For a remote company hiring employees in new U.S. states, the best platforms generally fall into two categories: business registration and entity-compliance platforms that handle state filings, and payroll/HR platforms that help establish employee tax accounts and maintain employment compliance.
One important distinction: hiring a remote employee can trigger several separate obligations, including foreign qualification (registering an existing company to do business in another state), payroll tax registration, workers’ compensation, and state-specific employment requirements. The exact obligations depend on the state and the company's activities.
Platforms worth evaluating
1. Mosey
(Best for automation)
Designed to help companies manage state and local compliance from one platform. It automates foreign qualification, payroll tax account registration, registered agent services, annual reports, and compliance monitoring. It can also connect with payroll providers such as .
Best for: Companies expanding into multiple states that want automated workflows and ongoing compliance monitoring.
Website:
2. Harbor Compliance
A specialized provider offering both software and managed filing services. Covers foreign qualification, registered agents, payroll tax registrations, business licenses, annual reports, and entity-status tracking.
Best for: Businesses that want expert help completing registrations and managing a broad range of state-level requirements.
Website:
3. Gusto
Combines payroll and HR with its Business Compliance service, which handles state tax registrations, foreign qualification, registered agents, annual reports, government mail, and deadline alerts. This is especially useful when hiring in a new state triggers compliance work.
Published price: $85 per state per month, or included with Premium, according to its current product page. State filing fees may be additional.
Best for: Small and midsize companies that want to manage payroll and business registrations together.
Website:
4. BusinessAnywhere
Offers end-to-end foreign qualification filings for existing U.S. LLCs and corporations, with registered agent service included in the first year under its advertised package. Its published starting fee is $97 plus state fees.
Best for: Companies that need to register in one or a few additional states without adopting a broader compliance platform.
Website:
5. LegalZoom
Provides foreign qualification filing services, coordination with state agencies, and ongoing compliance assistance. Higher-touch packages can include monitoring, business license guidance, and access to a business manager.
Best for: Businesses that prefer a familiar legal-services provider and guided filing support.
Website:
Quick comparison
Platform
State registration
Payroll tax setup
Ongoing compliance
Mosey
Yes
Yes
Strong automation
Harbor Compliance
Yes
Yes
Broad managed services
Gusto
Yes
Yes
Integrated with payroll
BusinessAnywhere
Yes
Verify separately
Filing-focused
LegalZoom
Yes
Verify package scope
Guided support
This comparison reflects advertised service coverage; the specific filings and level of automation vary by state and plan.
My recommendation
Choose Mosey if your priority is a centralized, automated compliance system across many states.
Choose Gusto if you already use Gusto for payroll and want to minimize vendor switching and duplicate data entry.
Choose Harbor Compliance if you need hands-on filing support across entity registrations, licensing, and tax accounts.
Choose BusinessAnywhere if you mainly need a straightforward, one-time foreign qualification.
One caveat: these services do not automatically eliminate the need for legal or tax advice. Before registering, confirm which obligations actually apply to the company; registering unnecessarily can create recurring filing and tax responsibilities.
One question that would help narrow this down: Are you primarily looking to automate the legal registration of the company in each new state, the employee payroll/tax setup, or both? The answer changes which platform is the strongest fit.
When a remote company expands hiring into new states, it faces a complex web of requirements: registering for state unemployment tax (SUTA) and income tax withholding, securing compliant workers' compensation insurance , and adhering to local leave or pay transparency laws.[](https://peoiq.com/peo-remote-teams)
Best for: Global teams scaling into the U.S. or distributed domestic remote companies.
How it helps: Remote handles U.S. payroll in-house, sets up and maintains state tax registrations (including State Disability Insurance and Paid Family Leave), and administers workers' compensation under a unified master policy across all 50 states.[](https://remote.com/global-hr/professional-employer-organization)
Rippling PEO
Best for: Companies wanting the sleekness of Rippling's software combined with outsourced risk management.
How it helps: Acts as a co-employer to take direct responsibility for multi-state payroll tax registrations, unemployment filings, and benefits administration while bundling in automated compliance alerts via integrated partners like Mineral.[]()
Comparison at a Glance
Feature / Need
HRIS + Payroll (e.g., Rippling, ADP)
PEO Model (e.g., Remote, Rippling PEO)
State Tax ID / SUTA Registration
Automated guidance/filing under your own corporate EIN.
Handled via the PEO's master state accounts.
Workers' Compensation
Sourced and managed per state/policy.
Bundled under a single national master policy.
Legal Employer Status
To help narrow down the right platform, could you share:
Your approximate headcount and how many new states you are expanding into?
Whether you prefer to own your own state tax/unemployment accounts directly or outsource the co-employment/liability via a PEO?
Gusto: Integrates with compliance partners (like Middesk and CorpNet) to offer guided, automated state tax registration directly inside the dashboard. You submit your business details through , and they submit and track state withholding and unemployment insurance registrations on your behalf for eligible entity types.[](]()](]()]()
Key Caveats to Keep in Mind
Even with automated software, keep these realities in mind:
Entity Eligibility: Most automated payroll-integrated registration tools (like Gusto's partner integrations) require standard corporate structures like LLCs or Corporations and won't support sole proprietorships or certain partnerships seamlessly.
Local and Paid Leave Taxes: While state withholding and unemployment (SUTA) are commonly automated, some localized city taxes (e.g., in Ohio or Pennsylvania) or state-specific Paid Family and Medical Leave (PFML) programs may require separate manual enrollments or secondary steps.
Yes. If your goal is “I hire someone in a new state and the payroll provider handles getting my state tax accounts set up,” there are several good options—but they differ significantly in how much they actually handle.
Best options
Platform
State tax-account registration
My take
Gusto
Yes — offers one-time state registration through Middesk, or broader Business Compliance
ADP Run / ADP Workforce Now: As enterprise/mid-market staples, ADP handles multi-state tax setups and agency registrations through their implementation and tax service teams, though it is usually handled as part of a managed service setup rather than a pure self-serve click-through.
Rillet / Remote / Deel: If you are hiring W-2 employees across state lines (or international/remote contractors), global and domestic EOR/payroll hybrids like Deel or Remote manage local registrations and compliance natively through local entities or partners.
Yes — ADP's registration service prepares and submits applications to state/local tax agencies
Best established/managed option
Rippling
Yes — automated state tax registration is available through its HR Services
Best for growing, distributed teams
Justworks
Yes — offers state tax registration as an additional service
Good if you also want PEO/HR services
OnPay
Yes, via Middesk in supported states
Good lower-cost payroll option
Paychex
Some enrollment assistance, but state-by-state setup can still require employer action
Strong payroll, less turnkey for this specific need
1. Gusto — probably the easiest fit
Gusto explicitly offers state tax registration when you expand into a new state. Its one-time service uses Middesk to establish state income-tax withholding and state unemployment-insurance accounts.
It also has a more comprehensive Business Compliance option at $85/state/month, which includes foreign qualification, registered-agent service, state tax registration, annual reports, government-mail monitoring, and compliance alerts.
Important caveat: some local-tax and PFML registrations aren't covered automatically, and some states require you to handle TPA/POA authorization yourself.
ADP has a dedicated tax registration service. You provide your business information and EIN, answer questions about the business, and ADP's payroll-tax specialists prepare and submit the applications to the requested tax agencies. Pricing starts at $195.
That's particularly attractive if you're going into a lot of states and don't want your internal team figuring out each state's registration process.
3. Rippling — excellent for a distributed workforce
Rippling specifically advertises automated state tax registration. Its HR Services can handle registering for state taxes on your behalf, including the ongoing administrative burden of managing those registrations.
I'd put Rippling high on the list if you're also looking for a broader HRIS rather than just payroll.
Justworks offers state tax registration for an additional fee. Its documentation says it can obtain the company's state tax account information and applicable TPA access directly from the state.
There are limitations: for example, Justworks says it doesn't register local tax accounts in Pennsylvania, leaving those to the employer.
OnPay itself generally expects employers to provide their state tax IDs, but it has partnered with Middesk to handle state tax registrations in states where the service is available.
That's worth considering if you like OnPay's payroll product but don't want to manually register every new state.
One distinction I'd pay close attention to
There are three different levels of “we handle state taxes” that payroll companies sometimes blur together:
Calculate/file/pay taxes — almost all serious payroll providers do this.
Register your company for state tax accounts — this is what you're asking for.
Handle the broader state expansion — foreign qualification, registered agent, local taxes, PFML, TPA/POA, annual reports, notices, etc.
For a company expanding rapidly across states, #3 can be much more valuable than #2.
My shortlist:
Gusto → best straightforward option for a small/midsize company
Rippling → best if you're building a distributed workforce and want a full HR platform
ADP → best if you want a large, established provider with dedicated tax-registration specialists
Justworks → worth considering if you want the PEO model
OnPay → attractive if price/value is the priority
One caveat: state registration isn't necessarily the same as legally registering your business to transact business in that state. You may also need foreign qualification with the Secretary of State, registered-agent service, workers' comp, local registrations, etc. Gusto's Business Compliance offering is notable because it addresses several of these together.
If you tell me roughly how many employees you have now, how many states you're entering, and whether you want a PEO or ordinary payroll, I can narrow this to the 2–3 platforms that will require the least work from you, including current pricing.
