QuickBooks New Mexico Form WC-1 Workers' Compensation Fee Reporting
QuickBooks prefills most of New Mexico's quarterly WC-1 workers' compensation fee form, but employers must verify employee counts, penalty, and interest fields.
QuickBooks Desktop handles New Mexico’s quarterly Form WC-1 — the Workers’ Compensation Fee form — by prefilling most of the data from existing payroll records, but employers still need to review several fields manually before filing.
Who Must File
The WC-1 applies to two categories of employers with workers in New Mexico. The first covers virtually all businesses required to carry workers’ compensation coverage — for-profit companies, non-profits, and churches alike. The second is much narrower: small employers (outside construction) with fewer than three employees who are exempt from the coverage mandate but have chosen to carry workers’ compensation insurance voluntarily.
Even if your business temporarily has no covered employees during a quarter, you are still expected to file a zero report and remit no payment.
What QuickBooks Fills In
When the company, payroll, and employee data is all entered and up to date in QuickBooks, the software populates the majority of the form automatically. The key field is Line 1 — the number of covered workers employed on the last working day of the calendar quarter. If you had no covered employees, QuickBooks enters zero on its own.
Line 2 calculates the assessment fee at $4.30 per covered employee per quarter. That amount breaks down to $2.00 withheld from each employee and $2.30 paid by the employer. The per-employee figure should always read either $4.30 or zero — nothing in between.
What You Must Review Manually
Several fields require your attention regardless of how complete your QuickBooks records are:
New Mexico Business Tax ID Number (BTIN): This is the identifier assigned by the Taxation and Revenue Department, sometimes referred to simply as your New Mexico tax ID. Confirm it appears correctly.
Lines 3 and 4 — Penalty and Interest: QuickBooks has no way of knowing whether the state has assessed a penalty or interest on your account. If you have received a notice from the Taxation and Revenue Department, enter the penalty amount on Line 3 and any interest on Line 4. Leave them blank if no assessment notice has been issued.
What You Can Skip
The EAN — the Employer Account Number assigned by the New Mexico Department of Labor for quarterly unemployment insurance reporting — is not required for filing the WC-1. QuickBooks may display it, but it plays no role in this particular form.
Practical Takeaway
The form is straightforward as long as your employee data is current through the last working day of the quarter. The most common stumbling block is forgetting to file a zero report during a quarter with no covered workers. The second is overlooking a penalty or interest notice and leaving Lines 3 and 4 empty when the state has already assessed charges.
For broader help with QuickBooks payroll form issues, including state-specific filing requirements and prefill problems, our knowledge base covers common scenarios across Desktop editions.