Georgia Payroll: Employer Tax and Software Guide

Georgia is one of the easiest states in the country to run payroll in. This guide covers what Georgia requires, what changed for 2026, and how 10 payroll providers price the work. I run a small company and build HR software for other small businesses, and in a state this simple, the mistakes I watch for are in the paperwork, not the tax math.

The tax side is short. One flat income tax rate rather than brackets. No local income tax in any city or county. No state disability program. No paid family leave contribution. An unemployment wage base of $9,500, among the lowest anywhere, which caps unemployment cost per employee at roughly $257 a year for a new employer. What did move is the rate: House Bill 463 cut it again, retroactively.

What Georgia does have is a set of small procedural obligations that are easy to miss precisely because the tax side is so simple. The state runs its own withholding form alongside the federal one. New hires must be reported within ten days rather than the twenty most states allow. Every departing employee must receive a separation notice on their last day, a requirement that sits outside payroll tax filing entirely.

What Georgia requires from employers

A flat rate that moved again

Georgia replaced its six-bracket graduated system with a flat tax in 2024 and has been cutting the rate ahead of the original schedule since. House Bill 463, signed on May 11, 2026 and retroactive to January 1, took the rate from 5.19 percent to 4.99 percent.

Two things follow for an employer. First, the withholding tables changed mid-year. According to the 2026 Employer's Tax Guide, employers kept withholding at 5.19 percent until the bill was signed and could switch to 4.99 percent from May 11, 2026, so a platform slow to push the update kept over-withholding after that date.

Future reductions are the second thing to plan for. Because they depend on state revenue conditions rather than a fixed calendar, the rate is not predictable more than a year out, and the tables need checking each January rather than assuming a schedule.

House Bill 463 also raised the retirement income exclusion to $70,000 beginning in 2027 and introduced temporary state exclusions for qualified overtime compensation and cash tips through 2028, which will matter for employers with tipped staff or significant overtime.

Unemployment insurance

The low wage base is the headline. Unemployment tax stops accruing once an employee crosses $9,500 in wages for the year, which for most full-time staff happens in the first quarter. At the new employer rate, that caps liability at roughly $257 per person annually.

Experienced employers are rated on their claims history, in a range that starts at 0.04 percent, so employers with clean claims histories can pay far less. The low wage base also keeps the per-employee cost of unemployment insurance small at any rate: even the 8.1 percent maximum comes to about $770 a year.

The 0.06 percent administrative assessment was reinstated effective January 1, 2024 under House Bill 518 and applies on top of the assigned contribution rate, except for employers assigned the minimum or the maximum rate, which section 34-8-180 of the Official Code of Georgia Annotated (O.C.G.A.) exempts.

For a new employer, the assessment is already part of the 2.7 percent total: the U.S. Department of Labor summary of state unemployment laws for January 2026 lists the Georgia new employer base rate at 2.64 percent and the experienced range at 0.04 to 8.10 percent, both before the assessment.

Form G-4 and the two-form problem

Every Georgia employee completes two withholding forms: the federal W-4 and the state Form G-4, the Georgia Employee's Withholding Allowance Certificate.

The two forms no longer ask the same questions. The federal W-4 dropped withholding allowances in its 2020 redesign and moved to a dollar-amount approach, as the IRS explains.

Georgia withholding still runs on the allowance method, so the G-4 collects the information the federal form no longer asks for. Form G-4 also handles Georgia-specific claims with no federal counterpart, including the exemption available to a nonresident military spouse.

Filing and paying Georgia withholding tax

State withholding runs on its own calendar, separate from the quarterly DOL-4N that covers unemployment. Register for a withholding payroll tax number with the Georgia Department of Revenue before the first payroll run, then file Form G-7 on the frequency the department assigns, which follows the amount you withhold.

Two details trip employers up. Under the one-day rule in the Employer's Tax Guide, withholding of $100,000 or more for a single payday has to be paid electronically by the next banking day, whatever your usual frequency.

Form G-1003 is the second detail: it reconciles the year against the W-2 and 1099-NEC statements you issue, and it is due January 31 unless that date falls on a weekend, which moves it to the next business day.

New hire reporting in ten days

Georgia gives employers ten days from the date of hire to report a new employee to the Georgia New Hire Reporting Center, under O.C.G.A. 19-11-9.2 and the federal Personal Responsibility and Work Opportunity Reconciliation Act (PRWORA). Most states allow twenty. The statute's consequence for a missed report is a written warning.

Rehired employees must be reported again, according to the Georgia Department of Labor. The part employers rarely know: the ten-day clock also runs when someone comes back. Under the same statute, an employee returning to work after a layoff, furlough, separation, leave without pay, or termination is reported again within ten days of the return.

Wage rules and the separation notice

Minimum wage and pay frequency

Georgia has a statutory minimum wage of $5.15 per hour under O.C.G.A. 34-4-3, and it is very nearly irrelevant, because the statute excludes employers covered by the federal Fair Labor Standards Act. For almost every business the operative figure is the federal $7.25, with a tipped cash wage of $2.13 where the tip credit conditions are met.

Georgia also preempts local wage ordinances, meaning state law overrides them, so no city or county sets a higher floor. That preemption was extended in 2022 to cover scheduling mandates as well.

Pay frequency is set by O.C.G.A. 34-7-2: wages must be paid on regular paydays, with a twice-monthly minimum that applies to manual, mechanical, and clerical wage workers. Officials, superintendents, and department heads employed by the month or year at stipulated salaries are excluded, as are the farming, sawmill, and turpentine industries. Overtime follows federal rules with no state addition.

Final pay and the DOL-800

Final pay in Georgia is undemanding compared with states like Connecticut or Hawaii. Georgia law sets no separate final paycheck deadline, so the next regular payday applies to every kind of separation, and there is no state waiting time penalty (the extra pay some states add when a final check is late). Minimum wage and overtime claims run through the federal Fair Labor Standards Act.

10 payroll providers for Georgia employers compared

Every provider below files Georgia state withholding and unemployment insurance. Because there is no local tax layer, no disability program, and no paid leave contribution, the differentiators in Georgia are unusually narrow: quarterly DOL-4N filing, whether the platform pushed the mid-year rate change from HB 463, and what happens when you hire outside the state.

OnPay

One base plan at $49 per month plus $6 per employee, with no tiers to climb; HR tools and time tracking are paid add-ons. Tax filing covers all 50 states with no multi-state surcharge, and year-end W-2 and 1099 filing sits in the base price.

Gusto

A common first payroll purchase for US small businesses, with automatic tax filings and payments, published pricing, and employee self-onboarding on every plan. Simple runs $49 per month plus $6 per employee, after the base price rose from $40 during 2025.

The constraint is the single-state limit on Simple. Georgia borders five states, and employers near the Alabama line and in northwest Georgia hire from Alabama and the Chattanooga side of Tennessee, so one hire across a line moves you to Plus at $80 plus $12 per employee.

Patriot Software

The lowest total cost on this list at 10, 25, and 50 employees. Full Service is $37 per month plus $5 per employee and includes federal, state, and local tax filing, while new hire reports stay with the employer. Basic is $17 plus $4 if you file taxes yourself, which in Georgia means you handle the quarterly DOL-4N and the withholding returns.

Square Payroll

At $35 per month plus $6 per person, Square has the second-lowest base fee here, after SurePayroll. Its full-service plan covers state tax filing, new hire reports, and multistate payroll. For an Atlanta restaurant or a retail operation already running Square point of sale, timecard data flows straight into payroll with no integration work.

SurePayroll

Owned by Paychex and built for very small employers and household employers. The Small Business plan is $29 per month plus $7 per employee, with a flat $9.99 monthly multi-state fee rather than a per-state charge.

QuickBooks Workforce Payroll

Workforce Payroll, formerly Payroll Core, is $50 per month plus $7 per employee. The per-employee fee rose on July 1, 2026, but the argument for it is unchanged: if your books live in QuickBooks Online, payroll reaches the general ledger without an export.

ADP RUN

Every ADP RUN package calculates, files, deposits, and reconciles payroll taxes, and ADP pays the resulting fines if it makes a filing error. In Georgia that pays off mainly in handling statutory changes without customer intervention, which mattered in a year when a retroactive income tax cut was signed in May.

The cost is opacity. ADP does not publish RUN pricing, and every package (Essential, Enhanced, Complete, and HR Pro) is quoted individually. ADP says RUN needs no signed contract and the service can be ended at any time.

Paychex Flex

Paychex competes on service rather than software: the Complete package includes a payroll specialist, and the other packages offer one as an add-on. Pricing is quote-only, with no rates published for any package.

In Georgia the case for Paychex is narrower than in complex states, since there is little state-specific complexity to need help with, but the service model still suits employers who want a person rather than a help center.

Paylocity

Paylocity sits between small-business payroll and full human capital management (HCM) software, aimed at companies that have outgrown basic payroll. It publishes tax and compliance resources for employers, and the HR suite covers performance, learning, and engagement alongside payroll, some of it through optional add-ons. Pricing is quote-based and implementation is a project rather than a signup.

Rippling

Rippling unifies payroll, HR, and IT provisioning (laptops and app access) on one employee record. Its pricing page is a quote form, but its small-business page starts payroll at $8 per user per month plus a $40 monthly base fee. Its blog prices the core platform and the payroll module at $8 per employee a month each, with payroll billed annually, so configured quotes run higher.

The same blog estimates roughly $15 to $25 per employee per month for a 100-employee company running its HR information system (HRIS), payroll, benefits administration, and time and attendance.

What each provider actually costs a Georgia employer

The table below models published rates at three headcounts. Georgia is one of the states where these numbers are close to the whole software cost, because there is no separate disability carrier, no paid leave remittance, and no local filings to add.

Patriot is the cheapest published option at every headcount and Square runs second at each, though Patriot charges $12 per month per additional state while Square includes multistate payroll.

The pattern that reorders the table is Gusto Simple: competitive until one hire across a state line forces the Plus tier, taking a 25-person payroll from $199 to $380 per month. With Georgia bordering five states, and employers near the Alabama line and in northwest Georgia hiring across them, that is a live scenario rather than a hypothetical.

Choosing a payroll provider for Georgia

Put these five questions to any provider before you sign. Each one ties back to a Georgia rule or cost covered above.

Atlanta payroll services: local firm or national platform

Atlanta payroll services come in two shapes: local payroll companies, usually accounting or bookkeeping practices that run the payroll for you, and the metro offices of the national platforms above. What separates them is not Georgia tax mechanics, because there is no Atlanta city income tax and no county levy anywhere in the state to localize.

A local firm earns its fee when payroll is tangled with something else: a bookkeeper who already closes your books, a mix of contractors and W-2 staff, prevailing wage work on a public contract, or an owner who wants one named person answering the phone. You are buying labor and judgment there rather than software, and the monthly price reflects it.

A platform is the better buy when the work is routine: salaried and hourly staff, direct deposit, the quarterly DOL-4N, and year-end forms.

The real complication is not local tax but staff who live across a state line. The metro's westernmost counties border Alabama, and employers in northwest Georgia hire from the Chattanooga side of the Tennessee border, so ask either kind of provider what a second state costs before you sign.

Before you choose

FirstHR is an onboarding and HR platform, not a payroll provider. Payroll runs, payroll tax filing, and benefits administration come from the providers above, so if running payroll is the problem in front of you, one of them is the answer.

What we handle is the document layer around payroll: onboarding workflows that put the I-9, the W-4, and Form G-4 on the first-day task list of each new hire, e-signatures on offer letters, employee records, and document management for US small businesses at a flat $98 a month for up to 10 people or $198 for 11 to 50.

Three of the Georgia requirements above are document and workflow problems rather than payroll problems: getting G-4 signed before day one, filing the new hire report within ten days of the hire date, and issuing the DOL-800 separation notice on an employee's last day.

Frequently Asked Questions

What is the Georgia payroll tax rate for employers?

A flat 4.99 percent for state income tax withholding in 2026, cut from 5.19 percent by House Bill 463 and retroactive to January 1, with further annual steps of 0.125 points toward a 3.99 percent floor subject to revenue triggers. Employers separately pay unemployment insurance on the first $9,500 of wages, 2.7 percent in total for a new employer.

What is Form G-4 and do Georgia employees need it?

G-4 is the Georgia Employee's Withholding Allowance Certificate, required alongside the federal W-4. The federal form dropped allowances in its 2020 redesign, while Georgia tables still use them, so the G-4 gathers what the W-4 no longer asks. G-4 also carries Georgia-specific claims with no federal equivalent, including the nonresident military spouse exemption.

What is the Georgia unemployment insurance wage base and rate?

$9,500 per employee per year, among the lowest in the country. New employers pay 2.7 percent all in, the 0.06 percent administrative assessment included. Experienced employers range from 0.04 to 8.1 percent, with the assessment added except at the minimum and maximum rates. At the new employer rate, the maximum annual liability is roughly $257 per person. Returns are quarterly on Form DOL-4N.

How do Georgia employers find out their unemployment tax rate?

Through Form DOL-626, published on the Employer Portal in late December for the following year. The notices are not mailed; an email goes to the addresses on record. An employer with a stale contact email or an incomplete portal registration can go a full year without seeing the assigned rate, so register and check every January.

What is the minimum wage in Georgia?

The federal $7.25 applies to most employers. Georgia has a statutory $5.15 under O.C.G.A. 34-4-3, but the statute excludes employers covered by the federal Fair Labor Standards Act, which covers the substantial majority of businesses. The tipped cash wage is $2.13 where tip credit conditions are met, and Georgia preempts local wage ordinances so no city sets a higher floor.

How long do Georgia employers have to report a new hire?

Ten days from the date of hire, shorter than the twenty most states allow, filed with the Georgia New Hire Reporting Center under O.C.G.A. 19-11-9.2. Rehires count again, as does anyone coming back after a layoff, furlough, separation, unpaid leave, or termination. The statute answers a missed report with a written warning.

When is a final paycheck due in Georgia?

By the next regularly scheduled payday for every kind of separation, voluntary or involuntary, since state law sets no separate final paycheck deadline. Georgia imposes no state waiting time penalty, and minimum wage and overtime claims run under the federal Fair Labor Standards Act. Accrued paid time off is payable only where a policy or contract promises it.

What is Form DOL-800 and when is it required?

The Georgia Separation Notice, given to every separated employee on their last day of work regardless of reason, including voluntary resignation. Payroll tax filing does not generate it. Where 25 or more employees at one establishment are separated on the same day for the same reason, for good or for at least seven days, a Mass Separation Notice goes to the Department of Labor within 48 hours.

Does Georgia have local payroll taxes or a state disability program?

No to both. No Georgia city or county levies a local income tax, so payroll never has to work out which local tax applies at an employee's address. Georgia also has no state disability insurance and no paid family and medical leave contribution. Combined with the flat rate and the low unemployment wage base, that makes Georgia one of the simplest states in the country for payroll mechanics.