Zero Dollar Filings
Understand how zero-dollar filings work, when they auto-file, and how to opt out.
Zero-Dollar Filings: How Check Handles $0 Returns
Many tax agencies require a return to be filed even in periods when an employer owes nothing — no wages, no tax due. This is called a zero-dollar (or "$0") filing. Whether Check generates one automatically, and what happens with any payment tied to it, comes down to two things: whether an active tax election exists, and whether we're talking about the filing itself or the $0.00 payment some agencies require alongside it.
The core model: tax elections, not wages or workplaces
Partners tend to think in terms of workplaces — set one up, and taxes should "just work" there. Check actually operates one level deeper, on tax elections: the record that a company owes, and should be filed for, a specific tax. Workplaces and elections are related but separate, and most of the confusion around $0 filings comes from the two being out of sync.
When a workplace is created, Check queries for applicable taxes and creates the relevant elections automatically. A Nebraska workplace, for example, generates just NE SIT and SUI elections.
When Check automatically files a $0 return
As of early 2026, Check files a $0 return automatically whenever an active tax election exists for a period with no wages. No prior wage or liability history in that jurisdiction is required. This is a deliberate change from Check's legacy filing behavior, which only continued $0 filings after a jurisdiction had at least one real, wage-triggered return.
Two things to know about how elections actually come into existence:
- A workplace alone doesn't always create an election. For SUI, PFML, and similar taxes, the election is normally created only once an employee's primary workplace is set in that jurisdiction — not just because a workplace exists there. If you want $0 filings to start before any employee is assigned to a jurisdiction, you need to do two things: create the workplace, and create the tax election directly via the Create Company Tax Election API.
- Deactivating a workplace doesn't stop filing. Deactivation removes nexus, not the underlying election. The $0 filing keeps generating as long as the election is open — which is also why a filing can start looking "blocked" after a workplace is deactivated (see below).
When a $0 filing looks blocked with no way to fix it
This happens when a tax election is active but there's no matching nexus for that tax — so the setup parameter (usually an account ID field) never surfaces, even though the filing is sitting there waiting on it. Two common causes:
- The workplace that established nexus was deactivated. The election stays open and the filing keeps generating, but the field to supply the account ID disappears along with the nexus.
- Related taxes have different nexus rules. Some jurisdictions have multiple taxes with different requirements for surfacing their setup parameter. In Washington, for instance, SUI only requires an employee's primary workplace to be in-state, while PFML and Workers' Comp/L&I surface from any active WA workplace. A company can end up with nexus for one and not the other.
Resolution: get the account ID from the employer and submit it through Check Support rather than forcing a primary workplace change just to surface the field (that can trigger tax calculation changes and other elections you didn't intend). If the agency account doesn't need to exist at all — closed, or never opened — opt out of the filing instead (see below).
Zero-dollar filings vs. zero-dollar payments
These are two distinct things, and most agencies don't treat them the same way:
- The filing is the return or report itself — driven purely by the tax election, as described above.
- The payment is the $0.00 remittance a smaller set of agencies require to actually satisfy the filing.
For most agencies, Check waits until there's real tax liability before sending any payment — a $0 filing can go out with nothing owed and nothing remitted, and that's expected. But for a defined subset of agencies, the $0.00 ACH payment is what satisfies the return. For these, Check sends the $0 payment automatically whenever an active election exists and the period has no liability for that agency, timed to the company's assigned filing frequency (a monthly filer gets a monthly $0 payment, a quarterly filer gets a quarterly one).
Below is a list of all tax groups that are considered a filing based on remittance. This means that Check sends $0 remittances if they have a tax election and no payroll liabilities in a period. The remittance counts as the filing.
Tax Group | Jurisdiction |
Colorado State Income Tax | CO |
Arkansas Income Tax | AR |
Idaho Income Tax | ID |
Kansas Income Tax | KS |
North Dakota Income Tax | ND |
Missouri Income Tax | MO |
Maryland State Income Tax | MD |
North Carolina Income Tax | NC |
Wisconsin Income Tax | WI |
Virginia State Tax | VA |
Ohio Income Tax | OH |
Delaware State Tax | DE |
City of Miamisburg, OH | OH (local) |
Retroactive and backdated filings
Filings: Check evaluates backdating from a company's tax-activation date and can often backfill missed $0 filings automatically. If that doesn't happen on its own, Check can generate a late original on request through Support. Separately, if a tax election is created later than the period you actually needed covered (for example, the election didn't exist yet when a prior quarter was due), set the election's effective_start back to the beginning of that quarter, then reach out to Support — generating the missed historical filings is done on request, not automatically.
Payments: there's no formal policy yet for retroactively backdating $0 payments. The current approach is go-forward only: once a gap is identified, Check will begin sending required $0 payments from that point on, but past periods are generally the partner's or employer's responsibility to resolve directly with the agency. A specific case can be escalated to Support for a possible one-off backfill, but it isn't guaranteed.
Opting out of $0 filings
If an employer doesn't need a tax account anymore — the agency account is closed, or should never have been opened — opt out rather than maintaining it. Opting out ends the tax election, which stops the current filing and prevents future ones for that tax.
A few things worth knowing:
- Opting out is scoped to the specific jurisdiction (or specific tax, for combined filings) — not the whole account. Check can't selectively pause filings for a company that's actively running payroll elsewhere.
- Opt-outs require zero wages for the filing period and must be done before Check begins processing — typically the second week of each Quarter End filing month. Amendments and Federal W-2 filings can't be opted out.
- It's not permanent. If wages later resume and trigger a new election for that tax, Check resumes filing automatically — you don't need to do anything to "turn it back on."
Quick reference
Zero-dollar filing | Zero-dollar payment | |
What triggers it | An active tax election — no wage or liability history required | The same election, but only at agencies where the $0 payment itself satisfies the return |
Most agencies | Auto-filed once the election exists | No payment sent until there's real tax liability |
Payment-as-filing agencies (e.g., WI SIT, ND SIT - list above) | Auto-filed | Auto-remitted at $0, timed to the company's filing frequency |
If the workplace is deactivated | Continues — the election stays open | Same, where applicable |
To stop it | Opt out (ends the tax election) | Ends with the same election |
Last updated on July 27, 2026