New Hire Paperwork and Compliance Guide for Ohio

The hiring process for companies can be a bit daunting. With all of the required paperwork and the legal process you must follow, it can be a lot to keep up with.

In Ohio, over 5.6 million employees are working throughout the state, which means a lot of new hire paperwork and reporting is required every year.

What new hire paperwork is required in Ohio, and what legal compliance do Ohio companies have to stay on top of?

This guide will answer those questions and more.

I-9 Form

One of the most important forms you have to give to a new hire that walks into your office is an I-9 form. This employment eligibility verification form ensures that the person trying to work for your company is legally allowed to work in the United States.

Employees start by filling out basic information such as their first and last name, home address, email address, telephone number, and social security number.

Next, the form will ask the employee to provide their status in the United States. The four options include citizen of the United States, noncitizen national, alien legally allowed to work here, and lawful permanent resident.

If the employee is an alien, they must provide additional information. This can be either a registration number or a foreign passport number and the country that the passport came from.

This happens more often than you may think. In most years, the United States gives out over two million work-eligible visas.

For companies, this form protects them and ensures that they hire people who are legally allowed to work. For employees, this form could verify that they are meeting the obligations of their status in this country, such as if they are supposed to be an alien on a working visa.

Once this form is complete, you can move on to the next one.

W-4 Form

The next form you will have to give a new employee is the W-4 form. This is the employee's withholding certificate.

The main goal of this form is to have an employee's tax withholdings be as accurate as possible. This benefits both the company and the employee.

A company must match employee contributions on their taxes, such as Social Security and Medicare. So this helps the company understand how much money they will have to match.

As for the employee, this benefits them because if a company gets an employee's tax withholdings wrong, there could be consequences there. Either the employee can end up going home with too little money every paycheck, or the employee can end up owing money on their yearly taxes.

Filling out this form ensures the employee has the proper withholdings based on their salary and household circumstances.

First, the form asks employees to fill out basic information such as their name, address, and social security number. Then, the form will ask the employee to pick a filing status. They can be single, married but filing separately, married filing jointly, or head of household.

Then, the form will ask employees further questions about their personal status. It asks about any other jobs the employee has, how much income they get from those other jobs if they have any eligible dependents, and any other deductions that might be heading their way.

All of this information can help give companies and the IRS a good idea of how much of an employee's salary should be withheld for tax purposes.

W-9 Form

If you are working for a company that hires independent contractors, you are likely going to have to give them this form. The purpose of the W-9 form is to remain legally compliant as a company. In other words, you are mainly giving people this form so that you can collect their tax information.

So, what does this form require people to fill out? It starts with the basics, such as a name and address. If they have a business name, they should include that as well.

Then, they have to fill in either a social security number or an employee identification number. After that, they just need to sign the form.

New Hire Reporting

As a company, there is some legal compliance that you are going to be expected to keep up with. One of these things is reporting your employee to the appropriate group.

In Ohio, that means that every time a company hires a new employee, they have to report that new employee to the Ohio New Hire Reporting Program. Companies have 20 days from the time that the new employee is hired to do this.

However, this may not be limited to just new employees. Let's say a company hired an employee in the past. For whatever reason, it did not work out before, but the company decided to hire this employee back.

In that situation, the company still has to report the employee to the Ohio New Hire Reporting Program within 20 days of hiring them. In the eyes of that program, it is essentially like hiring a brand new employee, so you have to do this paperwork all over again.

Ohio State Income Tax

Each state has a different level of state income tax they collect from employees that work in their state. Some states may choose not to have any state income tax whatsoever.

Ohio is not one of those states. They take a certain percentage of an employee's income depending on how much income they make for the year.

This separates employees throughout the state into tax brackets. These tax brackets change a little bit every year or two, whether it is due to inflation or other economic factors.

Ohio tends to be generous to those that they consider low-income earners. That is because if an employee makes $26,050 or less for the year, they do not get taxed at all by the state.

From $26,051 to $46,100, Ohio collects a 2.76% income tax. Then, from $46,101 to $92,150, Ohio collects a 3.22% income tax.

From $92,151 to $115,300, Ohio collects a 3.68% income tax. Finally, with anything over that amount, Ohio collects a 3.99% income tax.

Your company may have a wide variety when it comes to how much they pay their employees. It is important to be aware of how much the difference can impact what state tax bracket that the employee falls under.

Unemployment Insurance

There may come a time when your company either has to lay an employee off or fire them. If this happens, this can turn their whole world upside down. For some people, they may be left wondering how they are going to survive without a paycheck.

This is where unemployment comes in. This is designed to help provide some temporary money for those people who are in between jobs.

As a company in Ohio, it is your responsibility to do your part for unemployment. That means that you are going to have to contribute to unemployment insurance.

What happens is unemployment will give that employee a certain percentage of the wages they had at your company before they got laid off or fired. This is typically about half of their average paycheck.

The tax that your company pays towards this helps fund this and allows employees to get the help they need during a difficult time.

Workers' Compensation

Finally, Ohio companies also need to provide contributions for workers' compensation coverage. This is mandatory for companies in Ohio that employ anybody and helps protect companies if there is an accident in their workplace.

Let's say that your company is a warehouse, and one of your employees accidentally falls off of a machine. That employee may be out of work for two months and risks losing the wages they would earn in that stretch.

Workers' compensation allows the employee to receive these lost wages on top of compensation for any medical bills that they have inquired about.

Final Thoughts

Accurate and on-time completion of new hire paperwork in Ohio is critical for employers and employees. Employers must ensure compliance with federal and state laws and collect necessary employee information. This helps them protect their business and provide a smooth onboarding experience for new hires.

Don't overlook the importance of this paperwork. GoCo will ensure your new hire packet includes all the required forms and policies.

With GoCo's all-in-one HR platform, managing new hire paperwork has never been more manageable. From electronic signatures to automatic form generation, GoCo streamlines the onboarding process and helps employers stay compliant.

Take a tour of GoCo today and find out how you can streamline your HR processes.