Employer guideRead at source September 28, 2026

Texas New Hire Reporting: Deadline, Who Counts and How to File (2026)

Texas employers must report new hires and rehires to the Office of the Attorney General's Child Support Division within 20 calendar days of the date the employee starts earning wages, online through the OAG employer portal or by fax or mail. Texas law counts independent contractors as employees for this purpose, along with rideshare and app-based delivery drivers. An employer that knowingly fails to report faces a civil penalty of up to $25 per unreported employee, or up to $500 where employer and employee conspire.

Texas new hire reporting at a glance

The deadline and data set are the federal ones explained on our national new hire reporting guide. What sets Texas apart is who counts. Since 2021 the Family Code has pulled gig drivers into the definition of employee, and the agency rule has long included 1099 contractors, which some payroll summaries of Texas miss.

Who counts as a new hire in Texas

Family Code 234.101 defines an employee as someone who is an employee under the federal income tax withholding rules or an independent contractor as defined by the Internal Revenue Service. The attorney general's rule narrows the contractor side to those whose income must be reported on Form 1099-MISC (1 TAC 55.302). The 2021 amendment (H.B. 458) added two groups whatever their classification:

• drivers who log in to a transportation network company's digital network, whether or not they are treated as independent contractors under the Occupations Code; and
• individuals who log in to or use a technology platform to make deliveries for compensation.

The companies running those networks and platforms are named as employers for this purpose. For everyone else, the OAG's rule of thumb still applies: if the person fills out a W-4, report them. If you pay someone on a 1099, Texas expects a report as well.

What to put on a Texas report

1 TAC 55.303(a) lists seven required items: employee name, address, Social Security number and date of hire, and employer name, address and FEIN. The rule lets you add the employee's date of birth, expected salary or wages, and a payroll address for withholding notices. The OAG's paper form also has optional boxes for a state employer ID, the state where the employee was hired and salary frequency. Use the FEIN that appears on your quarterly wage reports; the OAG says this reduces duplicate income withholding orders.

If a report is incomplete or illegible, the rule requires you to resubmit the missing data within 10 days after receiving notice (55.303(g)).

How and where to file in Texas

• Online: the OAG Employer Portal at employer.oag.texas.gov, which also shows a history of reported employees.
• Electronic files: file upload through the portal or FTP, per the Texas Workforce Commission's summary of options.
• Fax: 1-800-732-5015.
• Mail: Central File Maintenance, P.O. Box 12048, Austin, TX 78711-2048, the address printed on the OAG's current reporting form.

Paper reports can be the Texas Employer New Hire Reporting Form, a fully completed W-4 in capital letters (cursive is not accepted), or an existing payroll printout in at least 10-point type. A mailed report is timely if postmarked by the due date; an electronic one when the agency receives it (55.303(d)). The OAG's advice to first-time filers is to submit everyone hired in the last 90 days.

Many employers never touch the form because payroll does it. 1 TAC 55.304 accepts that: a report filed by a common paymaster or payroll reporting agent satisfies the requirement for the employees it covers. The obligation still sits with you, so it is worth confirming two things with your provider: which date it reports as the hire date, and whether it reports the 1099 workers Texas counts.

When the 20 calendar days begin

The OAG phrases the deadline as 20 calendar days "from the date the employee starts earning wages," and the agency rule defines the date of hire as "the first day services are performed for pay" (55.302). Employers transmitting electronically may instead report in two monthly transmissions no more than 16 days apart.

For frontline hiring in Texas, where a single job fair can produce a week of staggered starts, the practical rule is to key the report to the first worked shift. An offer accepted on the 1st with a start on the 15th is due 20 calendar days after the 15th. If a new hire never shows, there is nothing to report; if they show on the 18th instead, the 18th is the date to use.

The Texas penalty

Family Code 234.105 makes an employer that knowingly violates the reporting procedures liable for a civil penalty of up to $25 for each occurrence of failing to report an employee, and up to $500 where the failure results from a conspiracy between employer and employee to skip the report or file a false or incomplete one. The attorney general may sue to collect. The Texas Workforce Commission lists the same two amounts. The "knowingly" standard is a real limit, but an employer that has been told about gaps and keeps missing reports will struggle to rely on it.

Rehires and returning seasonal workers

Texas defines a newly hired employee as someone who has never been employed by or received earnings from you, or who has been separated from that employment or has not received earnings from you for at least 60 consecutive days (Family Code 234.101(3)). The earnings clause is the Texas twist: a seasonal worker kept on the books but paid nothing for 60 days is reportable when they come back. Our rehire policy guide covers the HR decisions that come with a return.

Multistate employers and Texas

An employer that reports electronically and has staff in more than one state may register with the federal Office of Child Support Services and send every report to a single state. The OAG asks multistate employers to choose Texas, because that is the only way the Texas Workforce Commission receives new hire information on Texas residents who may be drawing unemployment benefits while working for such an employer. Registration steps are on the new hire reporting requirements page.

Hiring in Texas

New hire reporting sits alongside the rest of onboarding: see Texas labor laws, the Texas minimum wage, Form I-9 requirements and E-Verify requirements by state. Boostpoint's work is upstream of all of it: social job ads on Meta for frontline roles. Our 2026 Social Job Advertising Benchmark (891 Boostpoint-managed campaigns on Meta) found a report-wide median of $13.88 in advertising cost per applicant, not broken out by state.

Texas new hire forms: the full set

A Texas hire involves one fewer tax form than a hire in an income-tax state, because there is no state income tax to withhold. The Texas Comptroller states it plainly: "Texas does not have a personal income tax" (Comptroller, Fiscal Notes). So there is no Texas equivalent of the W-4. What remains is the federal pair, one state notice that many employers miss, and the report to the Attorney General covered above. Each item was checked at the issuing agency on 29 September 2026.

The workers' compensation notice at hire

Except as otherwise provided by law, Texas private employers can choose whether to provide workers' compensation insurance (TDI employer fact sheet), and the notice rule that comes with that choice applies whichever way you choose. Under Texas Department of Insurance, Division of Workers' Compensation Rule 110.101, employers must notify employees in writing of their workers' compensation coverage status, in addition to the posted notice. The written notice must be given at the time an employee is hired, which the rule defines as when the employee is required by federal law to complete both a W-4 and an I-9, or when a returning employee must complete a new W-4 after a break in service. It must carry the same text as the posted notice for your coverage status. A covered employer's notice must also tell the employee they may keep their common law right of action by notifying the employer in writing within five days of starting work, and that if they do, they cannot receive workers' compensation income or medical benefits for an injury.

TDI publishes the New Employee Notice wording, and the rule lets you put it on your own letterhead. Because the rule ties its timing to the W-4 and I-9, the practical fix is to keep it in the same packet as those two forms. Company forms (direct deposit, emergency contact, handbook) come on top; our new hire forms checklist lists the full packet, Form I-9 requirements covers the documents, and workers' comp requirements by state puts the Texas coverage choice in context.

Frequently asked questions