Employment Tax 2026: Trends, Traps, and Transformation Ahead
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Employment Tax 2026: Trends, Traps, and Transformation Ahead

04 November

Posted at 11:30h in by

 

A Must-Attend Event for Payroll, Tax, and Compliance Leaders

On December 3, 2025, at 11 a.m. PST, Notice Ninja will host its third annual powerhouse employment tax webinar, once again featuring Mindy Mayo, Tax Managing Director at KPMG, alongside Rick Pinkerman, COO and co-founder of Notice Ninja.

 

This highly anticipated session, titled “Employment Tax 2026: Trends, Traps, and Transformation Ahead,” is more than just a look into what’s coming — it’s a strategic advantage for anyone involved in payroll tax operations, compliance, or employment tax planning. Whether you’re in a corporate tax department, work for a payroll provider, manage a private equity portfolio, or oversee compliance in a financial institution or PEO, this is the session that will give you the edge you need.

 

Why This Webinar Matters: A Look Back to Look Forward

In last year’s 2024 session, “A Road, Not a Journey: Payroll Tax Compliance in 2025,” Mindy and Rick warned attendees of several key employment tax shifts coming in 2025, and they were right.

 

Here are five key predictions from that session and how they played out in 2025:

 

✔️ Increased Volume and Complexity of Tax Notices


Prediction: Agencies would ramp up notice volume due to system automation and cross-agency reconciliations.
Reality: Clients saw a 20% increase in notices in 2025, particularly driven by multi-jurisdiction audits and penalty notices tied to missed rate changes and amended return delays.


✔️ Remote Work and State Wage Allocations Would Create Headaches


Prediction: Hybrid work would complicate SUI and SIT allocations, triggering misalignment between W-2s and quarterly filings.
Reality: Many employers struggled to track hybrid employee work locations, resulting in increased state-level discrepancy notices and audit triggers.

✔️ Amended Returns and “Trailing Liabilities” Would Surge


Prediction: Delayed processing of amended returns and post-termination liabilities (COBRA, equity, bonuses) would create compliance gaps.
Reality: Clients dealing with M&A activity, restructures, and workforce reductions saw penalties from late filings and underreported wages.


✔️ Compliance Visibility Would Be More Important Than Ever


Prediction: Employers would need to move from reactive to proactive visibility with systems tracking rate changes, POAs, and notice history.
Reality: Companies without notice management platforms struggled with missed deadlines and escalated penalties. Those with proactive tracking avoided many headaches.

✔️ Federal and State Coordination Would Increase Penalties


Prediction: States would align more closely with federal data and become less forgiving.
Reality: States like California, New York, and Washington aggressively pursued cross-state penalty assessments and rejected abatement requests with less flexibility.

One of the most resonant quotes from Mindy Mayo in last year’s session still rings true:

 

“The only thing that doesn’t change in employment tax is that everything changes.”

 

And as we approach 2026, with a possible change in federal administration, expiring provisions in the Tax Cuts and Jobs Act, and shifting rules for remote work, the landscape is more volatile than ever.

 

What You’ll Learn This Year

In the 2025 edition of the webinar, Mindy and Rick will explore:

  • The top legislative threats and opportunities for 2026
  • How tax automation can mitigate penalties and improve visibility
  • The rise of hybrid compliance challenges across tax and HR
  • POA and registration best practices for year-end prep
  • Real-life horror stories from 2025 tax season — and how to avoid them in 2026

 

Be the First to Get the 2026 Compliance Playbook

To help you take action on what you learn during the webinar, we’ve developed a brand-new, strategy-first guide and it’s available to webinar attendees.

 

The 2026 Employment Tax Readiness Playbook
A practical, executive-level field guide for payroll and compliance teams navigating notices, multi-state risk, remote work, and audit triggers.

 

Inside, you'll find:

  • Year-end planning strategies that reflect what actually happened in 2025
  • Tax notice triage and escalation protocols
  • Remote/hybrid workforce risk-mitigation tips
  • POA and registration cleanup checklists
  • Real-world traps to avoid
  • “Ninja Tips” to help you modernize your process without spreadsheets

 

“If you don’t know where your people are, neither does the state — until they audit you.” – Mindy Mayo

 

Why This Is a Can’t-Miss Event

For three years running, this event has grown in both size and significance. It’s where strategy meets practicality, blending expert insights with battle-tested tools to keep you ahead of audits, notices, and compliance traps.

 

If you’re a payroll service provider, PEO, corporate tax leader, private equity firm, or financial institution — this is your chance to hear directly from the experts about how to prepare your organization for the seismic shifts ahead.

 

🔗 Register Now — and bring your team.

 

You can’t afford to miss the future of employment tax compliance.

 

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Frequently Asked Questions

Does NOTICENINJA automatically assign notices?

Yes, NOTICENINJA is corporate tax notice compliance software that automates key workflows including notice assignments. The platform employs a rule-based system that can manage multiple level rules and ensure notices are directed to the appropriate stakeholder. As a result, you’ll never have to worry about notices being misdirected or slipping between the cracks.

Can it generate reports to show how things are going?

Yes, NOTICENINJA’s dashboards and advanced reporting capabilities will give you a bird’s eye view of the tax notices your organization receives – and deep insight into liabilities and opportunities. With NOTICENINJA’s tax notice management and resolution software, you can accurately assess where notices are coming from and how much time and money you expend per jurisdiction. That insight will allow you to get to the root cause of your tax compliance challenges, so you can reduce notice volume and better manage workloads.

Does your company offer services to help with backlogs?

Yes, we do.

Backlogs are common and can create a vicious cycle. When organizations have a backlog of notices to respond to – and lack the manpower to tackle them – it’s easy for notices to fall by the wayside. When notices aren’t addressed promptly, issuing agencies will send duplicate or sequential notices, which exacerbates the existing backlog.

If your organization is struggling, NOTICENINJA can help close out your backlog of notices – and empower you to remain backlog-free. The platform’s automated workflows and due date tracking and document management functionalities enable organizations to resolve notices within 30 days, eliminating the cycle of follow-up notices and growing backlogs.

Can NOTICENINJA track agency agents (Contacts) by phone and email?

Yes, NOTICENINJA’s tax resolution software has a module that allows you to track and manage all agency contacts and other related information. Within the module, you can view contacts’ addresses, links and login information, which eases traditional change management challenges. Users can also include notes about specific jurisdictions and contacts to streamline notice resolution.