Get your tax IDs in Virginia

An EIN, if you need one, takes minutes online. Virginia 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 Virginia

• Sales tax is a map, not one rate. 5.3% in most places, higher in Northern Virginia, Hampton Roads, Central Virginia and a few other localities. Groceries and essential personal hygiene products are 1%.
• Individual income tax is due May 1 for most people, not April 15. Corporate and pass-through returns are due in April.
• A single-member LLC does not file the pass-through return. Virginia Tax says A single-member LLC is not a pass-through entity for this return.
• Unemployment tax applies to the first $8,000 each employee earns in the year. A new employer’s base rate is 2.5%, plus add-ons the page does not itemize.

Do this

1. Get an EIN from the IRS if you need one. It is free and, if approved, issued immediately online. Virginia Tax’s registration checklist asks for a federal employer identification number. The page does not say whether a sole proprietor can use a Social Security number instead.* Get the EIN first, or check the form before you start. Don’t pay a website to apply for you.
2. Register for sales tax with Virginia Tax if you are a dealer. You register online. You receive a Sales Tax Certificate of Registration (Form ST-4). It must be displayed prominently at the registered location. The page does not state a registration fee.* Check the total when you register. A remote seller is a dealer after $100,000 in Virginia gross sales or 200 transactions. If you sell through a marketplace, you generally do not collect sales tax on sales a marketplace facilitator already collects. You may still need to register for sales you make outside the platform.
3. Look up the rate for the place of the sale. Use the table on the sales tax page, or the locality download on that page. The bands are below. A referendum can add another 1 percent: a locality may add 1 percent after a referendum, for school construction or, in some localities, public transportation, and the add-on does not apply to food for home consumption or essential personal hygiene products. Check the lookup before you charge a rate from memory.
4. File sales tax on the schedule Virginia Tax assigns. Filing is monthly or quarterly, assigned from your tax liability. Returns are due on the 20th of the month after the period, even when you had no sales. A late return adds 6% of the tax per month, up to 30%, and at least $10 even when no tax is owed.
5. Register for withholding when you pay wages in Virginia. Withholding applies to an employer who pays wages to one or more employees in Virginia. Start at the withholding page. The schedule is assigned. Quarterly if withholding is under 100 dollars a month. Monthly if withholding is more than 100 dollars and under 1,000 dollars a month, and those monthly returns are due the 25th of the next month. Semi-weekly if withholding is 1,000 dollars or more a month. Every filer also sends the annual summary by January 31.
6. Open an unemployment account when you are liable. The test for a general employer is $1,500 of wages in a quarter, or an employee in 20 weeks of the year. There is an exception on the thresholds: Agricultural, domestic and 501(c)(3) nonprofit employers have different thresholds. Register online through iFile/iReg, or by mail. Reports are quarterly. The employer page does not print the quarterly due date.* Check it in the filing system. The wage base is $8,000. Rates run from 0.1% to 6.2%. A new employer starts at 2.5%, plus add-ons.
7. Report every new hire and rehire, and each new independent contractor. Report them to the Virginia New Hire Reporting Center, run for the Division of Child Support Enforcement within 20 days of the start date. On contractors, independent contractors, often called 1099 workers, are included. The new hire page has the reporting center. The hiring guide covers the federal side.

Rates and income tax

General sales tax, from the Virginia Tax table:

• 7% in James City County, Williamsburg and York County.
• 6.3% in Charlotte, Gloucester, Halifax, Henry, Northampton, Patrick and Pittsylvania counties, and Danville.
• 6% in Central Virginia (Charles City, Chesterfield, Goochland, Hanover, Henrico, New Kent and Powhatan counties, and Richmond City), Hampton Roads (Chesapeake, Franklin City, Hampton, Isle of Wight, Newport News, Norfolk, Poquoson, Portsmouth, Southampton, Suffolk and Virginia Beach), and Northern Virginia (Alexandria, Arlington, Fairfax City, Fairfax County, Falls Church, Loudoun, Manassas, Manassas Park and Prince William).
• 5.3% everywhere else.
• 1% on food for home consumption and essential personal hygiene products, statewide.

Aircraft, watercraft and motor vehicles are taxed at different rates. Virginia Tax points those to the Department of Motor Vehicles.

Individual income tax, for owners who report the business on their own return: 2 percent up to 3,000 dollars, 3 percent to 5,000, 5 percent to 17,000, and 5.75 percent above that. File by May 1 for most people. There is an automatic 6 months to file, to November 1 for most people, with no extension of the payment.

A C corporation pays 6% on Virginia taxable income and files Form 500 by April 15 for a calendar-year filer. The return, estimates and extension payments are filed and paid electronically. Estimated tax is required when the year’s tax is expected to exceed $1,000. There is an automatic 7 months to file, to November 15 for a calendar-year C corporation, with no extension of the payment. Payment does not move.

A pass-through entity, including an S corporation, an LLC with more than one member, and a partnership, files Form 502, or Form 502PTET if the entity elects the entity-level tax, due April 15 for a calendar-year filer. A single-member LLC is not a pass-through entity for this return. The page does not name the return that single-member LLC’s owner files instead.* Check Virginia Tax for that owner’s form. Nonresident owners: the entity withholds five percent of the nonresident owners' share of Virginia-source income. Exemptions can apply, based on the owner or the entity. The 6-month filing extension does not extend the withholding payment.

The entity can elect to pay Virginia income tax itself at 5.75%. Eligible owners then claim a credit. It is filed and paid electronically, with no waiver. Whether the election helps depends on your numbers. Ask a CPA. This page does not pick it for you.

What you get back

An EIN from the IRS, a 15-digit Virginia Tax account number and Form ST-4 if you registered for sales tax, a withholding account if you have employees, and a Virginia Employment Commission account once you are liable. Write down the sales tax filing frequency Virginia Tax assigns. It is not something you choose.