Get your tax IDs in Indiana

An EIN, if you need one, takes minutes online. Indiana then adds a sales tax certificate if you sell taxable goods, withholding if you have employees, and an unemployment account once you owe the tax.

What’s different in Indiana

• Sales tax is a state rate of 7%². The certificate costs $25⁸ per location. Grocery food has an exemption. Prepared food can have a local food and beverage tax on top.
• Income tax is a state rate plus a county rate. The state individual rate is 2.95%³ for 2026. The county rate is not one number for the whole state.
• A C corporation’s Indiana return is due a month after its federal one. Indiana’s statute sets the 15th day of the 5th month after the taxable year ends¹⁰. The federal Form 1120¹⁹ is due on the 15th day of the 4th month after the end of the corporation’s tax year²⁰.
• Unemployment tax can start at the first dollar of wages. The wage base is $9,500¹². A typical new employer pays 2.5%¹³ for four calendar years.

Do this

1. Get an EIN from the IRS if you need one. It is free and, if approved, issued immediately¹⁸ online. Get the EIN if you will hire, open a bank account, or be taxed as a corporation. The Indiana handbook says a Social Security number may be used when an EIN is not required. Don’t pay a website to apply for you.
2. Register for sales tax on INBiz if you sell taxable goods. If you sell goods or tangible personal property, register to collect sales tax. You receive a Registered Retail Merchant Certificate, one for each business location, through INBiz¹. The certificate fee is $25⁸ for each place of business, and a separate application is required for each one. It renews every two years, and it is sent automatically if filings and payments are current. A Registered Retail Merchant Certificate is not a vendor's license. The vendor's license comes from the county clerk². The clerk’s fee is not on the Department of Revenue page.* Ask the clerk. A remote seller registers after $100,000 of Indiana sales in the current or previous calendar year. As of January 1, 2024, the only threshold is the dollar amount. The older 200-transaction test is not the current rule⁵.
3. Charge the rate for what you sell. State sales tax is 7%². Food and food ingredients for human consumption are generally exempt. The exemption is for food sold unheated and without eating utensils provided by the seller. Candy, soft drinks, alcoholic beverages, and dietary supplements are outside the definition of food⁷. The food bulletin has examples. Prepared food and drink for immediate consumption can also have a food and beverage tax of 1%. Marion County, and the Orange County Historic Hotel at West Baden, are 2 percent. In some places a county and a city each impose 1 percent, for 2 percent combined. That tax is local. It is not a second general sales tax. Use tax, when sales tax was not collected, is 7%⁴.
4. File sales tax on the schedule the department assigns. Sales tax returns are primarily monthly. A business that collects less than 1,000 dollars a year files once a year. On the deadlines page, an early filer is a business with average monthly sales tax of 1,000 dollars or more for the prior fiscal year ending June 30. An early filer's December return is due January 20. A monthly filer has average monthly sales tax under 1,000 dollars for the prior fiscal year ending June 30. A monthly filer's December return is due January 30. Some months shift: a monthly filer's January return is due March 2, or March 1 in a leap year⁶. Read the month you are filing. A registered business still files a return for a period with no tax. A late return can cost 20%, with a minimum of $5. If average monthly tax exceeds $5,000², payment is by electronic transfer. If you collect and pay all taxes on time, you can keep a collection allowance. The amount depends on your sales tax liability for the 12 months ending June 30 of the previous year⁸.
5. Register for withholding when you pay wages in Indiana. Employers the IRS requires to withhold on wages also withhold Indiana state and county tax. There is no fee to register on INBiz. Under the statute, each month's withholding is due no later than 30 days after the month ends. More than 1,000 dollars of average monthly tax: 20 days after the month ends. The department may let an employer whose average monthly withholding was $1,000 or less in the previous calendar year report and pay once a year instead, by the last day of the month after the year ends. The business FAQ’s table lists annual filing at $83.33 or less a month. Follow the schedule the department assigns you. The yearly reconciliation, Form WH-3, is due January 31⁸. A late WH-3 costs $10 per withholding document (W-2, 1099, K-1), according to the business FAQ. Under the statute, each employee gets a record of the year’s Indiana and county tax withheld, usually on the W-2, by January 30, 30 days after the calendar year ends¹⁰. The business FAQ prints January 31 for the employee’s copy. A copy of the W-2 goes to the Department of Revenue by February 28², according to the FAQ. The handbook and the FAQ give different dates for what reaches the Department of Revenue.* Use the date INTIME shows for the year you file.
6. Open an unemployment account when you are liable. The general test is the first dollar of pay to a covered worker, unless the business is agricultural, a 501(c)(3), or household domestic service. Other tests: 20,000 dollars of cash wages in a calendar quarter, or 10 or more agricultural employees for some part of a day in 20 weeks of a calendar year. A 501(c)(3) is liable after employing four or more people in Indiana in 20 different weeks of the same calendar year. Household domestic service: 1,000 dollars or more of cash wages in any calendar quarter. Register through the Department of Workforce Development’s Uplink Employer Self Service after your first Indiana payroll. DWD says to register in the first quarter in which you qualify, without waiting for the quarterly wage-report deadline. Its new employer registration page specifically says not to apply before wages have been paid. The wage base is $9,500. 2.5% is the rate for most new employers, for the first four calendar years. Governmental entities, construction companies, and successor employers have different new-employer rates. A new construction employer pays the lesser of 4 percent or the average rate all construction employers paid in the 12 months before the computation date, until it has 36 months of history and meets the other conditions for its own rate. A government employer pays 1.6 percent, unless it elects to reimburse¹³. Experienced rates run from 0.5% to 7.4% in good standing, and 9.4%¹² if delinquent. Quarterly reports are due the last day of the month after the quarter ends²¹. Quarterly wage reports are filed electronically unless the department grants a waiver, and unemployment payments must be electronic¹⁴. The handbook lists the quarter-end dates that follow from that rule. Read the account for the quarter you are filing.
7. Report every new hire through the Indiana New Hire Reporting Center, which links to the online reporting portal. Report new and rehired employees within 20 days. A miss can cost $25 per employee, or up to $500¹⁷ if the failure is a conspiracy. The hiring guide covers the federal side.

Rates and income tax

State sales tax is 7%². The local taxes to look up are the food and beverage tax, on food and drink sold for immediate consumption, and the lodging tax: some counties also tax rooms and accommodations rented for less than 30 days (the County Innkeeper's Tax)⁸.

Individual income tax, for owners who report the business on their own return: 2.95% for 2026, and 2.9% in 2027. County income tax rates may change in January and October. Departmental Notice #1 is the withholding chart³. Withhold the county where the employee lives and works. File by April 15². If that falls on a weekend or holiday, check that year’s IT-40 instructions for the due date.*

Employees who live in Kentucky, Michigan, Ohio, Pennsylvania, and Wisconsin do not have Indiana state income tax withheld on their wages. Those wages are still subject to county income tax⁸.

A C corporation pays adjusted gross income tax of 4.9%. Its return is due the 15th day of the 5th month after the taxable year ends¹⁰. That date is in the income tax statute, and the IT-20 booklet prints the same. The Department of Revenue’s tax-types page says April 15 for a calendar-year taxpayer, a month earlier. The statute sets the deadline. The tax-types page also says estimated payments are due when a quarter’s estimate exceeds $2,500, on the 20th of April, June, September, and December⁴. A federal extension is recognized, and the Indiana return is timely if postmarked within one month after the federal extended date. The late-payment penalty for the extension period is waived if at least 90 percent of the tax is paid by the original due date and the rest, plus interest, is paid by the extended due date. Interest still runs from the original due date⁹.

An LLC taxed as a partnership files Form IT-65, due the 15th day of the 4th month after the taxable year ends. An S corporation files Form IT-20S, due the 15th day of the 4th month after the taxable year ends⁹, according to the IT-20 booklet. Nonresident owners on a composite return: the payment is due April 15, or the 15th of the fourth month for a fiscal year. Leaving a required nonresident off the schedule can cost $500⁸.

A pass-through entity can elect to pay Indiana income tax itself. Eligible entities are partnerships, S corporations, and LLCs taxed as an S corporation or a partnership. The election is not available to a C corporation, a trust, a sole proprietorship, an LLC taxed as a C corporation, or a single-member LLC that is disregarded for federal tax. From 2023 on, the election can be made during the tax year or on the timely filed return, including extensions. It cannot be made by amending a return after the original is filed. The rate is the same as the individual income tax rate for the tax year, using the rate in effect on the last day of the entity's tax year. The rates page prints 2.95%³ for 2026 individual tax. This page does not pick the election. If you elect, estimated payments are due April 20, June 20, September 20, and December 20 for a 2026 calendar-year filer. The entity tax does not replace county tax that may be due on the composite schedule¹¹.

What you get back

An EIN from the IRS, an Indiana retail certificate if you registered, a withholding account if you have employees, and an unemployment account once you are liable. Write down the sales tax rhythm the department assigns you. The county rate is a separate lookup from the state rate.