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Version: 2.0.0

Overview

California employers who withhold state Personal Income Tax (PIT) must report payroll taxes and wages to the California Employment Development Department (EDD). California combines withholding, Unemployment Insurance (UI), Employment Training Tax (ETT), and State Disability Insurance (SDI) reporting through its quarterly payroll tax filings.

The TaxBandits Public API supports automating Form DE 9 and Form DE 9C for California quarterly payroll tax and wage reporting.

Forms supported​

FormTypeFiling frequencyDue date
Form DE 9Payroll Tax / UIQuarterly1st day of the month following the quarter
Form DE 9CWage ReportQuarterly1st day of the month following the quarter

California requires employers to file DE 9 and DE 9C every quarter, including quarters in which no wages were paid. For 2026, the regular due dates are April 1, July 1, October 1, and January 1 of the following year.

Form DE 9 — Quarterly Contribution Return​

Form DE 9 (Quarterly Contribution Return and Report of Wages) is used to reconcile the employer's California payroll tax liability for the quarter. It covers amounts related to UI, ETT, SDI, and PIT withholding.

The 2026 filing deadlines are:

  • Q1 (January–March): April 1, 2026
  • Q2 (April–June): July 1, 2026
  • Q3 (July–September): October 1, 2026
  • Q4 (October–December): January 1, 2027

The EDD considers the return delinquent if it is not filed by April 30, July 31, November 2, or February 1, respectively.

Form DE 9C — Quarterly Wage Report​

Form DE 9C (Quarterly Contribution Return and Report of Wages – Continuation) is used to report employee-level wage information. It reports wages subject to UI, ETT, SDI, and PIT, along with PIT withheld.

Employers must file DE 9C every quarter, even if no wages were paid during the quarter.

2026 California payroll tax highlights​

For 2026, California's UI taxable wage limit is $7,000 per employee, and the ETT taxable wage limit is also $7,000. The UI rate for new employers is generally 3.4% for up to three years, while the ETT rate is 0.1%.

California SDI has no taxable wage limit effective January 1, 2024, and the 2026 SDI withholding rate is 1.3%.

Key compliance notes​

  • Quarterly filing required. Employers must file both DE 9 and DE 9C every quarter.
  • Zero filing required. DE 9 and DE 9C must be filed even when the employer did not pay wages during the quarter.
  • Employee-level wage reporting. DE 9C contains employee-level wage and withholding information.
  • Multiple payroll taxes. California's quarterly reporting covers UI, ETT, SDI, and PIT-related wage information.
  • Electronic filing required. California requires employers to electronically file and pay applicable payroll taxes.

API endpoints​

For California payroll reporting, the state-specific methods — Create, Update, and Get — differ by form because each form has its own field structure. The utility methods — List, Delete, Transmit, RequestPdfUrls, and Status — are shared across State Withholding and UI reporting.

Form DE 9 / DE 9C (California Quarterly Contribution Return and Wage Report)

  • Create — Create a new California DE 9 / DE 9C quarterly payroll tax and wage report.
  • Update — Update a DE 9 / DE 9C report that was created but not yet transmitted.
  • Get — Retrieve the details of a created DE 9 / DE 9C report.

Common endpoints: For the remaining methods — List, Status, Transmit, RequestPdfUrls, and Delete — refer to the common endpoints shared across State Withholding and UI reporting.

State New Hire Reporting​

TaxBandits also supports California New Hire Reporting through the common State New Hire Reporting API. California employers must report newly hired and rehired employees to the California New Employee Registry within 20 calendar days of the employee's start-of-work date.

All TaxBandits API endpoints require an OAuth 2.0 access token. Call the Auth method and pass the token as a Bearer token in the request header.

Testing & notifications​

Before filing, you can simulate the entire verification flow in the TaxBandits Sandbox environment without submitting real data to state agencies.

As an alternative to polling the Status endpoint, you can configure a webhook for the Status Payroll Filings Status Change event type to receive automated status updates.