Employees

Before you hire your first employee, there are a few things you need to do. Two very important steps involve visits to the state of  Illinois websites to obtain an IBT number for Payroll and to register for Unemployment Insurance. It would probably be a good idea to find a good payroll service, this can save you time dealing with monthly / quarterly filings and allow you to focuis on your business.

IBT (a.k.a. EIN)
An IBT is required by any business in the State of Illinois that either has employees or sells taxable merchandise. You can obtain your IBT number online by visiting https://www.revenue.state.il.us/app/ibri/.  You will be required to provide information about your business, so have your federal Tax Id handy as well as any business documentation you completed when you started your business.

Unemployment Insurance
Unemployment insurance is required by all employers in the state of Illinois. It helps to protect employees in the event that their employment is suddenly terminated through no fault of their own. You can register with the IDES online at https://taxnet.ides.state.il.us/Login/login.aspx..

Payroll Service
A good payroll service can reduce some of the stress most new business owners will be under. There are low cost payroll services available that handle most or all of the frustrating tasks associated with determining payroll taxes and deductions as will as federal and state filing requirements. Some require you to manually write the actual checks while others will allow for limited direct deposits. As long as your number of employees is 20 or less, low cost payroll services could be a good option for you.

Two low cost payroll services that I am familiar with are Pay Cycle and Bank of America Easy Online Payroll™. I do not endorse either service, but I do know people that have used both services. Pay Cycle does require that you manually print your own payroll checks but employees can view check stub info online. Bank of America requires you to open a free business checking account to use their payroll service. Bank of America also allows free direct deposit to any employee that has a Bank of America account and employees can view their check stub info online also. Feel free to visit either of both of these sites as well as any other sites before deciding on a payroll service.

Before a payroll service account can be created, you will need to obtain an IBT number and register for Unemployment Insurance with IDES. Be sure to give yourself at lease 2 weeks for a new payroll service to become active.