How to Request and Submit the New York CE-200 Exemption Certificate

The New York CE-200 exemption certificate is a free online attestation you file when your business has no employees and a government office is demanding proof of workers’ compensation, disability, and Paid Family Leave coverage before it will issue your permit, license, or contract. You request it through New York Business Express at businessexpress.ny.gov, print the issued certificate, sign it, and hand-deliver the original to the agency that asked for it. The whole online portion takes about 15 minutes once your information is gathered.

Formally titled the Certificate of Attestation of Exemption, the CE-200 exists because two statutes bar state and municipal offices from issuing permits or entering contracts unless the applicant proves coverage is in place.¹² If you have no employees, you have no coverage obligation, and the CE-200 is how you say so on the record.

Who Actually Qualifies

Two groups can use this form. The first is a New York business with no employees — sole proprietors working alone, partnerships where only the partners do the work, LLCs with no hired staff, and similar setups. The second is an out-of-state business obtaining a New York permit, license, or contract where every bit of the work happens outside New York and no employees of that business work in the state.³ Even a small amount of the contract work performed inside New York knocks the out-of-state applicant out of this second category.⁴

“No employees” is read broadly by the Board. Leased workers, temps, day laborers, and even unpaid people who function like employees can disqualify you. Under the Construction Industry Fair Play Act, anyone performing services for a contractor is presumed to be that contractor’s employee unless the contractor can prove all three prongs of the independent contractor test: freedom from the contractor’s direction and control, services performed outside the contractor’s usual course of business, and an independently established trade or occupation.⁵ Hire a subcontractor who doesn’t clear all three, and the state treats that person as your employee. Your exemption is then invalid, whether or not you realized it at the time you filed.

What to Have Ready Before You Log In

The portal can time out, and one wrong detail sends the certificate back with a mismatch when the agency tries to verify it. Have this in front of you:

Your nine-digit FEIN. If you’re a sole proprietor without one, your Social Security Number is accepted instead.⁶
The legal entity name as filed with the Department of State or County Clerk. Sole proprietors see their personal name auto-populated and can edit it to a DBA if that’s how they operate.⁶
A physical business address (not just a PO Box) and a working email for the certificate notification.
The exact name and address of the government office requesting proof, plus the specific permit or project name. The certificate is tied to that agency and project, so a wrong agency name means a rejected certificate.

Filing Through New York Business Express

The application lives on New York Business Express, not on the Workers’ Compensation Board’s own site. You’ll need a free NY.gov account.⁷

Go to businessexpress.ny.gov and select Log in/Register in the top right. New users register with NY.gov, then activate the account through the email the system sends. Once inside, select Go to MyNy, then Services, then Business, then New York Business Express. On the Business Express home page, either scroll to Top Requests and pick Certificate of Attestation of Exemption, or search the A–Z index for CE-200.

The application then asks whether you’re applying as a business or as a homeowner. The homeowner path is for people pulling permits to work on their own residence. From there, fill in the business details, the FEIN or SSN, and the issuing agency information exactly as they should appear on the certificate. Review the summary screen, attest, and submit. The system emails a notification when the certificate is issued, and you can also open it from your Dashboard the next time you log in.

Print, Sign, and Deliver the Original

Submitting online doesn’t finish the job. Print the CE-200, sign it by hand, and get the signed original to the agency that requested it. Emailed scans and photocopies are generally not accepted; the agency wants the signed paper. Each certificate carries a unique number the agency uses to look you up in the Board’s system.³ Failing to hand over the signed original is one of the most common reasons permit applications sit in limbo.

Reviewers do verify. The Board runs a separate verification portal where agency staff enter the certificate number to confirm the document is real and current.⁸ A wrong FEIN, mismatched business name, or misspelled agency name surfaces there. Double-check the summary screen before you submit.

One Certificate Per Permit

Each CE-200 covers a single permit, license, or contract. It doesn’t cover your business generally. Two permits mean two applications and two certificates, each with its own number. There is no annual or blanket version. Since there’s no fee, the cost of re-filing for each project is just the few minutes it takes to enter the information again.

When the CE-200 Isn’t the Right Form

If your business has employees, the CE-200 is not for you. What you need instead depends on where your coverage comes from: a C-105.2 from a private workers’ comp carrier, a U-26.3 from the State Insurance Fund, an SI-12 if you’re approved to self-insure, or a GSI-105.2 from a group self-insurance administrator. A standard ACORD certificate — the sort of general liability proof an insurance agent might hand you — is not acceptable proof of workers’ compensation coverage for New York permits and contracts.

Two other limits matter. The CE-200 can only be presented to a government entity; you can’t use it to tell another business or its insurer that you don’t need coverage. And if you’re a homeowner pulling a building permit on your own one- to four-family owner-occupied residence, Form BP-1 (Affidavit of Exemption) is a simpler alternative when you’re acting as your own general contractor and either doing the work yourself, not paying anyone, or hiring people for fewer than 40 aggregate hours per week while maintaining an active homeowners policy. Once hired labor hits 40 or more aggregate hours per week, BP-1 no longer applies, and either the homeowner needs workers’ comp coverage or the contractor doing the work needs to supply their own proof.

Penalties for Filing When You Shouldn’t

Filing a CE-200 when the business actually has employees, or hiring workers after obtaining the exemption without securing coverage, is not a minor paperwork problem. Under Workers’ Compensation Law Section 52, failing to secure required coverage for five or fewer employees within a twelve-month period is a misdemeanor with fines of $1,000 to $5,000. More than five employees turns it into a Class E felony with fines from $5,000 to $50,000. A repeat conviction within five years escalates to a Class D felony with fines from $10,000 to $50,000.⁹

Civil penalties run alongside the criminal exposure. The Board’s chair can impose up to $2,000 for each ten-day period of non-compliance, or up to twice the cost of compensation for your payroll during the uncovered period, whichever is higher. If you don’t hand over payroll records when asked, the Board imputes each worker’s weekly payroll at 1.5 times the New York State average weekly wage, which drives the calculation up quickly.⁹ If there’s any real question whether someone working for you could be classified as an employee, get that answered before you attest to having none.

1
New York State Senate. New York Workers’ Compensation Law 57 – Restriction on Issue of Permits and the Entering Into Contracts Unless Compensation Is Secured
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New York State Senate. New York Workers’ Compensation Law 220 – Penalties
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New York State Workers’ Compensation Board. Certificate of Attestation of Exemption (CE-200) Request
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New York State Workers’ Compensation Board. Workers’ Compensation Requirements for Government Issued Permits, Licenses and Contracts
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New York State Workers’ Compensation Board. Identifying an Independent Contractor
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New York State Workers’ Compensation Board. Help for Requesting an Attestation of Exemption
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New York State Workers’ Compensation Board. How to Obtain a Certificate of Attestation of Exemption
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New York State Workers’ Compensation Board. Certificate of Attestation of Exemption (CE-200)
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New York State Senate. New York Workers’ Compensation Law 52 – Effect of Failure to Secure Compensation