Federal and State Employment Taxes – Bulk Transmissions FAQs

This program is for large filers, bulk filers, or payroll agents. It is application-to-application transmission of data, completely automated, with no manual intervention. Transmitters can use the services of an approved vendor or they can program their own application.

For the complete background on the FSET program, review Federal/State Employment Taxes (FSET) Implementation Guide (DE 545) (PDF). The guide provides information, direction, and examples required for enrollment, testing, and implementation.

The FSET application allows you to send:

• Quarterly Contribution Return and Report of Wages (DE 9)
• Quarterly Contribution Return and Report of Wages (Continuation) (DE 9C)
• Payroll Tax Deposit (DE 88)
• Quarterly Contribution Return (DE 3D)
• Report of New Employee(s) (DE 34)
• Report of Independent Contractor(s) (DE 542)

Payroll service providers may submit Data Exchange and Enrollment files to:

• Retrieve their clients’ tax rates.
• Verify their clients’ EDD employer payroll tax account numbers.
• Notify us when they acquire or no longer represent clients.

Note: The FSET program was developed by the IRS, several states, and software vendors to create a standard format to submit both federal and state employment tax information. The tax returns are sent to us using web services.

The FSET program is open to software developers, transmitters, and payroll service providers who act as reporting agents. It is also open to employers who want to develop their own software. For more information, refer to the Federal/State Employment Taxes (FSET) Implementation Guide (DE 545) (PDF). This guide provides information, direction, and examples required for enrollment, testing, and implementation.

Individual business taxpayers who want to do bulk filings can choose to use the services of a participating payroll service provider or transmitter listed as approved FSET providers.

The FSET program has the following benefits:

• Faster processing and response time.
• Secure application-to-application transmission.
• No mailing costs.
• Accurate reporting.
• Opportunity to correct errors.
• 24-hour availability, except for maintenance periods.

The FSET program is available 24 hours a day except for the following maintenance periods:

• Every Friday from 6 p.m. to Saturday at 1 a.m., Pacific time.
• Every third Sunday of each month from 6 a.m. to 3 p.m., Pacific time.

If your organization develops their own software, there is no cost to transmit your files to us.

If you use the services of a payroll service or transmitter, you will need to purchase software or services. You can refer to the list of approved FSET providers for more information.

The FSET program processes large volumes of tax data from multiple files. For the best results, do not exceed 10,000 employer returns per bulk transmission.

If you are already participating in the FSET program and you are using the services of a software provider, payroll service, or transmitter, contact them directly.

If you are developing your own FSET software application, you can:

• Email your questions to Tax FSET.
• Contact our FSET Help Desk, Monday to Friday, 8 a.m. to 5 p.m., Pacific time at 1-866-592-1651.

Contact our Taxpayer Assistance Center at 1-888-745-3886, if you have questions about a previously submitted or posted filing:

• Quarterly Contribution Return and Report of Wages (DE 9).
• Quarterly Contribution Return and Report of Wages (Continuation) (DE 9C).

Contact our Taxpayer Assistance Center at 1-888-745-3886, if you have questions about a previously submitted or posted filing:

• Quarterly Contribution Return and Report of Wages (DE 9).
• Quarterly Contribution Return and Report of Wages (Continuation) (DE 9C).
• Quarterly Contribution Return (DE3D).
• Payroll Tax Deposit (DE 88).

Certification testing is the completion of multiple test scenarios to ensure that the system is configured correctly and that the acknowledgments (ACK1 and ACK2) are sent and retrieved properly.

Refer to the Federal/State Employment Taxes Implementation Guide (DE 545) (PDF) to learn more.

Note: Our staff will work with customers during the testing process to help resolve data and transmission issues.

Yes, filing with FSET fulfills this requirement.

The Wage Plan Code shows the types of benefit coverage employees have for their Unemployment Insurance and Disability Insurance and is connected to your employer payroll tax account number. This is a required element for each employee on the DE 9C.

Refer to Appendix T of the Federal State Employment Taxes Implementation Guide (DE 545) (PDF) for more information.

• DE 9 - Include the NoPayrollAnnualElect tag with the value “X.”
• DE 9C - Include the NoPayrollElect tag with the value “X.”

Online

You cannot file an amended DE 9, DE 3D, or DE 9C by FSET. You can use e-Services for Business to adjust a previously filed tax return or wage report.

Refer to the tutorial Adjust a Tax Return or Wage Report (YouTube) for more information.

By Mail

You can complete and send the Quarterly Contribution and Wage Adjustment Form (DE 9ADJ) (PDF) by mail to:

Employment Development Department
PO Box 989073
West Sacramento, CA 95798-9073

The files within each transmission are validated and an acknowledgment (ACK2) is generated for each file. If a file is rejected, the file status will be shown as “R” on the ACK2. It is the transmitter’s responsibility to correct errors for the rejected files and retransmit. The corresponding ACK2 will contain an error message for each error in the file. For a complete listing of the error messages, refer to Appendices J through Q of the Federal/State Employment Taxes Implementation Guide (DE 545) (PDF). If there are no errors in a file, the ACK2 will not contain any error messages and the file will be processed.

We reserve the right to suspend any participant who does not comply with the requirements, specifications, and procedures for FSET outlined in the Federal/State Employment Taxes (FSET) Implementation Guide (DE 545) (PDF) or any corresponding administrative rules. This also applies to any participant who does not consistently transmit correct returns.

If suspended, the participant will be notified of the requirements for reinstatement into the program.

Refer to the current issue of the California Employer’s Guide (DE 44) (PDF) for due dates and settlement dates for the DE 9, DE 9C, and DE 88 payments.

If you have selected to pay DE 88 payments by FSET and have an ACH debit block on your bank account, you must inform your bank of our Company Identification number to avoid your tax payment being rejected. The Company Identification number is a 10-digit number used to identify an originator of the transaction.

Our Company Identification number is: 2282533055

The FTP is only used for sending and retrieving files. Web Services can return acknowledgements and errors and allows us to interact with our transmitters. This allows transmitters to correct their returns in many cases without manual intervention.

A bulk transmitter can use the FSET schema Version 4.3 for Data Exchange to request employers’ rates or payroll tax account numbers electronically.

Refer to the Federal/State Employment Taxes (FSET) Implementation Guide (DE 545) (PDF).