What is the Kansas income tax rate for 2026?

Two brackets: 5.20 percent on taxable income up to $23,000 for single filers and $46,000 for married filing jointly, and 5.58 percent on income above those thresholds. This structure came from Senate Bill 1, passed in the 2024 special session, which replaced the previous three-bracket schedule of 3.1 percent, 5.25 percent, and 5.7 percent, effective for tax year 2024 and all years after. A significant number of payroll vendor pages and calculators still publish the old three-bracket figures, so a rate table showing 3.1 percent as the bottom rate is out of date rather than an alternative reading.

What is the Kansas unemployment insurance wage base for 2026?

The taxable wage base rose to $15,100 per employee for 2026, up from $14,000. New non-construction employers pay 1.75 percent and new construction employers pay 5.55 percent, both reduced from their earlier levels of 2.7 percent and 6 percent. Experience-rated employers fall across a range that reaches from zero at the bottom, a rating group created for employers whose reserve ratio exceeds 100 percent, up to roughly 6.65 percent, though published sources vary on the exact top of the range. Contributions are employer-funded only, with nothing withheld from employees, and reported quarterly on Form K-CNS-100.

When is a final paycheck due in Kansas, and what is the penalty for paying late?

By the next regularly scheduled payday, whether the employee quit or was discharged, under K.S.A. 44-315. Kansas does not require immediate payment on the last day the way some states do. The penalty provision has teeth: where an employer willfully fails to pay, it owes the wages plus a penalty of one percent of the unpaid wages for each day the failure continues after the eighth day, excluding Sundays and legal holidays, capped at an amount equal to 100 percent of the unpaid wages, whichever is less. On a disputed final check the penalty can therefore reach the size of the check itself.

Kansas Payroll: Employer Tax and Software Guide

Q: What are the Kansas payroll taxes an employer has to handle?

Three, which makes Kansas one of the simpler states structurally. State income tax withholding runs on two brackets, 5.20 percent and 5.58 percent, remitted on Form KW-5 and reconciled annually on Form KW-3. Unemployment insurance is employer-funded on the first $15,100 of each employee’s wages for 2026, at 1.75 percent for new non-construction employers and 5.55 percent for new construction employers. Workers compensation is required for most employers but is bought from a private carrier rather than a state fund. There is no local or city income tax on wages anywhere in Kansas, and no state-level disability or paid family leave contribution, so the list genuinely stops there.

Q: Does Kansas require its own withholding form, or is the federal W-4 enough?

Kansas requires its own. Form K-4, the Kansas Employee’s Withholding Allowance Certificate, is mandatory for every employee hired after December 31, 2007, and the Department of Revenue asks for it on or before the date of employment rather than within some grace period afterward. Kansas developed the separate form because its allowance rules diverge from the federal ones: the married allowance rate is optional, dependents cannot be counted as allowances more than once, and an employee can specify an additional Kansas-only withholding amount. Collecting the federal W-4 alone leaves you without the information the state calculation needs.

Q: Is there a city or local income tax in Kansas?

Not on wages. No Kansas city, county, or school district levies an income tax on earned income, which removes an entire layer of complexity that neighboring Missouri has through the Kansas City and St. Louis earnings taxes. Kansas does have a local intangibles tax in some jurisdictions, but it applies to unearned income such as interest and dividends and is settled on the individual’s own return rather than withheld from a paycheck. For payroll purposes there is nothing local to withhold, calculate, or file.

Q: What is the Kansas 46-hour overtime rule?

Kansas has a state overtime statute at K.S.A. 44-1204 that sets the threshold at 46 hours per workweek rather than the federal 40. It applies only to employers not covered by the federal Fair Labor Standards Act, which in practice means small local businesses under roughly $500,000 in annual revenue that are not engaged in interstate commerce. Most Kansas employers are FLSA-covered, so the federal 40-hour threshold governs, and where both could apply the standard more favorable to the employee controls. Treating the 46-hour figure as a general Kansas rule is a costly misreading, because for a covered employer it would mean six unpaid overtime hours per employee per week.

Q: How often do Kansas employers have to pay employees?

At least once per calendar month, on paydays designated in advance, under K.S.A. 44-314. The provision employers most often miss sits in subsection (h): the end of a pay period cannot fall more than 15 days before the payday that covers it, unless a variance is authorized by state or federal law. That rule quietly constrains how far you can lag a pay period behind its payday, and it catches out employers who set up a long administrative delay between the close of a period and the check date.

Q: How long do Kansas employers have to report a new hire?

Twenty days from the hire date, filed with the Kansas New Hire Directory under K.S.A. 75-5743. Rehires count again when the employee has been separated for 60 or more consecutive days, which sweeps in seasonal staff, substitutes, and anyone returning from an extended layoff or unpaid leave. Alongside that report, a Kansas new hire needs the federal W-4, the state Form K-4, and Form I-9. The K-4 is the piece most often missed, because employers accustomed to states that accept the federal W-4 alone do not think to collect a second withholding certificate.

Kansas payroll for employers: the two-bracket 5.20 and 5.58 percent rates, Form K-4, the $15,100 SUTA base, the 46-hour rule, and 10 providers compared.

Nick Anisimov

FirstHR Founder

Payroll•

July 24, 2026

•

17 min

Kansas Payroll: The Employer Guide

A two-bracket income tax that most published guides still get wrong, a state withholding form separate from the federal W-4, an unemployment wage base that rose in January, an overtime threshold of 46 hours that applies to almost nobody, and how 10 payroll providers price the work

Kansas is one of the easier states in the country to run payroll in, and the single most common thing published about Kansas payroll is wrong.

The structural picture is genuinely simple. Three obligations rather than the eight some states impose, no city or county income tax anywhere in the state, no disability or paid family leave contribution, and a wage payment law that gives you until the next regular payday to issue a final check. An employer arriving from California or New Jersey will find the list short.

The problem is the rate table. Kansas replaced its three-bracket income tax with a two-bracket schedule for tax year 2024, and a large share of the vendor pages, calculators, and tax guides ranking for Kansas payroll queries still show the retired 3.1 percent, 5.25 percent, and 5.7 percent figures. Withhold on those and every paycheck you issue is wrong. This guide covers what Kansas actually requires in 2026, the state-specific forms and quirks that trip up employers, and how 10 payroll providers price the work.

TL;DR

Kansas income tax runs on two brackets, 5.20 percent up to $23,000 of taxable income for single filers and 5.58 percent above it, under Senate Bill 1 from the 2024 special session. Employers must collect Form K-4 in addition to the federal W-4, on or before the date of employment. Unemployment insurance runs on a wage base that rose to $15,100 for 2026, at 1.75 percent for new non-construction employers and 5.55 percent for construction. There is no local income tax anywhere in Kansas. Minimum wage is the federal $7.25. The state overtime threshold of 46 hours applies only to employers outside the FLSA, and most Kansas employers are covered by it, so 40 hours governs.

The three layers of Kansas payroll

It is worth seeing the whole set at once, because the useful fact about Kansas is how much is absent rather than how much is present.

Layer	Who pays	2026 figure	Who collects it
State income tax withholding	Employee	5.20% and 5.58% on two brackets	Kansas Department of Revenue
Unemployment insurance	Employer only	$15,100 wage base, 1.75% new employer	Kansas Department of Labor
Workers compensation	Employer only	Private carrier, required above $20,000 payroll	Private insurance market
Local or city income tax	Nobody	None on wages anywhere in the state	Not applicable
Disability or paid family leave	Nobody	No state program	Not applicable

The bottom two rows are the ones that matter for planning. States with local income taxes force address-level resolution and multiple filing relationships; states with paid leave programs add contributions on separate wage bases. Kansas has neither. A Kansas employer with staff in Wichita, Topeka, and Overland Park files with exactly the same two agencies as an employer with one person in one town.

The comparison that matters is with Missouri, not with the state next door on a map

The Kansas City metropolitan area straddles the state line, and a great many employers in Johnson County have staff or clients on the Missouri side. Missouri levies local earnings taxes in Kansas City and St. Louis, and Kansas has no reciprocity agreement with any state, so a Kansas employer who hires across the line picks up Missouri withholding, a Missouri unemployment account, and potentially the Kansas City earnings tax all at once. Our guide to multi-state payroll processing covers how those obligations stack.

The two-bracket rate most published guides get wrong

Senate Bill 1, passed in the 2024 special session, collapsed the three-bracket Kansas income tax into two and made the change retroactive to tax year 2024 and applicable to every year after.

Structure	Bottom rate	Middle rate	Top rate
Retired three-bracket schedule	3.10%	5.25%	5.70%
Current two-bracket schedule	5.20%	Not applicable	5.58%

Note what happened in each direction. The bottom rate rose sharply, from 3.1 percent to 5.20 percent, while the top rate came down slightly, from 5.7 percent to 5.58 percent. An employer still withholding on the old schedule is under-withholding at the low end of the payroll and over-withholding at the high end, and neither error announces itself until an employee files a return.

Filing status	5.20% applies to	5.58% applies to
Single, head of household, married filing separately	Taxable income up to $23,000	Taxable income above $23,000
Married filing jointly	Taxable income up to $46,000	Taxable income above $46,000

Because the upper bracket begins at a fairly low threshold, Kansas behaves close to a flat 5.58 percent state for most full-time employees once deductions and exemptions are applied. The practical consequence for an employer is that the bracket boundary rarely does much work; getting the two rates themselves right is what matters.

Check your provider's rate table before the first run, not after the first W-2

Because the retired three-bracket figures are still circulating widely on calculator and vendor pages, this is one of the few state facts worth verifying inside the software rather than trusting to a general claim of automatic tax updates. Ask a prospective provider to show the Kansas withholding rates in the account, and confirm you see 5.20 and 5.58 rather than 3.1, 5.25, and 5.7. A platform that has not picked up a rate change enacted in 2024 is telling you something about its maintenance cadence generally.

Withholding is deposited on Form KW-5, whose frequency the Department of Revenue assigns based on your withholding volume, ranging from annual through quarterly, monthly, semi-monthly, and quad-monthly. The KW-5 is filed even in a period with zero withholding. The annual reconciliation is Form KW-3, due January 31 along with W-2s and any 1099s reporting Kansas withholding.

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Form K-4 and why the federal W-4 is not enough

Kansas maintains its own employee withholding certificate, and this is the single most common onboarding gap for employers expanding into the state.

Element	How it works
Form	K-4, Kansas Employee's Withholding Allowance Certificate
Who must complete it	Every employee with Kansas source wages hired after December 31, 2007
When	On or before the date of employment
Optional for	Employees hired before January 1, 2008, unless they want to adjust withholding
Refiled when	Marital status or number of exemptions changes

Kansas built the separate form because its allowance rules diverge from the federal ones in ways the W-4 cannot express. The married allowance rate is optional, so two spouses both earning Kansas income can each claim single to avoid systematic under-withholding. Dependents cannot be counted as allowances more than once. An employee can specify an additional Kansas-only amount to withhold from each paycheck. Credits that do not apply to Kansas filers are omitted entirely.

The deadline is the hire date, which makes this an onboarding problem rather than a payroll one

Most state tax forms tolerate collection during the first pay cycle. Kansas asks for the K-4 on or before the date of employment, which puts it in the same bucket as Form I-9 and ahead of the first payroll run entirely. If your process is to send new hires a packet after their first week, the K-4 is already late. Build it into the same pre-day-one document set as the federal W-4 and I-9. Our guide to new hire paperwork covers what belongs in that set.

There is also Form K-4C, the Nonresident Employee Certificate, for employees who live outside Kansas and perform only part of their work in the state. Given that Kansas has no reciprocity agreement with any state, including Missouri directly across the metropolitan area, nonresident situations arise more often here than the geography alone would suggest.

Unemployment insurance and the new wage base

Two figures changed recently and one of them is the fact most competing pages have not updated.

Item	Prior	2026
Taxable wage base	$14,000	$15,100
New employer rate, non-construction	2.70%	1.75%
New employer rate, construction	6.00%	5.55%
Experience-rated range	Varies by year	0.00% to roughly 6.65%
Quarterly report	K-CNS-100	K-CNS-100

The wage base rose to $15,100 per employee effective January 1, 2026. Many currently published Kansas pages still show $14,000, which understates the per-employee liability by roughly $19 a year at the new employer rate and considerably more for an experience-rated employer at the top of the range. The new employer rates moved the other way and are unusually favorable: at 1.75 percent on a $15,100 base, a new non-construction employer's maximum unemployment cost is about $264 per employee per year.

Kansas also created a zero percent rating group for employers whose reserve ratio exceeds 100 percent, which means a long-established employer with a clean claims history can genuinely pay nothing. Published sources disagree about the exact top of the experience-rated range, with figures between 6.65 and 7.60 percent appearing in different vendor tables, so confirm your assigned rate against the determination notice rather than a third-party summary. Our guide to state unemployment tax covers how experience rating drives that number.

Electronic filing is mandatory at 25 employees

Kansas requires employers with 25 or more employees to submit quarterly wage reports and unemployment tax returns electronically. Below that threshold electronic filing is optional but still the practical default. Quarterly deadlines follow the standard calendar: April 30, July 31, October 31, and January 31. Workers compensation sits outside all of this, bought from a private carrier rather than a state fund, and is required for essentially all Kansas employers except agricultural operations and those with estimated annual payroll under $20,000. Our guide to workers compensation insurance covers how coverage requirements differ by state.

Minimum wage, the 46-hour rule, and payday rules

Minimum wage

Category	2026 rate
Standard minimum wage	$7.25
Tipped cash wage, with a $5.12 maximum tip credit	$2.13
Youth and training wage, first 90 days, under 20	$4.25

Kansas sits at the federal floor and has since 2010, when the state rate rose from an older and much lower figure to match $7.25. No Kansas city or county sets a different rate. Bills to raise the state minimum have been introduced in recent sessions but none has passed, so $7.25 remains the operative number and any page quoting a higher Kansas minimum is describing a proposal rather than law. Our guide to the minimum wage for tipped employees covers how the tip credit test works.

The 46-hour overtime rule and who it actually covers

Kansas has a state overtime statute, K.S.A. 44-1204, setting the threshold at 46 hours per workweek. It is frequently cited as though it were the Kansas rule. It is not, for most employers.

Employer type	Overtime threshold	Governing law
Covered by the federal FLSA	40 hours per workweek	Fair Labor Standards Act
Not covered by the FLSA	46 hours per workweek	K.S.A. 44-1204
Coverage unclear	Use 40 hours	The standard more favorable to the employee

FLSA coverage generally reaches employers engaged in interstate commerce or with annual revenue above $500,000, which describes the large majority of Kansas businesses with employees. The 46-hour threshold is a narrow carve-out for small, purely local operations. Applying it to a covered workforce means six hours of unpaid overtime per employee per week, which compounds into a substantial back-wage exposure quickly. Our guide to overtime covers how the regular rate is calculated once the threshold is crossed.

Two payday rules that catch out employers setting up their first Kansas payroll

Under K.S.A. 44-314 wages are due at least once per calendar month on paydays designated in advance, which is unremarkable. Subsection (h) is the part almost nobody quotes: the end of a pay period cannot fall more than 15 days before the payday covering it. A long administrative lag between period close and check date is not permitted. Separately, under K.S.A. 44-315 the final paycheck is due by the next regular payday for both quits and discharges, and willful failure to pay carries a penalty of one percent of the unpaid wages per day after the eighth day, excluding Sundays and holidays, capped at 100 percent of the unpaid wages. On a contested final check the penalty can reach the size of the check itself. Our guide to the final paycheck for a terminated employee compares the deadlines across states.

New hire reporting

Kansas employers report new and rehired employees to the Kansas New Hire Directory within 20 days of hire under K.S.A. 75-5743. Rehires count again once an employee has been separated for 60 or more consecutive days, which brings in seasonal staff, substitutes, and anyone returning from an extended layoff or unpaid leave. Our guide to new hire reporting covers what each report must contain.

10 payroll providers for Kansas employers compared

Every provider below files Kansas withholding and unemployment. Because Kansas lacks the local tax layers that separate platforms in Ohio or Pennsylvania, the differentiators here are ordinary ones: total price, whether the plan tolerates a second state without a costly upgrade, and whether onboarding actually collects the K-4 rather than leaving it to you.

Provider	Best For	Starting Price	Pricing Model	Trial
OnPay	All-in pricing, no tiers	$49 + $6/ee	Base + PEPM	1 month
Gusto	First-time payroll buyers	$49 + $6/ee	Base + PEPM	Until 1st run
Patriot	Lowest cost, tight budgets	$37 + $5/ee	Base + PEPM	30 days
Square	Retail and restaurant teams	$35 + $6/ee	Base + PEPM	Free trial
SurePayroll	Very small and household teams	$29 + $7/ee	Base + PEPM	Varies
QuickBooks	Existing QuickBooks accounting	$50 + $6.50/ee	Base + PEPM	30 days
ADP RUN	Compliance depth at scale	~$79 + $4/ee	Quote	3 months
Paychex Flex	Hands-on service model	$39 + $5/ee	Base + PEPM	Varies
Paylocity	Growing teams wanting HR depth	Quote	Quote	Demo
Rippling	Payroll tied to HR and IT	$35 + $8/ee	Modular PEPM	Demo

Pricing verified as of July 2026 from vendor pricing pages. PEPM = per employee per month. ADP RUN and Paylocity do not publish full list pricing; the ADP figure is a third-party estimate and the Paychex figure is the published Essentials rate, with higher tiers quoted individually. KW-5 and KW-3 Filing indicates the platform submits the Kansas withholding deposit and the annual reconciliation rather than only calculating the tax. K-4 Collection indicates a digital onboarding flow that gathers the Kansas withholding certificate alongside the federal W-4. Multi-State Included means additional states carry no separate per-state charge or forced tier upgrade. Confirm all three with the vendor for your plan tier before signing.

OnPay

One plan at $49 per month plus $6 per employee, everything included, no tiers to climb. Multi-state is part of the base plan rather than an upgrade, which is the feature that earns its keep on the Kansas side of the Kansas City metropolitan area. OnPay maintains a Kansas-specific tax rates resource, a reasonable proxy for whether a vendor keeps state tables current.

Pros

One flat plan with no features gated behind a higher tier

Multi-state payroll included at no surcharge

Year-end W-2 and 1099 forms included in the base price

First month free without a credit card

Cons

Thinner HR tooling than Gusto: fewer onboarding and offer letter features

Benefits administration routes through OnPay's own licensed broker

Not built for companies above roughly 500 employees

Interface is functional rather than polished

Gusto

The most common first payroll purchase for US small businesses, with automatic tax filing, published pricing, and the strongest onboarding experience among payroll-first platforms. Simple runs $49 per month plus $6 per employee after a base increase in early 2026, and it files the KW-5, the KW-3, and the new hire report.

The single-state limit on Simple deserves attention in Kansas specifically. Kansas has no reciprocity agreement with any state, and the Kansas City metropolitan area crosses into Missouri, so one hire on the wrong side of State Line Road moves you to Plus at $80 plus $12 per employee.

Pros

Best onboarding and HR tooling among the payroll-first providers

Files KW-5, KW-3, and the Kansas new hire report automatically

Published pricing with month-to-month billing and no long-term contract

Large integration library and strong accountant ecosystem

Cons

Simple plan is single-state only, a real constraint in the Kansas City metro

Base price rose from $40 to $49 in early 2026

Time tracking sits behind Plus or a paid add-on

Per-employee fees compound: $349 per month at 50 employees on Simple

Patriot Software

The cheapest legitimate full-service payroll on the market. Full Service is $37 per month plus $5 per employee, with additional states at $12 per month each. Basic is $17 plus $4 if you file taxes yourself, which in Kansas is a more realistic proposition than in most states given that there are only two filings to make and no local returns at all.

Pros

Lowest published base price in full-service payroll at $37 per month

Unlimited payroll runs with no per-run fees

Self-file Basic tier is genuinely viable in a state with no local filings

30-day free trial plus a discount on the first months

Cons

$12 per month for each additional state

Basic plan leaves you filing the KW-5 and KW-3 yourself

Time tracking and HR are separate paid add-ons

No native mobile app and a plain interface

Square Payroll

At $35 per month plus $6 per person, Square is the cheapest full-service option with published pricing, and the full-service plan covers federal and state tax calculations, payments, and filings. For a Wichita or Lawrence restaurant already running Square point of sale, timecard data flows into payroll with no integration work and tip handling is native.

Pros

Lowest published base fee among full-service providers at $35 per month

Tip handling and timecards flow directly from Square POS and the Team App

State tax filing and new hire reports included in the full-service plan

Contractor-only plan at $6 per person with no base fee

Cons

Narrower integration catalog than Gusto or ADP

Paper W-2 and 1099 mailing costs $3 per form

Best value is tied to using the wider Square ecosystem

Onboarding document collection is thinner than HR-first platforms

SurePayroll

Owned by Paychex and built for very small employers and household employers. Full Service is $29 per month plus $7 per employee, with a flat $9.99 monthly multi-state fee that is the most economical multi-state arrangement on this list for a very small team. It suits a Kansas household employer paying a nanny or caregiver particularly well.

Pros

Flat $9.99 monthly multi-state fee rather than per-state pricing

AutoPayroll available on both plans, unusual at this price point

Strong fit for household employers paying nannies or caregivers

Unlimited payroll runs on all plans

Cons

Per-employee fee of $7 is the highest among the budget providers

No digital onboarding workflows for collecting the K-4

HR features are minimal compared with full platforms

Interface reads dated compared to newer platforms

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QuickBooks Workforce Payroll

Core is $50 per month plus $6.50 per employee, and the argument for it is unchanged: if your books live in QuickBooks Online, payroll reaches the general ledger without an export. In a state with no local tax layer to worry about, the accounting integration carries proportionally more of the decision than it would in Ohio or Pennsylvania.

Pros

Native general ledger sync with QuickBooks Online

Full-service state tax filing on every tier including Core

Same-day direct deposit available on higher tiers

Published pricing with no sales call

Cons

Per-employee pricing increased in mid-2026

Core tier lacks time tracking and HR support

Weak value if you do not use QuickBooks accounting

Onboarding document collection is limited on lower tiers

ADP RUN

ADP has the deepest tax compliance engine in the category. Kansas is not a state where that depth pays for itself the way it does in a multi-jurisdiction state, since there are no municipal returns to file and no dual wage bases to track. The case for ADP here is a Kansas employer with genuine multi-state complexity, or one who expects to grow past the point where a small platform is comfortable.

The cost is opacity. ADP does not publish RUN pricing; third-party estimates put Essential near $79 per month plus $4 per employee, but every quote is individual. Contracts typically run a year with automatic renewal and a 30 to 60 day cancellation window.

Pros

Best-in-class handling of multi-state and multi-jurisdiction complexity

Statutory changes reach the tax tables without customer intervention

Three-month free trial promotions are common for new customers

Deep benefits administration and workers compensation placement

Cons

No published pricing: every quote requires a sales conversation

Annual contract with automatic renewal and a notice window

Compliance depth is underused in a state with no local taxes

Post-implementation support quality is a recurring complaint in reviews

Paychex Flex

Paychex competes on service rather than software, and unusually among quote-driven vendors it publishes an entry rate: Essentials at $39 per month plus $5 per employee, with higher tiers quoted individually. In Kansas the service model earns its keep less on tax complexity than on the wage payment rules, where a question about the 15-day pay period constraint or a contested final check benefits from someone to call.

Pros

Publishes an entry-tier rate rather than quoting everything

Dedicated service representatives available at higher tiers

Full state and federal tax filing and compliance support

Broad HR, benefits, and retirement services under one vendor

Cons

Only the entry tier is published; everything above it is quoted

Quarterly fees are reported by customers and not always disclosed upfront

Dedicated support requires a higher-priced tier

Contract terms are less flexible than month-to-month providers

Paylocity

Paylocity sits between small-business payroll and full HCM, aimed at companies that have outgrown basic payroll. It publishes detailed per-state tax facts including Kansas, and its onboarding module handles state-specific forms such as the K-4 as part of a configured workflow. Pricing is quote-based and implementation is a project rather than a signup.

Pros

Onboarding workflows handle state-specific forms including the K-4

Maintains detailed per-state tax compliance resources

Strong employee self-service and mobile experience

Scales into mid-market without replatforming

Cons

Quote-only pricing with no published rates

Implementation timeline measured in weeks, not days

More platform than a 10-person Kansas business needs

Annual contracts with limited flexibility

Rippling

Rippling unifies payroll, HR, and IT provisioning on one employee record. The core platform is $35 per month plus $8 per employee, with payroll as a separate module. Real-world all-in costs land between $25 and $45 per employee per month once you assemble a working configuration.

Pros

Single employee record spanning HR, payroll, and IT provisioning

Handles multi-state registration in the same workflow

Onboarding collects state forms alongside federal ones automatically

Scales from startup to mid-market without replatforming

Cons

Modular pricing means the headline $8 figure is not what anyone pays

Payroll module pricing is not published as a standalone number

Implementation fees are common and quoted per contract

Overbuilt for a 15-person Kansas business with no IT complexity

What each provider actually costs a Kansas employer

The table below models published rates at three headcounts, with a column for what a second state costs, because that is the variable most likely to change the answer for a Kansas employer near the Missouri line.

Provider	10 employees	25 employees	50 employees	Second State	Notes
SurePayroll	$99	$204	$379	$9.99 flat	Add-on HR features
Square	$95	$185	$335	Included	Best with Square POS
Patriot	$87	$162	$287	$12 monthly	Cheapest full service
Paychex Flex	$89	$164	$289	Quote	Essentials tier published
OnPay	$109	$199	$349	Included	One plan, no tiers
Gusto Simple	$109	$199	$349	Tier upgrade	Simple is single state
QuickBooks	$115	$213	$375	Included	Syncs to QuickBooks GL
ADP RUN	~$119	~$179	~$279	Quote	Quote-only pricing

Monthly base plus per-employee fees at standard published rates, verified July 2026. Excludes promotional discounts, benefits premiums, workers compensation premiums, and year-end form fees where charged separately. ADP figures are third-party estimates. The Second State column matters more in Kansas than in most states because the Kansas City metropolitan area crosses into Missouri, so a single hire on the other side of the line can change which plan tier you need.

Square and Patriot are the cheapest published options at every headcount. Because Kansas has no local filings to complicate the picture, the ranking here is closer to a pure price comparison than it would be in a state with municipal returns, and the cheapest capable option is a more defensible choice than usual. The variable that reorders the table is the second state: Gusto Simple forces a tier upgrade that roughly doubles the bill, while SurePayroll charges a flat $9.99 and OnPay and QuickBooks include it.

In Kansas the software decision is smaller than it looks, so do not overspend on it

In states with fragmented local taxes, paying a premium for a platform with deep filing coverage is straightforwardly worth it. Kansas does not present that problem. Two filings, one agency each, no municipal returns, no dual wage bases. That means the honest advice is to buy the cheapest platform that files the KW-5 and KW-3 reliably, handles your second state if you have one, and collects the K-4 during onboarding. The money that would go toward compliance depth you do not need is better spent on the parts of the employment lifecycle Kansas actually complicates, which are documentary rather than computational.

Choosing a payroll provider for Kansas

Are the withholding rates in the account 5.20 and 5.58?

This is the first thing to check and it takes thirty seconds. The retired three-bracket schedule of 3.1, 5.25, and 5.7 percent still appears on a large number of vendor and calculator pages, so ask to see the Kansas rate table inside the product during a trial or demo. A platform carrying rates superseded in 2024 will withhold incorrectly on every paycheck, and it also tells you how quickly that vendor absorbs statutory changes generally.

Does onboarding collect Form K-4, or does that fall to you?

Kansas requires the K-4 on or before the date of employment, in addition to the federal W-4. Some platforms include state withholding certificates in a digital onboarding flow; others collect only the federal form and leave the state one as a manual step nobody owns. Ask specifically whether the K-4 is in the new hire packet the software sends, and whether it captures a signature, because an unsigned certificate sitting in an inbox is not a collected form.

What does a hire across the Missouri line cost on this plan?

Kansas has no reciprocity agreement with any state and the Kansas City metropolitan area spans the border, so this is a live question for a large share of Kansas employers rather than a hypothetical. Providers price multi-state three ways: included, a flat monthly fee, or a per-state charge, and at least one forces a tier upgrade that roughly doubles the bill. Establish the answer before you sign rather than at the moment you make the hire.

Does it file the KW-5 on your assigned frequency, and file at zero?

The Kansas Department of Revenue assigns a deposit frequency ranging from annual to quad-monthly based on your withholding volume, and the KW-5 is due even for a period with no withholding. Confirm the platform files on the frequency actually assigned to your account rather than a default, and that it still files a zero return during a quiet period, since a missed zero filing generates a notice as readily as a missed payment.

Can it enforce your pay period and payday structure?

K.S.A. 44-314(h) requires that a pay period end no more than 15 days before the payday covering it, which quietly rules out the long administrative lag some employers default to when setting up their first calendar. Confirm your intended schedule satisfies that constraint before configuring it, and check that final pay can be issued on the next regular payday, since the willful non-payment penalty reaches up to the full amount of the unpaid wages.

Before you choose

FirstHR does not process payroll, file payroll taxes, or administer benefits. Every provider above does something we do not, and since the whole argument of this page is that Kansas payroll computation is comparatively simple, the right move is to pick a capable platform at the lowest sensible price and move on.

What we handle is the document layer that feeds payroll: onboarding workflows, e-signature on Form K-4 and the federal W-4, I-9s and offer letters, employee records, and document management for 5 to 50 employee US teams at a flat $98 to $198 per month. The Kansas obligations that most often go wrong are records problems rather than calculation problems, namely collecting a signed K-4 on or before the hire date, filing the new hire report within 20 days, and re-reporting rehires separated for 60 or more days. Our Kansas HR compliance guide covers the wider set of state obligations beyond payroll.

Key Takeaways

Kansas uses two income tax brackets, not three. Senate Bill 1 from the 2024 special session replaced the 3.1, 5.25, and 5.7 percent schedule with 5.20 percent up to $23,000 of taxable income for single filers and 5.58 percent above it, and many published guides and calculators still show the retired figures.

The unemployment wage base rose to $15,100 for 2026 from $14,000, while new employer rates fell to 1.75 percent for non-construction and 5.55 percent for construction. A clean-history employer can reach a zero percent rating group, and unemployment is employer-funded with nothing withheld from employees.

Form K-4 is mandatory and due on or before the hire date. Kansas does not accept the federal W-4 alone for state withholding, which makes this an onboarding deadline rather than a first-payroll-run task, and it is the most common gap for employers expanding into the state.

The 46-hour overtime threshold applies only to employers outside the FLSA. Most Kansas employers are covered by federal law and owe overtime after 40 hours, so treating 46 as the general state rule creates six hours of unpaid overtime per employee per week.

Two wage payment rules deserve a calendar check. A pay period cannot end more than 15 days before its payday under K.S.A. 44-314(h), and willful failure to pay a final check carries a penalty of one percent per day after the eighth day, capped at the full amount of the unpaid wages.

Frequently Asked Questions

What are the Kansas payroll taxes an employer has to handle?

Three: state income tax withholding on two brackets at 5.20 and 5.58 percent, remitted on Form KW-5 and reconciled on Form KW-3; unemployment insurance on the first $15,100 of wages at 1.75 percent for new non-construction employers; and workers compensation from a private carrier. There is no local income tax and no state disability or paid family leave contribution. See our overview of payroll taxes by state for how this compares elsewhere.

What is the Kansas income tax rate?

Two brackets: 5.20 percent on taxable income up to $23,000 for single filers and $46,000 for married filing jointly, and 5.58 percent above those thresholds. Senate Bill 1 from the 2024 special session replaced the earlier three-bracket schedule of 3.1, 5.25, and 5.7 percent, effective for tax year 2024 onward. Rate tables still showing 3.1 percent as the bottom rate are out of date.

Does Kansas require its own withholding form?

Yes. Form K-4 is required for every employee with Kansas source wages hired after December 31, 2007, and is due on or before the date of employment. Kansas maintains a separate form because its allowance rules differ from the federal ones: the married allowance rate is optional, dependents cannot be double-counted, and employees can add a Kansas-only additional withholding amount. The federal W-4 alone is not sufficient.

Is there a city or local income tax in Kansas?

Not on wages. No Kansas city, county, or school district taxes earned income, which is a meaningful contrast with Missouri directly across the Kansas City metropolitan area. Kansas does levy a local intangibles tax in some jurisdictions, but it applies to interest and dividends and is settled on the individual return rather than withheld from pay.

What is the Kansas unemployment insurance wage base?

$15,100 per employee for 2026, up from $14,000. New non-construction employers pay 1.75 percent and new construction employers 5.55 percent, both reduced from earlier levels. Experience-rated employers range from a zero percent group for those with a reserve ratio above 100 percent up to roughly 6.65 percent, though published sources vary on the exact ceiling. Reporting is quarterly on Form K-CNS-100, and electronic filing is required at 25 or more employees.

What is the Kansas 46-hour overtime rule?

A state overtime threshold under K.S.A. 44-1204 that applies only to employers not covered by the federal FLSA, generally small local businesses under roughly $500,000 in revenue and not engaged in interstate commerce. Most Kansas employers are FLSA-covered and owe overtime after 40 hours. Where coverage is unclear, the standard more favorable to the employee applies.

How often must Kansas employers pay employees?

At least once per calendar month on paydays designated in advance, under K.S.A. 44-314. Subsection (h) adds a constraint most summaries omit: a pay period cannot end more than 15 days before the payday that covers it, unless a variance is authorized by state or federal law.

When is a final paycheck due in Kansas?

By the next regularly scheduled payday, for both quits and discharges, under K.S.A. 44-315. Willful failure to pay carries a penalty of one percent of the unpaid wages for each day the failure continues after the eighth day, excluding Sundays and legal holidays, capped at an amount equal to 100 percent of the unpaid wages, whichever is less.

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

Twenty days from the hire date, to the Kansas New Hire Directory under K.S.A. 75-5743, with rehires counting again after a separation of 60 or more consecutive days. A Kansas new hire also needs the federal W-4, Form K-4, and Form I-9. See our guide to new hire reporting for what each report must contain.

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Payroll

Kansas Payroll: Employer Tax and Software Guide

Kansas Payroll: The Employer Guide

The three layers of Kansas payroll

The two-bracket rate most published guides get wrong

Form K-4 and why the federal W-4 is not enough

Unemployment insurance and the new wage base

Minimum wage, the 46-hour rule, and payday rules

Minimum wage

The 46-hour overtime rule and who it actually covers

New hire reporting

10 payroll providers for Kansas employers compared

OnPay

Gusto

Patriot Software

Square Payroll

SurePayroll

QuickBooks Workforce Payroll

ADP RUN

Paychex Flex

Paylocity

Rippling

What each provider actually costs a Kansas employer

Choosing a payroll provider for Kansas

Before you choose

Frequently Asked Questions

What are the Kansas payroll taxes an employer has to handle?

What is the Kansas income tax rate?

Does Kansas require its own withholding form?

Is there a city or local income tax in Kansas?

What is the Kansas unemployment insurance wage base?

What is the Kansas 46-hour overtime rule?

How often must Kansas employers pay employees?

When is a final paycheck due in Kansas?

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

Ready to transform your onboarding?

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