Hiring Your First Employee in Millcreek: Payroll Records to Set Up First

What do you need before your first employee's first paycheck?

Five things: an EIN, a Utah withholding account, a Utah unemployment insurance account, a signed W-4 and a completed I-9. After the first day of work you have 20 days to report the hire to the state. Then your books need a place for the money you hold back from each paycheck.

Which comes first depends on who you're hiring, where they'll work and how many entities you run.

What order should you set it up in?

Accounts before the hire, paperwork on day one.

1. If the business is an LLC or corporation, make sure it's registered with the state, then get an EIN from the IRS.
2. Apply for a Utah withholding account through the Tax Commission's Taxpayer Access Point.
3. Create an unemployment insurance account for the business on the Department of Workforce Services employer site.
4. On the first day, get a signed W-4 and complete the I-9 with your new employee.
5. Report the hire to the Utah New Hire Registry within 20 days of their first day of work.
6. Add payroll expense and payroll liability accounts to your books before the first pay run.
7. Put every quarterly due date on a calendar the day the first paycheck goes out.

Do you really need an EIN for one employee?

Yes. The IRS EIN page says you need one if you have employees, that it's free from the IRS, and that an LLC or corporation should be registered with your state before you apply.

Use the legal name exactly as it reads on your formation documents, and the EIN exactly as the IRS issued it. Every payroll form from here on carries both.

What does Utah want from a new employer?

Two accounts and one report. You get a withholding tax number online through Taxpayer Access Point, using the TC-69 application, according to the Utah State Tax Commission's withholding page. Unemployment insurance is a separate account with the Department of Workforce Services, opened through its employer portal.

The new hire report is the easy one to miss. The Utah New Hire Registry handbook says every employer must report newly hired or rehired employees within 20 days of their first day of work. The details it asks for include the employee's name, Social Security number and hire date, and your EIN.

Which forms go in the employee's file on day one?

A signed Form W-4 and a completed Form I-9. The IRS page on hiring employees says to ask every new employee for a signed W-4 when they start, and to withhold as if they're single if they don't give you one. It also says all U.S. employers must complete Form I-9 for every person they hire, citizens included, and that the employee and the employer both fill it in.

You'll also need the employee's name and Social Security number exactly as they'll appear on the W-2. A typo on day one tends to follow that employee all year.

What payroll records do you have to keep, and for how long?

At least four years after you file the fourth quarter return for the year. That's from the IRS employment tax recordkeeping page, and its list includes your EIN, the dates and amounts of every wage payment, each employee's name, address, Social Security number and job, their dates of employment, their W-4s, and the dates and amounts of your tax deposits.

What does the calendar look like after the first paycheck?

The returns are quarterly, federally and in Utah. Federally, Form 941 is the employer's quarterly return, and it reports the income tax, Social Security and Medicare withheld from paychecks along with your own share of Social Security and Medicare. The deposits run on their own schedule. IRS Publication 15 says a new employer is a monthly schedule depositor for its first calendar year, and it sets out a separate rule that lets some small quarters be paid with the return instead.

In Utah, the Tax Commission's withholding page lists TC-941E due dates of April 30, July 31 and October 31 for the first three quarters, with the fourth quarter and the annual return combined and due January 31. Electronic W-2s are due to Utah the same day. Utah Publication 14 says anything due on a Saturday, Sunday or legal holiday is due the next business day, and January 31, 2027 is a Sunday, so for 2026 both work out to February 1, 2027. Unemployment insurance has its own quarterly report, filed through the Workforce Services employer site.

How should payroll show up in your books?

As an expense for what the employee costs you, and as liabilities for money you're holding for someone else. The IRS page on contractors and employees says employers generally withhold income, Social Security and Medicare taxes from wages, then pay a matching share of Social Security and Medicare plus unemployment tax. Every one of those amounts sits in a liability account until you deposit it.

If the withheld money just sits in your checking balance with nothing recorded against it, the account looks richer than it is. Each time a tax deposit clears, the matching liability balance should come back down. If it doesn't, something was withheld and not paid, or paid and not recorded.

Does hiring change anything on a Millcreek home business license?

It can if you run the business from home. Millcreek's home business rules sit in Chapter 18.76.040 of its zoning ordinance, and the city's home business compliance checklist asks how many non-resident employees you'll have. It says remote employees may gather at the house no more than once a week, and it mentions a Change of Use Permit from the Planning and Zoning Department when employees or customers will visit.

That checklist is marked as a draft, though. Decide where your first hire will work before they start. If the answer is your home, ask Millcreek's Planning and Zoning Department what your home business needs before anyone starts coming to the house. Our Millcreek page covers the city license and state registration records in more detail.

When does it make sense to hand payroll off?

With one employee, one entity and one state, plenty of owners run payroll themselves with decent software and a good calendar. It gets harder once you add a second entity, an employee in another state, or contractors alongside staff.

That's the kind of business Ivory Balance Books, based in South Jordan, works with. Payroll includes state payroll registrations, and monthly bookkeeping covers categorization and reconciliation every month.