Texas Employer Compliance Kit 2027: State Checklist, Deadline Calendar and Excel Tracker

Who it is for

Owners, office managers and bookkeepers who run payroll for employees working in Texas, a state with no income tax to withhold, from the first hire to the year-end forms.

Not the right fit if

Your employees work outside Texas: get that state's kit, or the 2027 Employer Compliance Bundle for several states. Not a payroll service, and not a legal review of your policies.

Why it is different

• Built only from our Texas data files, checked November 2026 against 12 official pages, among them Texas Workforce Commission (TWC); TWC: Tax Rates; Texas Comptroller: A Field Guide to the Taxes of Texas, Publication 96-1774 (December 2025); Official page; Texas Workforce Commission: Posters for the Workplace; U.S. Department of Labor: State Minimum Wage Laws (updated November 5, 2026); U.S. Department of Labor: Minimum Wages for Tipped Employees (revised July 1, 2026); Vacation and Sick Leave (Texas Workforce Commission).
• 3 items the official pages didn't state are marked "not confirmed" with the page to check, never guessed.
• The workbook recalculates with zero formula errors and dates the Texas new-hire steps for you.

What is inside

• Start here. How to use the kit, the 16 confirmed Texas rules at a glance and the 3 items to confirm, each with the official page to check: taxable wage base for 2027 (TWC: Tax Rates); E-Verify for private employers (Bill Analysis, S.B. 324 (89R), Senate Research Center); breaks for workers under 18 (Texas Guidebook for Employers (TWC): Breaks).
• Texas 2027 checklist. Eight steps from unemployment tax registration to year-end filing, each confirmed rule with its source link and check date, from Texas Workforce Commission (TWC), Texas Office of the Attorney General: New Hire Reporting, Texas Department of Insurance, Division of Workers' Compensation. What it confirms: open a state unemployment tax account: TWC's Unemployment Tax Registration (UTR); taxable wage base for 2026 (the latest published): $9,000 per employee in 2026; new employer tax rate: 2.7% for a new employer; quarterly wage reports and payments: TWC: quarterly wage reports and tax payments are due by the last day of the month after the quarter; a weekend or state holiday moves it to the next business day; state income tax withholding: No state income tax to withhold; report each new hire to the state: Within 20 calendar days of the hire date; minimum wage now (2026): $7.25 an hour; minimum wage change in 2027: $7.25 an hour; no scheduled change in our data; tipped employees: Cash wage of at least $2.13 an hour in 2027, with tips making up the rest; paid sick leave: No statewide paid sick leave law for private employers; meal breaks for adults: no state rule; Neither federal law nor Texas law requires meal breaks; rest breaks for adults: no state rule; Neither federal law nor Texas law requires rest breaks; breaks of 20 minutes or less that an employer gives are paid hours worked; workers' compensation insurance: Private employers choose whether to carry it; final pay when you let someone go: Within 6 calendar days of discharge; final pay when an employee quits: On the next regularly scheduled payday after the effective date of resignation; state copies of W-2s and 1099s: No state income tax, so there is no state 1099 or W-2 filing to make on the pages we opened.
• 2027 deadline calendar. 9 dates our Texas files state: 4 quarterly due dates from Texas Workforce Commission (TWC), with weekend dates flagged and a month-by-month planner for your own.
• New hire and pay change checklist. One page per hire, with the report to Texas Office of the Attorney General: New Hire Reporting (new hires reported in 20 days) and the I-9 steps, and one per pay change against the $7.25 minimum wage.
• Texas compliance workbook (Excel). The Texas dates in a deadline tracker with days left and status, a new-hire sheet that dates each step from the start date (new hires reported in 20 days), and a pay-change sheet that flags any rate below the 2027 floor.