Arkansas New Hire Reporting: 20-Day Deadline and Penalties

Arkansas new hire reporting requires every employer in the state to submit information on each newly hired or rehired employee to the Arkansas New Hire Registry within 20 days of the employee’s first day of work.¹ The registry is run by the Division of Workforce Services and feeds into the National Directory of New Hires, which child support agencies use to locate parents and enforce support orders.² Miss the deadline and the state can fine you up to $25 per unreported hire, rising to $500 where the employer and employee conspire to avoid the report.

Who You Have to Report

The duty applies to every employer, as that term is defined in Section 3401(d) of the Internal Revenue Code: businesses of any size, government agencies, labor organizations, and hiring halls.³ If you pay someone wages and withhold taxes, you report them.

Only W-2 employees count. Independent contractors paid on a 1099 are not reportable. The statutory definition of “employee” tracks the federal wage-withholding chapter, so if the person fills out a W-4 to start working for you, the reporting duty is triggered.¹ One narrow exception applies to federal or state intelligence and counterintelligence employees when the agency head determines that reporting could endanger them or compromise an operation.

Rehires After a 60-Day Gap

A returning employee has to be reported again if they were off your payroll for at least 60 consecutive days.¹ A seasonal worker who takes the winter off and comes back in spring crosses that line. Someone who takes three weeks of unpaid leave does not.

What Information Goes on the Report

Each report carries two sets of data:

Employee: full name, residential address, Social Security number, and the date the employee first performed services for pay.
Employer: business name, business address, and Federal Employer Identification Number.

Federal law requires both sets, and the Arkansas statute mirrors them.³ The date of hire is the first day the employee actually works for pay, not the offer date or the day they signed onboarding paperwork.

The 20-Day Deadline

The report must reach the registry within 20 days of the hire date.¹ For mailed reports, the postmark date controls.

Employers who file electronically or magnetically can batch their reports into two transmissions each month instead of sending them one at a time. Those two transmissions must be spaced at least 12 days and no more than 16 days apart. It’s a practical option for employers hiring steadily throughout the month.

How to File

Arkansas accepts the employee’s completed IRS Form W-4, or an equivalent form carrying the same data points, as the new hire report.¹ You have three channels:

Online, through the Division of Workforce Services employer portal linked from the Arkansas.gov new hire service page.⁴
By first class mail to the Arkansas New Hire Registry, P.O. Box 2540, Little Rock, AR 72203.
By fax, toll-free, to 1-800-259-3562.

Electronic filing is fastest and gives you an immediate confirmation. If you mail the form, send it early enough that the postmark lands inside the 20-day window.

Multistate Employers

If you have employees in two or more states, you can pick a single state to receive all your new hire reports instead of filing in each one. The option is only available to employers who transmit reports electronically or magnetically, and you must have at least one employee working in the state you choose.¹⁵

You register with the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services in one of two ways:

Log in to the Office of Child Support Enforcement Child Support Portal at ocsp.acf.hhs.gov and complete the Multistate Employer Registration.
Complete the Multistate Employer Registration Form and email it to msedb@acf.hhs.gov.

Either method satisfies the written notification requirement under federal law.⁵ A point that catches employers off guard: multistate registration only sets which state receives your reports. You still submit the reports directly to that state’s new hire agency, not through the OCSE portal. If a merger or acquisition changes your company structure, update or cancel the registration through the same portal or a revised form.

Penalties

Federal law allows Arkansas to assess civil fines of up to $25 for each new hire who is unreported, reported late, or reported with incomplete information.³ The penalty is per employee, so ten missed reports can mean up to $250.

Where the state determines that the employer and employee conspired to avoid filing or to submit false or incomplete information, the maximum fine rises to $500 per employee.³ That tier is reserved for deliberate evasion.

What Happens After You File

Within two business days of a report entering the registry, the Office of Child Support Enforcement runs it against outstanding child support cases.¹ If there’s a match, the agency sends you an income withholding order, which is a separate legal obligation to deduct child support from the employee’s wages and forward it to the state disbursement unit. The new hire report itself is confidential and used only for child support enforcement.²

1
Justia. Arkansas Code 11-10-902 – Reporting Requirements – Enforcement of Child Support Obligations – Confidentiality – Definitions
2
Code of Arkansas Rules. 9 CAR 2-1202 – New Hire Reporting
3
Office of the Law Revision Counsel. 42 USC 653a – State Directory of New Hires
4
Arkansas.gov. Report New Hire or Re-hire
5
Office of Child Support Enforcement. Multistate Employer Registration Form for New Hire Reporting