New Hire Reporting
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What is the New Hire Reporting Program?
New hire reporting is the process by which you, as an employer, report information on your newly hired employees
to a designated state agency shortly after the date of hire. New hire reports are matched against child support
records at the state and national levels to locate parents who owe child support. This is especially
helpful for interstate cases (in which one parent lives in a different state from his or her child), which are often
the most difficult cases for states to resolve.
With new hire reporting, state child support enforcement agencies have the ability to issue income-withholding
orders - the most effective means of collecting child support - more quickly.
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New Hire Reporting Instructions
Purpose - The state child support agency does two things with the new hire data.
First, the agency compares the information submitted against current state child support files
to locate parents. Second, the agency promptly passes the new hire information to the National Directory of New Hires,
a component of the Federal Parent Locator Service within the Federal Office of Child Support Enforcement. This service
compares the data from the employer's state with child support information from other states and, when a match is found,
provides the information to the appropriate state agency.
Data Elements - Federal law requires employers to collect and transmit six data elements to fulfill
their new hire reporting responsibilities. Many states require additional information beyond the six data elements
below:
| Data Element |
Definition |
| Employer Name |
Name associated with the Federal Employer Identification Number (FEIN) |
| Employer Address * |
Address associated with the FEIN entity that employs the individual |
| Federal Employer Identification Number (FEIN) |
Nine-digit number assigned to the employer by the Internal Revenue Service |
| Employee Name |
Full name associated with that employee's Social Security number |
| Employee Address |
Current residential address of the new employee |
| Employee SSN |
Nine-digit Social Security number assigned to the employee by the Social Security Administration |
* It is strongly recommended that the payroll office address for the newly hired employee also be reported if it
is different from the FEIN address. See the
State New Hire Reporting Information matrix for state-specific requirements.
Reporting Medium - Payroll professionals will recognize that these data elements are identical to those
collected on the Federal Form W-4, required from all new employees in order to add them to the firm's payroll roster.
Accordingly, many employers send copies of the W-4 as their official new hire report. Employers may also create their
own report form or use a state-designed form. Many states accept, at the employer's option, input through the following
media: 1) mail, 2) fax, 3) interactive telephone systems, 4) e-mail over the internet, 5) state websites and 6) other electronic or magnetic
media.
Reporting Frequency - According to federal law, employers must submit information on every new hire within
20 days of the date of hire, unless the submission is made electronically or magnetically. An employer reporting
electronically or by magnetic medium must submit two transmissions each month (if necessary, based on the volume of hiring)
not fewer than 12 days nor more than 16 days apart.
Multi-State vs. Single-State Employers - A single-state employer hires and employs people within
one state. Such an employer is required to report all new hires to the state in which it does business, which
is the same state where all its employees work. A multi-state employer hires and employs people in two or more
states. Such an employer conducts business within each state, and reports its employees to the states where they work.
Multi-state employers may select one of the following reporting options:
- Report newly-hired employees to the various states in which they are working, following the New Hire Reporting program regulations, requirements and timeframes of each state; or
- Select one state where employees are working and report all new hires to that state's designated New Hire Reporting office. (Note: this option is not available to multi-state payroll service companies reporting on behalf of their customers unless those customers are multi-state employers and have requested this option.)
Multi-state employers who choose to report to one state, must submit new hire reports electronically or magnetically.
The multi-state employer should contact the state agency to which it will be reporting to obtain its current electronic data
specifications.
Additionally, multi-state employers who report all their new hires to a single state must register with the
Federal Department of Health and Human Services as to which state they have designated to receive all their new hire
information. There is a good reason for this reporting requirement: The National Directory of New Hires maintains a
list of those multi-state employers who have elected to use single-state notification. The designated reporting
locations chosen by these employers can then be made available to all states.
When registering with the Department of Health and Human Services, the multi-state employer must include the following
information:
- Federal Employer Identification Number (FEIN),
- Employer's name, address and telephone number related to the FEIN,
- State selected for reporting purposes,
- Other states in which the company has employees,
- Corporate contact person,
- If the company is reporting new hires on behalf of subsidiaries operating under different names and FEINs, list the names and FEINs, as well as the states where those subsidiaries have employees working.
This notification may take place in one of two ways:
- Register on-line by selecting Multistate Employer Registration for New Hire Reporting, or
- Download the form and mail or fax to:
Department of Health and Human Services
Administration for Children and Families
Office of Child Support Enforcement
Multistate Employer Notification
P.O. Box 509
Randallstown, MD 21133
Fax: (410) 277-9325
Multi-state employers can receive assistance with registration as a multi-state employer from the Multi-state Help Desk by calling (410) 277-9470, 9:00 am - 5:00 pm, Eastern Time.
Please Note: If your company experiences a merger, aquisition or other change that might affect the reporting requirement in the future, please re-visit our website to update your information.
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New Hire and the FPLS
The Federal Parent Locator Service (FPLS), a national location system operated by the Federal Office of Child Support
Enforcement (OCSE) to assist states in locating noncustodial parents, putative fathers, and custodial parties, includes
two databases:
- National Directory of New Hires (NDNH): a central repository of employment, unemployment insurance claimant data,
and quarterly wage data from State Directories of New Hires, State workforce agencies, and federal agencies;
and
- Federal Case Registry (FCR): a national database that contains information on individuals in child support cases
and child support orders.
The FPLS works in two ways to support state IV-D child support operations in identifying home and work addresses and
sources of income and assets:
- First, using a process known as proactive matching, the FPLS compares data from the NDNH to
data in the FCR. When there is a match, the FPLS automatically provides new hire, quarterly wage, or
unemployment claimant information on custodial and noncustodial parents to any state with a related child support case.
The state child support agency uses this information to establish or modify a child support order, or enforce
(through income withholding) an existing order.
- Second, at the request of a state child support agency's State Parent Locator Service, the FPLS will search external
federal agency databases in an attempt to locate noncustodial parents and/or their assets, for the purpose of establishing
or enforcing a child support order. The FPLS has access to external locate sources such as the Internal Revenue Service, the Social Security Administration, Department of Veterans Affairs, the Department of Defense, and the Federal Bureau of Investigation.
 
