the impacted employee(s)

Check can review and confirm whether the tax is supported in our system.

What unsupported taxes mean for your customers

When a tax is not supported, it commonly means that the Employer or the Employee will be on the hook for calculation and remittance of the tax. The following examples break down what this process looks like at each level.

Employer Level:

Whenever there is an unsupported Employer Tax, the employer is impacted in the following ways:

  • Filing a quarterly/annual return
  • Remitting payment to the agency

To understand this impact more in depth, let's review the following example.

Example: Employer side tax is not supported

Using Jersey City Employer Tax as an example, this tax is calculated and paid quarterly. The employer would need to calculate the 1% on wages paid to employees working in Jersey City, New Jersey. To see a more detailed breakdown of how an employer would facilitate the Jersey City Employer Tax, you can reference the guide here: Jersey City Employer Tax Filing.

In general, whenever Check does not support an Employer tax, the employer can still run payroll on your service, but may have to take an additional step quarterly/annually to keep up with remittance and filing.

Employee Level:

It is fairly common for out-of-state employers not to remit local taxes on behalf of their employees. In these cases, employees are responsible for remitting their own local taxes, a process that is generally well-understood in regions without employer-supported coverage.

Whenever there is an unsupported Employee Tax the employee is impacted in the following ways:

  • Remitting payment to the agency when filing their annual taxes
  • Employer may have to remit on their behalf

In general, whenever Check does not support an Employee tax, they can still be paid through Check, however, they may be responsible for making a payment when filing their annual tax return, or the Employer may need to make a remittance on their behalf.

How to communicate to a customer when a tax is unsupported

If you’re onboarding an employer where Check does not support a specific tax, the following template can help communicate the situation effectively:

Subject: Important Information about [Tax Name]

Dear [Employer Name],

We wanted to inform you that the [Tax Name] is not currently supported by our system. As a result, we recommend preparing to manage the payments and filings for this tax directly.

We are committed to supporting you through this process and will assist in every way possible. For the [Tax Name], your responsibilities will include [select as applicable: collecting the tax from employees, reconciling and filing quarterly payments, or making direct payments].

Unfortunately, certain taxes are not supported by our system due to factors like changing tax collectors or requirements that are not captured in the standard payroll process.

Please let us know how we can assist you further as you take on this responsibility.

Thank you,

If you’re onboarding an employer where Check does not support a specific tax for an employee, the following template can help communicate the situation for the employee:

Subject: Important Information about [Tax Name]

Dear [Employer Name],

We wanted to inform you that the [Tax Name] is not currently supported by our system. As a result, we recommend notifying your employee that they will be responsible for making this payment when they file their taxes annually.

Unfortunately, certain taxes are not supported by our system due to factors like changing tax collectors or requirements that are not captured in the standard payroll process.

Please let us know how we can assist you further as you take on this responsibility.

Thank you,

Moving forward

If there are any questions it is best to submit a support ticket, but this guide should help to remove a lot of the uncertainty that comes with an unsupported tax. It is Check’s goal to make paying people simple, to that end, we are always working to improve our tax coverage.

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Last updated on November 30, 2024

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