Get your tax IDs in Ohio

An EIN, if you need one, takes minutes online. Ohio adds a vendor’s license from the county if you sell taxable goods, a tax on gross receipts for larger businesses, city income tax, and employer accounts once you hire. The Ohio Department of Taxation (ODT) handles registration for taxes. Unemployment insurance and workers’ compensation are separate agencies.

What’s different in Ohio

• The state taxes gross receipts, not profit. The corporation franchise tax is no longer in effect. The Commercial Activity Tax (CAT) applies at 0.26% to Ohio receipts above $6,000,000 a year, whatever your entity. Below that you owe nothing, but an open CAT account still files every quarter.
• The vendor’s license comes from the county. It is $50 for each fixed place of business, from the county auditor of each county where you have a fixed place of business.
• Cities and villages tax income too. The municipal net profit tax reaches a business’s profit, and an employer withholds city tax from pay.
• Workers’ compensation comes from the state. It is required from your first employee, through the state insurance fund.

Do this

1. Get an EIN from the IRS if you need one. The IRS requires one if you have employees and for partnerships, corporations, nonprofits and most LLCs. It is free and, if approved, issued immediately online. Form your LLC or corporation first. Don’t pay a website to apply for you. Ohio’s withholding registration needs the EIN, too.
2. Register with the Department of Taxation. Register for taxes with OH|TAX eServices, the Ohio Business Gateway or a paper application. Processing can take up to six weeks for a paper application.
3. Get a vendor’s license before you make retail sales. Ohio’s name for it is a vendor's license. You can get it immediately through OH|TAX eServices, once you have an eServices account, through the Department of Taxation’s registration page, or apply with their county auditor; the statute puts the license with the county auditor of each county where you have a fixed place of business either way. It is $50 for each location; the fee last changed April 9, 2025, and older materials showing a different figure are out of date. A seller with no fixed place in a county can apply for a transient vendor's license from the tax commissioner.
4. Collect and file sales tax. The state rate is 5.75% and counties and transit authorities add up to 3%, capped at 8.75% combined. It applies to some selected services as well as goods. A monthly return is due the 23rd of each month, for the month before. The Department’s sales and use tax page says a vendor with less than $1,200 of tax per six-month period may be authorized to file semiannually, due the 23rd day of the month after each six-month period. Its quarterly schedule is for direct pay permit holders and consumer use tax accounts, not vendors. The Department’s page says over $75,000 of annual liability means paying electronically. The statute says a year that equals or exceeds $75,000 means accelerated electronic payments from the second year after the calendar year in which it is reached. The two differ at exactly that amount, so check with the Department.
5. Register for the Commercial Activity Tax if you pass the exclusion. The CAT page says to register within 30 days of passing $6,000,000 in Ohio receipts. The account is ready in about 3 business days. A late registration can draw a penalty of up to $100 a month, capped at $1,000. It applies to single owners, partnerships, LLCs and corporations.
6. Plan for income tax. A sole proprietor, partner or LLC member reports business income on a personal return. For 2026 the statute taxes nonbusiness income above $26,050 at $332 plus 2.75% of the excess, and the state can adjust those dollar amounts for inflation. It taxes business income at 3% after a deduction whose amount we did not confirm.* Check the Department of Taxation. Certain pass-through entities may elect the IT 4708 composite return or the IT 4738 electing pass-through entity return. The electing return is IT 4738, due April 15 after the end of the fiscal year. See the Department’s pass-through entity page.
7. Handle city net profit tax. The municipal net profit tax is collected by each city or village that levies the tax, or a third-party administrator working for it. A business can opt in to state administration by the Department of Taxation, through the Ohio Business Gateway. The deadline is April 15 of the taxable year, for a calendar-year business. Not eligible to opt in: sole proprietors and disregarded entities. A business in more than one city splits its profit by a three-factor formula of property, payroll and gross receipts.
8. Register as an employer when you hire. Register for state withholding in OH|TAX eServices within 15 days of becoming liable, with a federal EIN in hand. Employees complete Ohio IT 4, Employee's Withholding Exemption Certificate. In a city with an income tax, you also withhold each employee's wages earned in the city times the city's income tax rate.
9. Check unemployment insurance. The Ohio Department of Job and Family Services (ODJFS) covers employers who pay $1,500 in a quarter or employ someone in 20 different calendar weeks. Tax applies to the first $9,000 per employee, and an employer without 4 consecutive chargeable quarters is assigned the standard rate of 2.7%. Construction employers follow a different rule in the statute. We could not read the agency’s registration page.* Check with the Ohio Department of Job and Family Services (ODJFS).
10. Buy workers’ compensation and report each hire. Coverage is required at 1 or more employees, through the state insurance fund of the Ohio Bureau of Workers' Compensation (BWC), or as self-insuring employer status granted by the bureau. Premiums are due each June, before the policy year that starts July 1. An employer whose coverage starts on any day other than July 1 pays premiums for the rest of the first policy year under the bureau's rules; what that first payment is and when it is due were not readable.* Check the Ohio Bureau of Workers' Compensation (BWC). Report each new hire to the Ohio Department of Job and Family Services within 20 days. The reporting site and the application steps for coverage were not readable.* Check with the Ohio Bureau of Workers' Compensation (BWC) for coverage and the Ohio Department of Job and Family Services for new hires. Whether Ohio requires E-Verify of private employers we did not confirm.* Check with a legal professional. The hiring your first employee guide covers the federal side.

Workers’ compensation for owners

Not every owner is covered automatically. Under the statute, partners, sole proprietors, an individual incorporated as a corporation and family farm corporation officers are covered only if they elect coverage. Officers of an ordinary corporation are not on the statute’s exclusion list. The election is written notice to the bureau naming the person to be covered. The statute lists who is excluded: an individual incorporated as a corporation, officers of a family farm corporation, and volunteer officers of a nonprofit.

What you get back

• EIN: a nine-digit federal tax ID, shown on screen when approved. Print the confirmation letter.
• Vendor’s license: issued by the county auditor for each fixed place of business.
• CAT account: ready in about 3 business days after you register, with quarterly returns filed on the Ohio Business Gateway.
• Withholding account: state withholding in OH|TAX eServices, plus city withholding where a city taxes income.
• Unemployment and workers’ compensation: accounts with the Ohio Department of Job and Family Services (ODJFS) and the Ohio Bureau of Workers' Compensation (BWC).

Not selling anything taxable or hiring yet? The EIN may be all you need for now.