Get your tax IDs in Utah

An EIN, if you need one, takes minutes online. Utah then adds income tax, a sales tax license if you sell taxable goods, and employer accounts once you pay wages. The income tax rate for 2026 is flat. The sales tax rate is not.

What’s different in Utah

• Income tax is one rate. For a taxable year beginning in 2026 it is 4.45%¹ for an individual and 4.45% for a C corporation. The corporation minimum is $100².
• Withholding follows the 2026 income tax rate. Wage tables dated June 1, 2026 use 4.45%⁷. A Tax Commission rule has a pass-through entity compute its withholding by multiplying its Utah income by the income tax rate in effect under Utah Code 59-10-104¹², which is 4.45%¹ for 2026.
• Sales tax depends on the place. The state piece in Publication 25 is 4.85%. Grocery food is 3%⁸ combined, statewide. How often you file depends on last year’s sales tax, under the statute.
• Unemployment tax has a high wage base and a wide rate range. For 2026 the base is $50,700. The rate page runs from 0.1% to 7.1%¹³. A new employer does not start at the minimum.

Do this

1. Get an EIN from the IRS if you need one. It is free and, if approved, issued immediately¹⁷ online. An EIN from the IRS is required before you register the Utah withholding account⁷. A sole proprietor with no employees can often use a Social Security number for federal tax. Don’t pay a website to apply for you.
2. Register for a sales tax license in Taxpayer Access Point before you collect tax on taxable sales. Every seller with an established presence in Utah needs a Utah sales tax license. Apply in Taxpayer Access Point with form TC-69. An economic presence is more than 100,000 dollars of Utah sales in the current year or the prior year. Publication 25 does not print a fee for the license.* Check the total on the application. The license is not transferable. File a return every period, even when there is no tax⁸.
3. Use the rate for the place, not a statewide guess. Publication 25 prints 4.85% as the state sales and use rate. Grocery food is 1.75% at the state level, and 3%⁸ combined throughout Utah. Prepared food is not grocery food. The city, county, and transit pieces sit on top of the state rate and change by location. The quarterly charts are on the rates page. Out-of-state sellers use the customer’s ZIP+4, not the chart for a store.
4. Calendar the sales tax return on the schedule the statute sets. Returns are due the last day of the month after the filing period. A weekend or legal holiday moves the due date to the next business day. A seller files monthly when its sales tax liability for the previous calendar year was 50,000 dollars or more, and pays by electronic funds transfer at 96,000 dollars or more. A smaller seller may choose monthly¹¹. Otherwise the return is quarterly, unless the Tax Commission requires another period¹⁰. The sales tax page says 50,000 dollars or less is quarterly, 50,001 to 96,000 dollars is monthly, and 96,001 dollars or more is monthly with required electronic payment⁹. At exactly the two cutoffs, that page puts a seller one band lower than the statute does, and the statute is the rule. Use the frequency on your license notice. Monthly filers may take a seller discount of 1.31 percent of the combined sales tax. Quarterly filers may not⁸.
5. If you are a person who has to file, calendar the individual return. Form TC-40 is for a Utah resident or part-year resident who must file a federal return, a nonresident or part-year resident with Utah-source income who must file a federal return, or anyone who wants a refund of Utah tax that was overpaid. The rate for 2026 is 4.45%¹. The webinar prints 4.5% for 2025 and 4.45% for 2026³. The return is due April 15, 2027, for a calendar year that ends December 31, 2026, or the 15th day of the fourth month after a fiscal year ends. The same due date covers individual Form TC-40, corporate Forms TC-20, TC-20S, and TC-20MC, and partnership Form TC-65⁴. This page does not compute the tax.
6. If the business is taxed as a C corporation, calendar Form TC-20. A C corporation incorporated in Utah, qualified in Utah, or doing business in Utah, whether or not it is qualified, files the franchise tax return. The return is Form TC-20⁵. The rate is 4.45%. The minimum is $100, whether or not the corporation does business. The statute taxes each domestic and foreign corporation, other than one the statute exempts, for the privilege of exercising its franchise or doing business in Utah². The C corporation page sends you to the TC-20 instructions for prepayments. The current instructions require quarterly estimated payments when the corporation's Utah tax is 3,000 dollars or more in the current or the previous tax year. In the first year it files in Utah, a corporation that pays the minimum tax by the original due date does not need them¹⁸. Use the instructions for the year you are filing.
7. If you elected S status, file Form TC-20S. An S corporation is not subject to Utah income tax. Shareholders are liable on their own returns. The corporation still withholds Utah tax for nonresident individual owners and for business, estate, and trust owners. The election is federal, on Form 2553¹⁹. This page does not pick it. A Tax Commission rule has the corporation compute that withholding by multiplying its Utah income by the income tax rate in effect under Utah Code 59-10-104¹². For a taxable year beginning in 2026, that rate is 4.45%¹. The instructions file on the Tax Commission site is still the 2025 edition, for tax year 2025, and it prints 4.5 percent⁶.
8. If the business is a partnership, file Form TC-65 on the same due date. The withholding rule and the 2026 rate in step 7 apply to a partnership too. A single-member LLC that is disregarded for federal tax files with its owner, not as a partnership.
9. Open a withholding account in Taxpayer Access Point when you pay wages. You must withhold Utah tax if you pay wages to an employee for work done in Utah, unless the employee has filed a withholding exemption certificate. Wages paid to a Utah resident for work done outside Utah are on the same list, with a credit for tax the other state withheld. The guide also covers payments reported on Form 1099 when the statute requires withholding on them. Register in Taxpayer Access Point. If you withhold less than 1,000 dollars each month, file and pay quarterly. If you withhold 1,000 dollars or more each month, file quarterly and pay monthly. Withholding returns, W-2s, and 1099s with Utah tax withheld have to be filed electronically. The wage tables in that guide, for pay periods beginning on or after June 1, 2026, multiply taxable wages by 4.45%⁷. Some nonresidents who work in Utah for 20 days or less²⁰ are excluded, only if they meet the guide’s other conditions, including residence in a state without an income tax or with a reciprocal exclusion. The exception does not cover certain workers, including real-property laborers. Read the exclusion before you skip withholding.
10. Register for unemployment tax in the Workforce Services employer portal when the coverage test applies. Coverage starts with employing one or more individuals for some portion of a day during a calendar year. A corporation that pays its officers is on the same list. Agriculture and domestic work use different tests. Agricultural labor is covered at 10 or more employees in 20 weeks, or 20,000 dollars of wages in a quarter. A domestic employee is covered at 1,000 dollars or more of wages in a calendar quarter. The training sheet says there is no family exemption for an LLC, and that if the LLC files a federal 1120S, all members' wages are subject to unemployment tax. The sheet is an outline. If the LLC’s federal classification is not obvious, ask the department which wages it taxes. For 2026 the wage base is $50,700. A new employer pays a rate from the two-year average benefit ratio of employers in that industry. It is assigned when the new-employer registration is complete, and it applies until the employer has one fiscal year of wages. The reserve factor is 1.10 for 2026. The social cost is 0.001 for 2026, added in the rate formula for every employer. Rates on the 2026 page run from 0.1% to 7.1%. That range is not the new-employer rate. There is a surcharge of 1 percent added to the rate if the employer, or the previous owner, has unpaid contributions for the prior fiscal year. New out-of-state contractors pay the maximum rate, unless they buy an existing business. Utah Code 35A-4-303 gives that contractor the maximum overall contribution rate, and it sets the maximum at 7 percent plus the year's social contribution rate¹⁵. With the 2026 social cost, that maximum is 7.1%¹³. The department’s training sheet still prints 7.3 percent. Use the rate notice the department sends. Reports are due April 30, July 31, October 31, and January 31. Quarterly reports have to be filed online¹⁴.
11. Report new hires in the employer portal. The report is due within 20 days of the first day of work, for a newly hired or rehired employee. An employee for federal income-tax withholding is an employee for this report. A missed report is $25, or $500¹⁶ if the failure is an agreement to hide the hire. File at the employer site. The hiring guide covers the federal side.

What you get back

An EIN from the IRS if you applied, a Utah sales tax license if you registered, a withholding account if you have employees, and an unemployment rate notice once the department assigns one. City business licenses are on Licenses and permits.