Washington Form 5208: Filing 5208A and 5208B, Deadlines, and Penalties

Washington Form 5208 is the quarterly tax and wage report every covered employer files with the Employment Security Department (ESD). It has two parts that go in together: Form 5208A summarizes your payroll and unemployment insurance tax for the quarter, and Form 5208B lists each employee’s Social Security Number, hours, and gross wages. Both are due by the last day of the month after the quarter ends, and filing accurately keeps your employer account current, builds each worker’s wage history, and feeds the experience rating that sets your future tax rate.

Who Has to File

If you pay anyone to perform services for you in Washington, you’re almost certainly an employer under RCW 50.04.080 and owe a quarterly 5208.¹ Nonprofits, agricultural employers, and domestic employers are covered once they cross their respective payroll thresholds.

The report is still due in quarters with no payroll, as long as your ESD account is open. Mark Box 8 on the 5208A with an “X” to report a zero-payroll quarter without closing the account.

Officers of for-profit corporations are automatically exempt from unemployment insurance unless you file a Voluntary Election Form asking ESD to cover them.² Exempt officers get counted and their wages reported in Boxes 9 and 10, but you exclude those wages from the taxable-wage math.

What to Gather Before You Start

Pull these together before you open the form:

Your nine-digit Unified Business Identifier (UBI) from your Washington business registration.³
Your ESD employer number (a separate account number that begins with three zeroes).
Your Federal Employer Identification Number (EIN).
Payroll records for the quarter: each covered employee’s full legal name, SSN, monthly hours, and gross wages before deductions. Gross wages include commissions, bonuses, tips, and the cash value of non-monetary compensation.
Your assigned combined UI tax rate and Employment Administration Fund (EAF) rate. ESD prints both on the 5208A it mails you. New employers pay 115 percent of the average rate for their industry, with a 1 percent floor.⁴

Filling Out Form 5208A

Enter your UBI, EIN, ESD number, business name, and the reporting quarter and year at the top. Boxes 11 through 13 capture supplemental information: total value of stock options exercised (Box 11, corporations only), the count of covered employees who worked or were paid during each month of the quarter (Box 12), and whether any of these employees’ wages were reported to another state (Box 13).

The tax calculation runs through Boxes 14 to 19:

Box 14, total gross wages: the sum of every wage entry on your 5208B sheets, excluding exempt officer wages.
Box 15, excess wages: for each employee, the portion of this quarter’s pay that pushes their year-to-date earnings above the annual taxable wage base. For 2026 the base is $78,200, up from $72,800 in 2025. Add each employee’s excess and enter the total.⁵
Box 16, taxable wages: Box 14 minus Box 15.
Box 17, UI tax: Box 16 multiplied by your combined experience tax rate.
Box 18, EAF tax: Box 16 multiplied by your EAF rate.
Box 19, total tax owed: Box 17 plus Box 18.

The excess-wages calculation trips up many employers in later quarters. Say an employee earned $60,000 across Q1 through Q3 and $25,000 in Q4. Year-to-date pay is $85,000, but only $78,200 is taxable for the year, so $6,800 of the Q4 pay is excess and goes in Box 15 for Q4. Early in the year, most employees haven’t crossed the threshold yet, so Box 15 is often zero or small.

Filling Out Form 5208B

The 5208B lists every covered employee individually. For each person, enter the SSN, name, total hours worked during the quarter, and gross wages. The wages on your 5208B sheets should add up to Box 14 on the 5208A.

Verify every SSN against the employee’s W-4 or Social Security card before you file. ESD charges $10 for each missing or incorrect Social Security Number on a quarterly report.⁶

When It’s Due

The report and tax payment are due by the last day of the month after the quarter closes:

Q1 (January through March): April 30
Q2 (April through June): July 31
Q3 (July through September): October 31
Q4 (October through December): January 31

If a deadline falls on a Saturday, Sunday, or legal holiday, it shifts to the next business day. Mailed reports are treated as filed on the postmark date.

How to File and Pay

ESD prefers electronic filing through Employer Account Management Services (EAMS) at secureaccess.wa.gov. EAMS lets you key data directly or upload a payroll file, and it issues an immediate confirmation receipt, which is useful proof of timely filing. You have to request access to the locked employer services inside EAMS before your first electronic submission.⁷

If you file on paper, mail the completed 5208A and 5208B to:

ESD – Paper Wage Reports
P.O. Box 84137
Seattle, WA 98124-5437⁷

Pay electronically through EAMS or mail a check with the payment voucher. Certified mail gives you a postmark receipt as backup proof of the filing date.

Penalties for Late or Wrong Filings

ESD charges separate penalties for late reports, late payments, and data errors, and they stack:

Late report filing: a flat $25 per quarterly report.⁶
Late tax payment, first month: 5 percent of the tax due or $10, whichever is greater.
Late tax payment, second month: an additional 5 percent or $10, whichever is greater.
Late tax payment, third month and beyond: an additional 10 percent or $10, whichever is greater.
Interest: 1 percent per month (or partial month) on unpaid tax, running from the original due date.
Missing or incorrect SSN: $10 per employee.

ESD rarely waives these without a compelling reason.

Fixing a Report After You File

If you find an error after submitting, correct it through EAMS or by completing an amended tax and wage report form. Amendments go to a different address than original filings:⁷

Employment Security Department
Tax Accounting
P.O. Box 9046
Olympia, WA 98507-9046

You can also email amendments to UIfiles@esd.wa.gov or fax them to 800-794-7657. Fixing wage discrepancies before ESD flags them is much less likely to trigger a broader audit.

Records to Keep

Keep copies of every filed 5208A and 5208B along with the underlying payroll records (pay stubs, timesheets, W-4s, and documentation of bonuses or non-cash compensation) for at least four years from the date the wages were paid.⁸ WAC 192-310-050 requires employers to preserve business and financial records, including quarterly reports filed with ESD, for four calendar years after the year the employment occurred.⁹ These records are your primary defense in an ESD audit or a disputed benefit claim.

How Form 5208 Relates to Federal FUTA

Washington’s unemployment tax is separate from the federal unemployment tax you report on IRS Form 940, but the two are linked. The standard FUTA rate is 6 percent on the first $7,000 of each employee’s annual wages, and employers who pay their state UI taxes on time receive a 5.4 percent credit, dropping the effective FUTA rate to 0.6 percent.¹⁰ Filing your 5208 late or missing Washington UI payments can put that credit at risk, roughly tripling your federal unemployment tax cost.

Form 940 is annual, due January 31 for the prior year, while Form 5208 is quarterly. The wage figures won’t match: FUTA’s taxable wage base is $7,000 per employee, while Washington’s is $78,200. Keeping your quarterly state reports consistent makes the annual federal reconciliation cleaner.¹¹

1
Washington State Legislature. RCW 50.04.080 – Employer
2
Washington Department of Revenue. Unemployment Insurance
3
Washington Department of Revenue. Business Licensing and Renewals FAQs
4
Employment Security Department. How We Determine Tax Rates
5
Washington State Legislature. RCW 50.24.010
6
Washington State Legislature. WAC 192-310-030 – What Are the Report and Tax Payment Penalties and Charges
7
Employment Security Department. How to File Your Quarterly Tax and Wage Reports
8
Employment Security Department. Employee Records You Need to Keep
9
Cornell Law Institute. Washington Administrative Code 192-310-050 – What Records Must Every Employer Keep
10
Internal Revenue Service. FUTA Credit Reduction
11
Internal Revenue Service. About Form 940, Employer’s Annual Federal Unemployment (FUTA) Tax Return