Get your tax IDs in New Jersey

Once your LLC or corporation is on file, the EIN comes next, and it takes minutes online. A sole proprietor or partnership, with nothing to form, starts with the EIN. Then New Jersey adds one registration that surprises people: Form NJ-REG, which every business files to register for taxes, sole proprietors included. Sales tax, withholding and employer accounts follow if they apply to you.

What’s different in New Jersey

• Forming and registering for taxes are two filings. Forming is covered in Register your business. Tax registration is NJ-REG through the Division of Revenue and Enterprise Services (DORES). Your New Jersey Tax ID is your EIN plus a 3-digit suffix.
• The Business Registration Certificate is the proof, not the permission. You get a New Jersey Tax ID number and a Business Registration Certificate (BRC). The certificate is required for public contracts and casino-industry work, though not for a contract, or a fiscal year of contracts, worth less than 15 percent of the contracting agency’s bid threshold. It is also used by an unincorporated construction contractor performing work in New Jersey and for applying for State grants and tax credits. None of that makes the registration itself optional.
• Payroll has more lines than most states. Employers pay unemployment, disability and workforce contributions, and employees have unemployment, disability and family leave contributions taken from their own pay.
• Workers’ compensation starts with your first worker, and a corporation’s officers count.

Do this

1. Get an EIN from the IRS. It is free and, if approved, issued immediately online. For an LLC or corporation the IRS says to form your entity through the secretary of state before you apply for an EIN, and that applying earlier can delay it. The Division’s Getting Registered page lists the EIN before the certificate, so you may see both orders; follow the IRS, and get the EIN once the entity is on file and before Form NJ-REG. Don’t pay a website to apply for you.
2. Register for taxes with Form NJ-REG. Start at Business.NJ.gov or the Division’s Getting Registered page. The state asks for it at least 15 business days before starting business. The official pages we read list no fee for the form, so check the official source before you pay anyone to file it.* Questions go to the Division’s Customer Contact Center at 609-292-9292.
3. Print your Business Registration Certificate. Business.NJ.gov says an online filer is issued a printable BRC right away, with a paper copy mailed in a few weeks. The Division of Taxation’s vendor page says the certificate can be printed 1-2 business days after the application. The two pages disagree, so check the official source if a contract deadline depends on it. The Division’s certificate page explains who needs it.
4. Collect sales tax if you sell taxable goods or services. Registration returns a Certificate of Authority to Collect Sales Tax from the New Jersey Division of Taxation. The state rate is 6.625%. A certified seller in an Urban Enterprise Zone charges 3.3125%; see the Division of Taxation’s UEZ page. A seller outside New Jersey registers once gross revenue from sales delivered into the state passes $100,000 in the current or prior calendar year. The sales tax page covers what is taxable.
5. File sales tax returns on schedule. The default is quarterly, with monthly payments for larger collectors, due the 20th day of the month after the end of the filing period. The monthly line starts for a business that collected more than $30,000 in tax during the prior calendar year. File every period, even with no sales.
6. Plan for income tax. A sole proprietor, partner or LLC member reports business income on a personal return. We could not confirm New Jersey’s personal income tax rates here, so check the official source.* A corporation pays the Corporation Business Tax: rates run from 6.5% to 9% by income, with a minimum tax of $500 to $2,000 by New Jersey gross receipts, even with no profit. A corporation in an affiliated or controlled group with total payroll of $5,000,000 or more pays the $2,000 minimum whatever its receipts. An S corporation’s minimum starts at $375. For privilege periods beginning January 1, 2024 through December 31, 2028, a corporation with taxable net income over $10 million also pays the 2.5% Corporate Transit Fee. The fee does not apply to public utilities and New Jersey S corporations. These figures are from the 2025 CBT-100 instructions, the current set when we checked, so check the current ones before you file.*
7. Register for withholding before your first payroll. Registration is online, with a federal EIN; the NJ-WT instructions explain it. Give each employee Form NJ-W4 (Employee's Withholding Certificate). Report each hire: the legacy Division form we found says within 15 days of the first day if you report electronically and 20 days otherwise, and we could not confirm the current rule, so check the official source.*
8. Register with the Department of Labor and Workforce Development. The New Jersey Department of Labor and Workforce Development (Division of Employer Accounts) runs unemployment, disability and family leave contributions. The employer handbook says an employer paying wages of $1,000 or more in a calendar year may be subject to the law, and to notify the Division of Employer Accounts. The employer handbook explains the test. We could not confirm the statute’s exact test, so check the official source.* A new employer pays 2.6825% for unemployment, 0.5% for disability and 0.1175% for workforce funds for July 1, 2026 to June 30, 2027, and is on new employer rates for 3 calendar years.
9. Insure your workers. Workers’ compensation is required once any individual performs services, a corporation’s officers included, and going without it is a disorderly persons offense. The Division of Workers' Compensation explains who is covered. The hiring your first employee guide covers the federal side of a first hire.

What employees pay from their own wages

Employees have contributions taken from their pay in 2026: unemployment (0.3825%), disability (0.19%), workforce (0.0425%) and family leave (0.23%). The unemployment and workforce base is $44,800 of wages in 2026, and the rate page posts $46,400 for 2027. The disability and family leave base is $171,100 for 2026. For 2027 the rate page posts employee disability and family leave rates of 0.24% each and a disability and family leave base of $177,100. The Department of Labor’s rate page has the current table.

By structure

• Sole proprietorship. An EIN is required if you have employees, and the Division recommends one otherwise. The Division’s route is Form NJ-REG, with no formation filing first.
• LLC. Form first, then register. Stay compliant has the partnership filing fee that applies to some LLCs.
• Corporation. It files a certificate of incorporation or formation, before NJ-REG. Then it owes the Corporation Business Tax above, minimum included.
• Partnership. A general partnership gets an EIN and files Form NJ-REG. A partnership, or an LLC taxed as one, with more than two owners and income or loss from New Jersey sources may pay a filing fee for each owner.

What you get back

• EIN: a federal tax ID, shown on screen when approved. Print the confirmation letter.
• NJ-REG: a New Jersey Tax ID number and a Business Registration Certificate (BRC). Keep the certificate with your records.
• Sales tax: a Certificate of Authority to Collect Sales Tax, if you sell taxable goods or services.
• Employer accounts: a withholding registration online with your EIN, and an employer account with the Department of Labor and Workforce Development.

Not selling anything taxable or hiring yet? The EIN and Form NJ-REG are still yours to do. The rest waits for the sale or the hire.