Get your tax IDs in New Hampshire

An EIN, if you need one, takes minutes online. New Hampshire does not add a general sales tax account. It does tax business profits and the enterprise base once you are over the filing lines, and it taxes meals, rooms, and vehicle rentals if you sell those.

What’s different in New Hampshire

• There is no general sales tax on goods purchased in New Hampshire⁶. There is also no income tax on an individual's reported W-2 wages⁷.
• The interest and dividends tax was repealed for taxable periods beginning after December 31, 2024⁷. A new business starting now does not file that return.
• Two business taxes, and the filing lines are not the same on every official page. The statute prints one set of numbers. The Department prints the adjusted numbers for periods beginning on or after January 1, 2025. A 2027 paragraph of the enterprise-tax statute prints another number. All three are below.
• A single-member LLC files its own New Hampshire business tax return⁹. Federal disregard of the LLC does not do that work for New Hampshire.
• A new employer’s unemployment rate is not a single percentage. It starts at 2.7% on the first $14,000, minus any fund balance reduction in place for that quarter¹².

Do this

1. Get an EIN from the IRS if you need one. It is free and, if approved, issued immediately²³ online. Don’t pay a website to apply for you. Apply for a Department Identification Number only if the single-member LLC meets the filing thresholds and has no FEIN. The Department says that number takes about 2 weeks⁹.
2. Do not open a sales tax account. There is no general sales tax on goods purchased in New Hampshire⁶. If you sell meals, rent rooms, or rent motor vehicles, use the meals and rooms section below.
3. File business profits tax and business enterprise tax when the year’s threshold says you must. File and pay in Granite Tax Connect⁸. The rates, the three threshold figures, and the due months are below. This page does not calculate the tax.
4. If you have people doing work in New Hampshire, read the unemployment tests before you assume you are exempt. File the employer status report within 30¹⁴ days of first providing employment. The tests are in the unemployment section.
5. Report new hires within 20²² days. If you have an active NHES account, use NHES WebTax. Otherwise use the NHES New Hire Reporting Form, which gives mail and fax instructions. Report a contract for services, other than casual labor, with an individual when the pay is expected to exceed $2,500, or does exceed it in a calendar year²⁰. See NHES business compliance for details. The hiring guide covers the federal side.

Business profits tax and business enterprise tax

Business profits tax is 7.5%² for taxable periods ending on or after December 31, 2023.

The filing line depends on which page you read:

• The statute says a return is required when gross business income is in excess of $92,000. The commissioner adjusts the profits-tax filing threshold every two years for tax years beginning January 1, 2023³.
• The Department’s business-taxes page says that for taxable periods beginning on or after January 1, 2025, gross business income of more than $109,000¹ means you must file.

Use the figure for the year you are filing. The statute’s printed $92,000³ is the number the commissioner adjusts. It is not a second tax.

Business enterprise tax is 0.55%⁴ for taxable periods ending on or after December 31, 2022. The base is compensation paid or accrued, interest paid or accrued, and dividends paid by the business¹. Wages can be in that base even though New Hampshire does not tax a W-2 as personal income.

The enterprise filing line also depends on the page:

• Until January 1, 2027, the statute prints gross receipts in excess of $250,000⁵, or an enterprise value tax base over that same amount, and tells the commissioner to adjust it.
• The Department’s page says that for taxable periods beginning on or after January 1, 2025, the line is more than $298,000 of gross receipts, or an enterprise value tax base of more than $298,000¹.
• The $400,000 enterprise-tax paragraph takes effect January 1, 2027. That paragraph prints gross receipts in excess of $400,000⁵, or an enterprise value tax base over that amount, so that is the line for a taxable period that begins in 2027. The Department’s business-taxes page still shows only the 2025 figure.

BET paid may be used as a credit against the BPT. Unused credit carries forward ten taxable periods, for BET paid for periods ending on or after December 31, 2014¹.

Who files when, for both taxes:

• A partnership return is due the 15th day of the third month after the taxable period ends³.
• An exempt-organization return is due the 15th day of the fifth month after the taxable period ends³.
• Everyone else, including a corporation and a proprietorship, is due the 15th day of the fourth month after the taxable period ends³.

Estimated payments: a business profits declaration is not required when the estimated tax is less than $200³. A business enterprise declaration is not required when the estimated tax is less than $260⁵. The statutes also say a declaration is filed later in the year if a quarter pushes the estimate over that line. Read the section for the year you are filing before you skip a quarter.

A single-member LLC files its own New Hampshire business tax return⁹. Two proprietorship activities, such as a Schedule C business and a Schedule E rental held in the LLC, can be two New Hampshire returns when each meets the filing line. The Department’s answer says that. It does not pick a federal tax election for you.

Meals, rooms, and vehicle rentals

Room rent is 8.5%. A motor vehicle rental is 8.5%. A taxable meal is eight and a half percent of the charge for a taxable meal over $1.00, rounded up to the next cent¹⁰. A smaller charge uses the cent table in the same section.

The operator collects the tax and files a return by the 15th of the month after the tax is collected, or the next business day when the 15th is a Saturday, Sunday, or legal holiday. File the meals and rooms return even when no tax is due. A longer schedule exists only if the Department has granted one. A paper filer forfeits the operator's compensation allowance. That forfeiture is waived when prior-year meals and rooms taxable revenue was under $25,000¹¹.

Unemployment and new hires

In general, you are an employer under the unemployment law once someone has worked for you, for some part of a day, in 20 different weeks of the current or preceding year, or you have paid $1,500 of wages in a calendar quarter. The statute also counts other employers, including one subject to federal unemployment tax and one that buys the business of a covered employer¹⁶. File the employer status report within 30¹⁴ days of first providing employment. The Department then decides whether you are liable.

A new employer starts at 2.7% on the first $14,000 of each employee’s annual wages, minus any fund balance reduction in place for that quarter¹². The rate chart shows the reduction for each quarter. Since the fourth quarter of 2019, the statute has cut each contributing employer's rate by 2/5 of one percent and has those employers pay an administrative contribution equal to that cut¹⁷. The chart’s example is a 1.7% net rate allocated as 0.4% administrative contribution and 1.3% unemployment tax¹³. New Hampshire Employment Security’s employer handbook still prints an administrative contribution of no more than 0.2 percent¹⁵. The statute’s figure is the one that applies.

The quarterly tax and wage report, and the tax, are due the last day of the month after the quarter²¹. WebTax filers have two days after the due date to file the report. An extension of the time to file the report costs $50 when you apply on time. The extension covers the report, not the payment¹⁵. A late report is 10% of the tax due, with a minimum of $25¹⁸. Unpaid tax draws interest of 1% a month, or part of a month, until it is paid¹⁹.

New hires are due within 20 days. Report a contract for services, other than casual labor, with an individual when the pay is expected to exceed $2,500, or does exceed it in a calendar year²⁰. A layoff of 25 or more people is a separate report. The same page says the state WARN Act reaches employers with 100²² or more employees. Read that section for the notice it requires. This page does not restate the notice period.

What you get back

An EIN from the IRS if you applied. A Granite Tax Connect login when you have a business tax to file. A meals and rooms account if you sell meals, rooms, or vehicle rentals. An unemployment account if the Department finds you liable. Write down the threshold year you used. The printed statute and the Department’s page are not the same number.