CA EDD Payroll Tax Forms: Deadlines, E-Filing, and Penalties

California employers report payroll taxes to the Employment Development Department using a family of forms identified by “DE” numbers. The core CA EDD payroll tax forms are the DE 9 and DE 9C (quarterly return and wage report), the DE 88 (tax deposit), the DE 34 (new hire report), the DE 4 (employee withholding certificate), and the DE 542 (independent contractor report). All returns, wage reports, and deposits must be submitted electronically through e-Services for Business.¹ Registration with the EDD is required once you pay more than $100 in wages in any calendar quarter.²

The Forms and What Each One Does

Each form has a distinct job. Some run on a quarterly cycle, others fire only when a specific event happens (a new hire, a contractor payment, a discovered error).

DE 9 — Quarterly Contribution Return and Report of Wages

The DE 9 is the quarterly reconciliation. It reports total wages paid during the quarter and calculates the taxes owed after subtracting the deposits you already made.³ One DE 9 per quarter, showing your totals.

DE 9C — Quarterly Contribution and Wage Report

The DE 9C accompanies the DE 9 and breaks the same quarter down by individual employee: name, Social Security number, and wages earned.³ The EDD uses this detail to determine benefit eligibility if a worker later files an unemployment or disability claim, so name and SSN accuracy matters.

DE 88 — Payroll Tax Deposit

The DE 88 is the payment coupon that moves money to the EDD. It covers all four payroll taxes at once: UI, ETT, SDI withholding, and PIT withholding.³ Deposit frequency depends on how much PIT you withhold; employers withholding more than $350 in PIT during a pay period deposit on a shorter cycle than smaller employers.

DE 34 — Report of New Employee

Every new employee must be reported using the DE 34 within 20 days of their first day of work. Rehires who were separated for at least 60 consecutive days also count as new and must be reported in that same 20-day window.⁴ The state uses the data for child support enforcement and unemployment fraud detection.

DE 4 — Employee’s Withholding Allowance Certificate

The DE 4 is California’s version of the federal W-4. Your employee fills it out; you keep it and use it to calculate how much state income tax to withhold from each paycheck.⁵ If an employee never submits a DE 4, withhold as if they claimed zero allowances.

DE 542 — Report of Independent Contractor(s)

If you pay an independent contractor $600 or more in a calendar year, or enter into a contract for $600 or more, report that contractor on Form DE 542 within 20 days of whichever event comes first. The $600 threshold includes parts and materials, not just labor. It applies to individual contractors, sole proprietors, and single-member LLCs. Where there is no fixed contract amount, reporting kicks in once cumulative payments reach $600.⁶

DE 9ADJ — Quarterly Contribution and Wage Adjustment Form

The DE 9ADJ is how you correct a DE 9 or DE 9C you already filed. Details on the timing rules and refund windows are below under corrections.

What Each Form Reports: The Four Payroll Taxes

The forms make more sense once the underlying taxes are clear. California payroll taxes come in four flavors, and the 2026 rates are:

Unemployment Insurance (UI): employer-paid on the first $7,000 of each employee’s annual wages. 2026 rates run from 1.5 percent to 6.2 percent under Schedule F+ based on the employer’s claims history. New employers are assigned a 3.4 percent rate for two to three years.⁷
Employment Training Tax (ETT): employer-paid at 0.1 percent on the first $7,000 of each employee’s annual wages.⁷
State Disability Insurance (SDI): withheld from employee wages at 1.3 percent for 2026. Since January 1, 2024, there is no taxable wage ceiling, so SDI applies to every dollar of wages.⁸
Personal Income Tax (PIT): withheld from employee wages using the EDD’s withholding schedules, adjusted by the employee’s filing status and allowances on their DE 4.⁷

The removed SDI wage ceiling is the change that catches the most employers off guard. Before 2024, SDI withholding stopped past a set threshold; now every dollar is subject to the 1.3 percent rate, which meaningfully raises SDI collected from higher-paid workers.⁸

Filing Electronically Is Required

California requires all employers to file returns, wage reports, and payroll tax deposits electronically through e-Services for Business. The mandate is not optional and applies regardless of business size. It also covers out-of-state employers with California employees.¹

Filing on paper without an approved waiver triggers separate penalties:

DE 9 filed on paper: $50 per return.
DE 9C filed on paper: $20 per employee listed.
DE 88 deposit submitted on paper: 15 percent of the amount due.¹

If you genuinely can’t file electronically, request a waiver using Form DE 1245W. Approved waivers last one year and must be renewed. The EDD only mails paper forms to employers holding a current approved waiver.⁹

Quarterly Filing Deadlines

DE 9 and DE 9C are due by the last day of the month following the end of each quarter. When that date falls on a weekend or holiday, the deadline shifts to the next business day.¹⁰

Q1 (January–March): due April 30
Q2 (April–June): due July 31
Q3 (July–September): due October 31
Q4 (October–December): due January 31 of the following year

Two 2026 dates shift. The Q3 deadline of October 31, 2026 falls on a Saturday, moving the actual due date to November 2. The Q4 deadline of January 31, 2027 falls on a Sunday, moving the due date to February 1, 2027.¹⁰

DE 88 deposits follow their own schedule tied to your PIT withholding volume, separate from the quarterly return deadlines.

Information To Have Ready Before You File

Before opening e-Services for Business, gather:

Your employer payroll tax account number. This is the eight-digit number the EDD assigned when you registered, and it must appear on every return, deposit, and piece of correspondence.¹¹
Full legal names and Social Security numbers for everyone you paid during the quarter.
Gross wages per employee, separated into UI/ETT subject wages (capped at $7,000 per employee per year) and SDI/PIT subject wages (no cap for SDI).⁷
Exact dollars withheld from each employee for SDI and PIT, plus the employer-paid UI and ETT amounts.
Dates and amounts of every DE 88 deposit made during the quarter, so the DE 9 reconciles what you owe against what you already paid.

Payroll software tracks all of this automatically. If you run payroll manually, your general ledger needs a separate line item for each tax so nothing gets combined.

Fixing a Mistake on a Filed Return

If you find an error on a submitted DE 9 or DE 9C, file a DE 9ADJ for the affected quarter through e-Services for Business or by mail.¹² A few rules:

Only one DE 9ADJ per quarter.
The original DE 9 and DE 9C for that quarter must already be on file.
If the correction produces additional tax owed, submit payment with the form; penalty and interest may apply to the underpayment.
To claim a refund of overpayment, file the adjustment within three years of the original due date for that quarter, six months after an assessment becomes final, or 60 days from the date of overpayment, whichever is later.¹²

Include a detailed written explanation of the reason for the adjustment. Vague reasons slow processing.

Penalties If You File or Pay Late

Late payment of contributions triggers a 15 percent penalty on the unpaid amount, plus interest that accrues until the balance clears. If you file the DE 9C more than 60 days late after the EDD issues a written demand, the penalty is $20 for each employee who wasn’t reported.³

The e-file penalties stack on top. An employer who files a paper DE 9 late without a waiver can face both the late-filing penalty and the $50 paper-filing penalty on the same return.¹ The EDD recognizes “good cause” exceptions for some penalties, but the burden is on you to show why the deadline was missed. Not knowing the rules doesn’t qualify.

Record Retention

Keep all payroll tax records for at least four years: confirmation numbers from electronic filings, dates and amounts of DE 88 deposits, individual withholding records for SDI and PIT, and records of UI and ETT paid.¹³ Those four years matter most when the EDD audits your account or when you file a DE 9ADJ to fix an earlier quarter. Without the underlying records, you can’t prove the original figures were correct or substantiate a refund claim.

1
Employment Development Department. E-file and E-pay Mandate for Employers
2
Employment Development Department. Am I Required to Register as an Employer?
3
Employment Development Department. Required Filings and Due Dates
4
Employment Development Department. Report of New Employees – DE 34
5
Employment Development Department. Employees Withholding Allowance Certificate
6
Employment Development Department. Independent Contractor Reporting
7
Employment Development Department. Contribution Rates, Withholding Schedules, and Meals and Lodging Values
8
Employment Development Department. Contribution Rates and Benefit Amounts
9
Employment Development Department. File and Pay Options
10
Employment Development Department. Payroll Tax Calendar
11
Employment Development Department. New Employer Resources
12
Employment Development Department. Instructions for Completing the Quarterly Contribution and Wage Adjustment Form (DE 9ADJ)
13
Taxes. Staying on Track, Keeping Good Business Records