What Is an Oregon BIN Number and Do You Need One?

An Oregon BIN number is a Business Identification Number, the state payroll tax account number issued by the Oregon Department of Revenue to every employer with paid workers in Oregon.¹ One BIN covers all your Oregon payroll obligations: income tax withholding, unemployment insurance, transit taxes, Paid Leave Oregon, and the Workers’ Benefit Fund. Registration is free, and you need the number before you start paying anyone.

Do You Need an Oregon BIN

If you pay employees to work in Oregon, yes. The requirement applies to every entity type: sole proprietorships, partnerships, corporations, and LLCs. Corporations without any regular employees still need a BIN if they pay corporate officers, because Oregon treats that compensation as reportable wages.¹

Out-of-state employers are the group most likely to miss this. If your company is based elsewhere but has anyone performing services in Oregon, including a single remote worker living in Portland or Eugene, you’re considered to be doing business in Oregon.² That one employee triggers the obligation to register and start withholding Oregon payroll taxes.

How a BIN Differs From Your EIN and Entity Number

Three numbers get confused all the time. Keep them straight:

Your federal EIN comes from the IRS and is used for federal tax returns. You’ll need it before you can apply for a BIN, because the state registration form asks for it.
Your Oregon Secretary of State registration number tracks your business entity filing: articles of incorporation, LLC formation, annual reports. It has nothing to do with payroll.
Your BIN is strictly a state payroll tax account number, administered jointly by the Department of Revenue and the Oregon Employment Department.

Most Oregon employers end up with all three.

How to Register for a BIN

You have two options. Register online through Revenue Online, or mail (or fax) the Combined Employer’s Registration, Form OR-CER, to the Oregon Employment Department.¹³ There is no phone option.

Before you start, pull together:

Your business legal name and any trade names or DBAs
Physical and mailing addresses
Entity type
Federal EIN
NAICS code for your business activity
The date you began, or will begin, operating in Oregon

Online registrations take up to 30 business days to process. Paper applications take up to 60.¹ If a first hire is coming soon, apply well ahead. You’ll get a registration notice with your assigned BIN once processing is done.

What Your BIN Covers

Your BIN is the single account number for every Oregon payroll tax program.¹ You don’t need separate accounts for each one.

State income tax withholding. You withhold Oregon income tax from employee wages using the state withholding tables, based on each worker’s Form OR-W-4.⁴

Unemployment insurance. UI tax is paid entirely by the employer. New employers pay 2.4% on the first $56,700 of each employee’s wages in 2026, with the rate adjusting over time based on experience rating.⁵

Paid Leave Oregon. The 2026 contribution rate stays at 1% of wages. Employees pay 60% of that (0.6%), and employers with 25 or more employees pay the other 40% (0.4%).⁶ Smaller employers still withhold and remit the employee share.

Workers’ Benefit Fund. The 2026 WBF assessment is 1.8 cents per hour worked, split evenly between employer and employee.⁷

Transit taxes. Two employer-paid district taxes apply only if employees work within those districts: the TriMet tax at 0.8237% of wages in the Portland metro area and the Lane Transit District tax at 0.80% in the Eugene-Springfield area, both effective 2026. The Statewide Transit Tax is a separate 0.1% withheld from employee pay and applies to all Oregon workers regardless of location.⁸

When and Where to File

Oregon payroll taxes are reported quarterly on Form OQ, the Oregon Combined Quarterly Tax Report. The 2026 due dates:⁸

Q1 (January–March): April 30, 2026
Q2 (April–June): July 31, 2026
Q3 (July–September): November 2, 2026
Q4 (October–December): February 1, 2027

When a due date lands on a weekend or holiday, filing moves to the next business day, which is why Q3 falls on November 2 rather than October 31.⁸

Withholding deposits run on a separate, more frequent schedule tied to your federal deposit obligation. If your federal tax liability during the IRS lookback period was $50,000 or less, deposit Oregon withholding monthly by the 15th of the following month. If it exceeded $50,000, follow the semi-weekly schedule. Any pay period with $100,000 or more in federal tax due requires the Oregon withholding to be deposited by the close of the next banking day.⁹

Quarterly reports and most payments go through Frances Online, Oregon’s current payroll reporting platform. It replaced the older Oregon Payroll Reporting System and Employer Account Access portal, and you’ll use it for UI, Paid Leave, and the other programs tied to your BIN.¹⁰ Revenue Online is still where you make withholding tax deposits and where you registered for the BIN in the first place, so expect to use both systems.

What Happens If You File or Pay Late

Different agencies stack penalties independently on the same late report, so the cost adds up fast.

On the withholding and transit side, the Department of Revenue charges a 5% late-payment penalty on unpaid tax. File more than a month late and a 20% late-filing penalty is added. If the department has to estimate your tax because you never filed, that’s a 25% assessment penalty on top. Fail to file Form OQ for 12 consecutive quarters and the penalty can reach 100% of the tax due.⁸

For unemployment insurance, filing more than 10 calendar days late (when you’ve received a warning or penalty in the past three years) costs $11 per employee reported, with a $100 minimum and $2,800 maximum. Failing to pay a UI assessment adds 10%, intentional avoidance adds 50%, and interest runs at 1.5% per month.⁸

Paid Leave late-filing penalties are 2% of total employee wages, rounded to the nearest $100. Failure to pay within 10 days of a written demand adds 10%, and fraud triggers 50%. Both the Employment Department and Paid Leave Oregon also apply a separate 1% penalty on the prior year’s taxable payroll if, as of September 1, you have outstanding unfiled reports or unpaid taxes.⁸ That September 1 trigger catches employers who let multiple quarters pile up.

Updating or Closing Your Account

Keep your address current. Update your business entity record with the Secretary of State online, by mail using the Information Change form, or during annual report renewal.¹¹ For the payroll account itself, update through Revenue Online or Frances Online so Revenue and the Employment Department both have your current information.

If you close the business or stop having Oregon employees, close the employer account too. The Oregon Business Xpress portal walks through the steps, including final returns and paying any remaining balance.¹² An unused BIN left open keeps generating quarterly filing expectations, and missed filings eventually run into the penalties above.

1
Oregon Department of Revenue. Withholding and Payroll Tax
2
Oregon Department of Revenue. Partnership Information
3
Oregon Department of Revenue. Form OR-CER, Oregon Combined Employer’s Registration
4
Oregon Department of Revenue. Oregon Withholding Tax Tables
5
Oregon Employment Department. Current Tax and Contribution Rates
6
Oregon Employment Department. Unemployment Insurance Tax and Paid Leave Oregon Contribution Rates 2026
7
Oregon State Legislature. Analysis of Workers’ Compensation Premium Assessment Rates for 2026
8
Oregon Department of Revenue. 2026 Oregon Combined Payroll Tax Report Instructions
9
Legal Information Institute. Oregon Administrative Code 150-316-0332 – Withholding: Payment Due Dates
10
Oregon Employment Department. Frances Online FAQs
11
State of Oregon. Update Registration
12
State of Oregon. Oregon Business Xpress – Change/Close