New TPAs will need to create an Agent account and establish relationships with clients. Verification of the established relationship is required either by confirmation from the employer or by existing Power of Attorney (POA) on file with DOES. Following the authentication process, the TPA will be authorized to perform services according to the assignment. There will be a limited time period that TPAs will be allowed to submit wages before the relationship is confirmed or fully approved; however, the wages may be removed later if the relationship is not confirmed.

Please note also that it is important for employers who use a TPA to log into the ESSP portal and establish their agency relationship.

Users may pay their taxes in the ESSP portal via ACH debit or by check , either immediately after submitting wages or any time they have an outstanding balance on their account. A payment related to a wage submission must be processed within standard quarterly due dates to prevent the assignment of additional charges. The ESSP portal will not allow for ACH credit or credit card payment at this time. Contact us at UITax.Info@dc.gov for more details.

Authorized agents are able to file wage reports on behalf of their clients and pay their taxes either individually or in bulk. The ESSP portal offers TPAs the ability to allocate payment amounts for bulk wage submission either manually or by using a modifiable payment allocation file generated by the ESSP portal from submitted wage data.

The individual payment amount will be applied against the amounts due of the employers according to the same rules as payments submitted directly by employers. Contact us at UITax.Info@dc.gov for more details and file format specifications.

All employers who employ at least 5 employees are required to utilize the ESSP portal to file quarterly reports and pay UI quarterly taxes and assessments. While the online filing requirement does not apply to all employers, we encourage all employers to utilize the ESSP portal. It is essential for employers to file reports and pay taxes on or before the report due date. Therefore, we encourage employers to utilize the ESSP portalto guarantee the timely submission of the UI wage information and payments.

Office of Wage and Hour has regulatory authority to monitor and enforce that certain District of Columbia employers pay the minimum wage to their employees. To assist the Office of Wage and Hour with their compliance role and to reduce the number of separate filings that are required of District of Columbia employers, DOES captures the relevant OWH reporting elements for all employers within the ESSP portal. The ESSP portal is configured for employers to furnish the individual hours worked for each employee in the quarterly wage filing. Combining the data capturing quarterly wage reporting and the number of hours worked for each employee results in a savings to the District and also reduces the amount of time employers have to devote to completing and filing the paperwork necessary to comply with DC statutes. Additional information about the minimum wage requirements will be forthcoming from the Office of Wage and Hour.