Get your tax IDs in Idaho

An EIN, if you need one, comes from the IRS. Idaho then adds a sales tax permit if you sell taxable goods, withholding if you have employees, and an unemployment account once you owe the tax.

What’s different in Idaho

• One application opens the state tax accounts. Idaho Business Registration covers the seller’s permit, the travel and convention permit for short-term lodging, and, when you have employees, withholding, labor, and the Industrial Commission.
• The state sales tax rate is 6%⁴. Some resort cities charge a local tax. Food is still taxed. The offset is a credit on the income tax return.
• Income tax is a flat rate set in statute. Idaho Code sets 5.3%¹⁴ for individuals and 5.3%¹⁵ for corporations. Only the individual zero band changes from year to year.
• A new employer’s unemployment rate is the standard rate. For 2026 the rate array sets that standard rate at 1% and the wage base at $58,300²⁴. The public rates page still leads with the 2025 wage base.

Do this

1. Get an EIN from the IRS if you need one. It is free and, if approved, issued immediately¹ online. The Tax Commission says you must have an EIN if you have employees, if you are a single-member LLC, and in certain other situations². Don’t pay a website to apply for you.
2. Register for a seller’s permit if you sell taxable goods or services. Start at Getting Tax Permits. That one application covers a seller's permit, a travel and convention permit, some auditorium district permits, and, if you have employees, a withholding account plus permits from the Department of Labor and the Industrial Commission. Applying is free³. You should have your permit in 10 to 15 business days when you apply online. A mailed form can take up to four weeks when you mail the application. If you are buying a business, ask for a successors' liability clearance letter before you buy, then apply for new tax permits².
3. See whether the small seller exemption fits before you collect tax. It is for an Idaho resident who operates as an individual or sole proprietorship, with no permanent place of business, and not through a corporation, partnership, or LLC, with gross sales of $5,000 or less this calendar year, and no stock kept in order to pass that line. It does not cover motor vehicles, trailers, off-highway vehicles, lodging, aircraft, vessels, alcohol, tobacco, and admissions. A contractor does not qualify, because the Tax Commission treats the contractor as the user of the materials. If you qualify, you do not collect sales tax on your sales, you do not need a seller’s permit, and you still pay tax on what you buy. If sales pass $5,000, collect tax on sales after the first $5,000, and apply for a permit within 30 days. If sales pass $7,500, you collect tax on all of the sales, including the first $5,000⁸. Read the small seller page before you rely on the exemption.
4. Look up a local tax if you sell in a resort city or rent out short-term lodging. State tax is 6%⁴. Some resort cities add a local sales tax. They choose what is taxed. Some limit it to lodging, alcohol by the drink, and restaurant food⁵. The city list, with phone numbers, is on the city sales tax page. Call that city for the rate. Short-term lodging also owes Idaho’s 2% travel and convention tax. It covers hotel and motel stays of 30 days or less, vacation-home rentals, and overnight stays at private campgrounds. It does not apply to a stay of more than 30 days in a row in the same room or space. To offer that lodging you need a travel and convention tax permit, a regular seller's permit, and an auditorium district permit if you operate in a district, all through the same business registration. You do not need these permits if you rent out lodging only on short-term rental marketplaces that collect and send in the taxes for you. You do need them if you rent out lodging anywhere else, or charge fees the marketplace does not collect tax on⁷. Some areas have an auditorium district, which can charge a local sales tax on short-term lodging of 30 days or less⁶: see the auditorium district page.
5. File sales tax on the schedule the permit gives you. File a return even when you made no sales, unless you qualify for the small seller exemption. Most retailers file monthly, due the 20th of the next month. A weekend or holiday moves it to the next workday. Retailers who owe less than $750 a quarter file quarterly, within 20 days after the quarter ends. Twice-a-year filers pay by July 20 and January 20. Once-a-year filers pay by January 20. Both schedules have to be approved. File in TAP. A late return costs 5% of the tax due for each month, up to 25%. Paying late after a timely return costs 0.5% a month, up to the same cap. The minimum is $10⁹, and there is no penalty when no tax is due. One day late is still a full month of penalty.
6. Register for withholding when you pay wages in Idaho. The same business registration opens the account. You need the EIN first. The account number is not transferable, and a new owner or a new entity applies again. Payments use Form 910. A late payment costs 5% of the tax due each month, at least $10 and at most 25%. You must pay electronically when the amount due is $100,000²² or more. Payments follow the filing cycle the Tax Commission assigns to your account²¹. The due dates page lists the date for each cycle.
7. Open an unemployment account when you are liable. The general test, in the current or previous calendar year, is wages of $1,500 in any quarter, or one or more people working in 20 different weeks. A partial day counts, and the weeks do not have to be in a row. Farm work is different: $20,000 in a quarter, or 10 people in 20 different weeks. Household work in a private home is $1,000 of cash wages in a quarter. An employer subject to the federal unemployment tax is automatically subject to Idaho unemployment tax on those services²³. Register through the business registration above, then file in the employer portal. The hiring guide covers the federal side.

Rates and income tax

State sales tax is 6%⁴. State use tax is the same. The basics page does not print a lower rate for food. The offset is the food tax credit, claimed on the income tax return. You must be an Idaho resident. For most residents it is $155 a person, or up to $250¹⁰ if you send receipts for Idaho food purchases. The credit page tells people who must file a return to follow the Form 40 or Form 43 instructions.

Those 2025 instructions exclude candy, soda, restaurant food, food sold heated, food a seller mixes for one sale, and food sold with an eating utensil. A person also cannot take the credit for any month the person received food stamp assistance, was incarcerated, or lived in the United States illegally. You cannot claim it if someone else can claim you as a dependent. A nonresident does not qualify. A part-year resident gets a prorated credit. More than 15 days in a month counts as a full month. The credit is not refunded to a part-year resident¹¹. The instructions that say this are the 2025 booklet.* If a later booklet is up when you file, use that one.

Individual income tax, for owners who report the business on their own return: Idaho Code 63-3024 sets the rate at 5.3% of taxable income above a zero band. The Tax Commission adjusts that band every year for inflation. The 2025 schedule is a zero rate on the first $4,811 for a single filer, then 5.3% from $4,812. For a married filer the zero band runs through $9,622, then 5.3%¹⁴ from $9,623¹³. Use the zero band on the schedule for the year of your return. The basics page has a 2025 table of who must file. A nonresident files if Idaho-source gross income is more than $2,500¹⁶. Idaho Code 63-3030 sets that line.

A C corporation pays 5.3% of Idaho taxable income, the rate Idaho Code 63-3025 sets for every tax year from 2025 on. The 2025 Form 41 sets the minimum at $20 for each corporation that does business in Idaho, is registered with the Secretary of State, or is exercising its corporate franchise here. The minimum does not apply to a nonproductive mining corporation, a corporation not organized for profit that does not owe federal tax on unrelated business income, a homeowners' association filing Form 1120-H with no federal taxable income, or a corporation protected by Public Law 86-272. A multistate corporation whose only Idaho activity is sales of not more than $100,000, with no Idaho property and no Idaho payroll, can elect to pay 1%¹⁷ of Idaho gross sales instead. The instructions also say a corporation required to pay a franchise tax rather than an income tax uses the same 5.3%¹⁵ rate. File by the 15th day of the fourth month after the tax year ends. A calendar year is April 15. If the last day is a Saturday, Sunday, or legal holiday, the return is on time the next business day. An extension avoids a penalty for filing late. It does not let you pay late¹⁸. Interest still runs on tax paid after the original due date.

A pass-through business: Income usually passes through to the owners. That includes a partnership, an LLC taxed as a partnership or S corporation, and an S corporation. A partnership or S corporation can elect to pay Idaho income tax itself, at the corporate rate, for that year. Tax is due April 15 for a calendar-year filer, or the 15th day of the fourth month¹⁹. The corporate rate is 5.3%¹⁵. Owners still get a credit for the tax the entity pays. This page does not pick the election. Nonresident owners have separate choices on that same page, including a composite return, withholding, or a signed agreement. Read the page before you use one.

An S corporation starts with federal Form 2553²⁶, due within 2 months and 15 days²⁷ of the start of the tax year the election should take effect. Idaho then treats it as a pass-through unless it makes the election above.

Unemployment tax, once you are liable, is due the last day of the month after the quarter. A weekend or holiday moves it to the next workday. There is no grace period. Online filing is required unless the department approves a paper request. File the quarterly report even when you paid no wages. Filing late can bring a late payment penalty: 4% of the tax due or $20, whichever is more, for each month or part of a month, never more than the tax itself. A new employer pays the standard rate for at least the first six calendar quarters, except a cost-reimbursement employer. The 2026 rate array, effective January 1, 2026, sets that standard rate at 1% and the taxable wage base at $58,300. Rates on that array run from 0.208% to 5.4%²⁴. The rates page still shows a 2025 wage base of $55,300²⁵ in its large figures, and a 2025 standard rate of 1%. Those are labeled 2025. For wages paid in 2026, use the 2026 array. Pay to members is not unemployment wages if the LLC is taxed as a sole proprietorship or a partnership. It is wages if the LLC is taxed as a corporation, unless a corporate officer opts out. An officer opts out with a corporate officer exemption form, no later than March 31 of the year the officer wants to opt out²³. Read that section of the handbook before you leave a member off the wage report.

What you get back

An EIN if you applied, an Idaho seller’s permit if you registered, a withholding account if you have employees, and a Department of Labor account once you are liable. Write down the sales tax schedule on the permit. The 20th is the monthly date, and it moves when it lands on a weekend.