Every filing deadline a Washington employer has
Hiring your first W-2 employee in Washington roughly triples your filing calendar overnight. Federal payroll returns, four separate state programs on quarterly cycles, and an end-of-January pileup that catches even experienced owners. Here is the whole calendar in one place.
The quarterly cycle — five filings, four times a year
Each calendar quarter closes with the same wave, all generally due the last day of the following month (April 30, July 31, October 31, January 31):
| Filing | Goes to | What it reports |
|---|---|---|
| Form 941 | IRS | Wages, withholding, Social Security/Medicare (unless the IRS assigned you annual Form 944) |
| Quarterly UI report | WA Employment Security (ESD) | Wages and hours for unemployment insurance |
| Workers comp quarterly | WA L&I | Hours worked per risk class — this is how your premium is billed |
| Paid Leave report | WA Paid Family & Medical Leave | Wages and premiums for the state leave program |
| WA Cares report | WA Cares Fund | The long-term-care premium, reported through the same cycle |
On top of the returns, federal payroll tax deposits run on their own schedule — monthly depositors pay by the 15th of the following month; higher-liability employers deposit semiweekly. Your schedule is assigned by the IRS lookback rules (Topic 757).
The January 31 stack
The end of January is the single worst compliance day of the year, because the Q4 wave lands on the same date as every annual filing:
| Due Jan 31 | What it is |
|---|---|
| Form 941 (Q4) or 944 | Last quarter's federal payroll return |
| Form 940 | Annual federal unemployment (FUTA) return |
| W-2s + W-3 | To every employee, and filed with the SSA |
| 1099-NEC | To every subcontractor paid $600 or more |
| ESD, L&I, Paid Leave, WA Cares Q4 | The full state quarterly wave |
| DOR excise (Q4 or December monthly) | Your regular excise return, same day |
That's eight-plus filings across four agencies in one day, five weeks after the holidays. This is the day reminder systems exist for.
The ones without a calendar date
Two employer obligations are event-driven, so no annual calendar catches them: new-hire reporting (due to DSHS within 20 days of each hire) and updating your workers comp classes when an employee's actual work changes. Both belong in your hiring checklist rather than a date-based reminder.
What missing a quarter costs
Each program penalizes separately — late 941s carry percentage penalties that grow monthly, ESD and L&I add their own penalties and interest, and late W-2s and 1099s are penalized per form. A single fully-missed quarter routinely costs more in penalties than a bookkeeper would have charged to handle the whole year. The pattern in every case: the owner knew the filings existed and simply lost the dates.
The whole employer calendar, emailed before each deadline
Contractor Lane's deadline reminders cover all of it — the quarterly wave, the January stack, deposits on the monthly schedule, plus your excise, annual report, and license renewals. Answer a few questions once; only what applies to you fires. $20/month, cancel anytime.
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