South Dakota Payroll Instructions

South Dakota has no state income tax, and no payroll tax withholding. However, employers still need to withhold federal tax, Medicare and social security, and pay several employer taxes (including Medicare, social security, SUTA and FUTA).

HINT: TurtleSoft provides free annual updates for US federal and South Dakota tax withholding rates.

South Dakota State Withholding Instructions

To enter withholding information for an employee in your Goldenseal company file, follow these steps:

  1. Open the Payroll tab on the left, and choose Employees.
  2. Locate the employee's record.
  3. Click the Payroll Setup button.
  4. Enter the employee's marital status into the Marital Status field.
  5. Enter the number of federal dependents into the Federal Exemptions field.
  6. Enter a South Dakota Tax Package into the Tax Package field, based on the employee’s W4 form. Choose Old W4 for pre-2020 forms. Choose New W4 Step2- if they did not check the box in step 2 of the new form. Choose Step2+ if they did check it. HINT: If you don't see South Dakota packages in the list, you'll need to import the tax info first.
  7. Click OK.

South Dakota State Unemployment Tax Instructions

In 2023 the South Dakota SUTA tax applies to the first $15,000 in annual wages for each employee (no change from the previous year). The starting SUTA tax rate is 6.7% for construction businesses, and 1.9% for other businesses. That decreases to 3.7% or 1.7% in the second and third years, if your company pays more in taxes than are taken out in unemployment claims. After that, rates can vary between 0% and 7.7% depending on the funds ratio.

NOTE-- The SUTA tax for South Dakota actually consists of two parts-- Unemployment Insurance (UI) and Investment Fee (IF). These amounts are combined for tax reporting, so we combine them into one tax item.

To enter the South Dakota SUTA tax rate for your company, follow these steps:

  1. Choose Payroll Setup from the Costs menu, and choose Tax Items.
  2. You'll see a list of Tax Items. Find the South Dakota SUTA tax item in the list, and double-click on it. HINT: If you don't see S Dakota SUTA in the list, you'll need to import your state's payroll info before you begin.
  3. Enter the percentage rate for your business into the field to the right of Calculation method.
  4. If the state SUTA cutoff amount has changed, enter it into the field to the right of First Adjustment.

South Dakota Marital Status

Use the following to determine the value for the Marital Status popup in each Employee account used in Goldenseal payroll software:

State Tax Contacts

Website

Official State Lawn Ornament

Pink plastic buffalo.