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Home› Service Areas› Payroll Processing Service — Arlington, VA
📍 Arlington, VA · Payroll Service

Payroll Processing Service
in Arlington, VA

Payroll services in Arlington, VA for the businesses where payroll isn't simple — federal subcontractors with DCAA-aligned timesheets and Davis-Bacon prevailing wages, restaurants juggling tipped wages and Form 8027, professional services firms with employees living across DC, Maryland, and Virginia. We file Virginia withholding (VA-5/VA-6) and Virginia Employment Commission unemployment, configure multi-state reciprocity correctly, and handle the Form 941, 940 FUTA, W-2/W-3, and 1099-NEC year-end work. Verified Intuit QuickBooks ProAdvisor.

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★★★★★5.0on Google
✓Full-service payroll processing for Arlington, VA small businesses
✓Federal, state & local payroll tax filing included
✓W-2 and 1099-NEC filing by every deadline
✓Auto-synced to your bookkeeping records every pay run
Arlington, VA Payroll — Latest Run
Example
Hours verified & approved—st-ok
Federal & state taxes filed—st-ok
Direct deposits processed—st-ok
Journal entry posted to books—st-ok
📍 Arlington, VA — local noteVirginia requires timely VEC (Virginia Employment Commission) quarterly filings and state withholding deposits. We handle the full employer compliance stack.
Your Arlington, VA payroll plan

Everything included — no hidden
add-ons or surprise fees

Every payroll processing Arlington VA client in Arlington, VA gets the complete service.

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Full payroll runs
Weekly, bi-weekly, or semi-monthly. Every run processed accurately and employees paid on time, every time.
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Tax filings included
Federal and state payroll taxes withheld, deposited, and filed. 941s, state returns, FUTA — all handled.
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W-2 & 1099 filing
Year-end W-2s for employees and 1099-NECs for contractors — prepared and filed by January deadlines.
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Direct deposit
Employees get paid via direct deposit. No checks to print, no manual runs to coordinate.
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Synced to your books
Every payroll journal entry posts automatically to your bookkeeping records. No manual entry, no year-end headaches.
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Compliance protection
One missed payroll tax filing can trigger IRS penalties larger than a full year of service fees. We make sure it never happens.
Arlington-specific payroll

What Arlington payroll
actually requires.

Arlington payroll isn't a single workflow. The county's federal-government concentration means most small businesses face DCAA-aligned timekeeping, multi-state employee reciprocity, Davis-Bacon prevailing wage compliance, and the standard Virginia withholding + VEC unemployment stack. Below is what we handle as part of standard payroll service for Arlington clients. We use Gusto and QuickBooks Payroll depending on integration needs.

Virginia withholding (VA-5 monthly, VA-6 annual)
Virginia employers file VA-5 monthly (or quarterly for low-volume) and VA-6 as the annual reconciliation, plus federal Form 941 quarterly and Form 940 FUTA annual. We file all of these on schedule and reconcile against bank withdrawals so there are no surprise notices. New employer registration with Virginia Tax (Form R-1) is included on standard onboarding.
Virginia Employment Commission (VEC)
Virginia unemployment insurance is filed quarterly with the VEC (Form FC-20 contribution + FC-21 wage detail). Your VEC tax rate is recalculated annually based on prior claims experience. We handle quarterly filings, annual rate-notice review, and dispute incorrect claim charges where appropriate.
Multi-state reciprocity (VA / DC / MD)
Arlington-based businesses commonly employ DC and Maryland residents who commute. Virginia has reciprocity agreements with both — DC and MD residents pay home-state tax, not Virginia tax — but only if payroll is configured correctly with Form VA-4 (DC residents) or the equivalent MD certificate. We see misconfigured reciprocity in roughly half the Arlington payrolls we open. Setup included on standard onboarding.
DCAA-aligned timekeeping for GovCon
Federal subcontractors face DCAA timekeeping standards even when not directly audited — daily time entry, supervisor approval, separation of direct vs. indirect labor, and audit-trail-preserving timesheet edits. We coordinate Gusto or QuickBooks Time to meet DCAA expectations and produce labor distribution reports the prime's contracts officer can read at option-year exercise time.
Tipped wages & Form 8027
Restaurants and bars in Clarendon, Ballston, Pentagon City, Shirlington, and Crystal City handle tipped employees under Virginia's tip credit minimum wage. Form 8027 is required for "large food and beverage establishments." We configure tip credit correctly so W-2s come out right at year-end and FICA tip credit (Form 8846) flows to the tax return.
New hire reporting + I-9 / E-Verify
Virginia requires new-hire reporting to the Virginia New Hire Reporting Center within 20 days of hire. Form I-9 must be completed within three business days and retained. E-Verify is required for federal contractors with covered contracts. We handle new-hire reporting automatically through Gusto/QuickBooks Payroll.
Ongoing books: Arlington, VA bookkeeping. Year-end tax filing: Arlington tax prep. Crossing into Alexandria? Alexandria, VA payroll. Across the river: DC payroll covers FR-900Q withholding and DC unemployment.
Sound familiar?

Why Arlington business owners
outsource payroll to a professional

→Running Payroll Manually
→Missed A Payroll Tax Deposit
→Got An Irs Penalty For Payroll
→First Employee And Don't Know How To Do Payroll
→Spending Hours Every Payday
→Payroll Software Too Complicated
→Need Someone To Handle The 941S
→Overwhelmed By Payroll Compliance
→W-2S Late Last Year
→Can't Afford An In-House Payroll Team

If any of these hit home, we should talk. Free 15-minute consultation, no pressure.

Book a free call →
Industries we know cold

Payroll for the businesses
that actually run Arlington.

Three Arlington economies, three different payroll workloads.

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Federal subcontractors & GovCon
DCAA-aligned timekeeping with daily time entry and supervisor approval, Davis-Bacon prevailing wage compliance for covered contracts, Service Contract Act (SCA) wage determinations, separation of direct vs. indirect labor, and labor distribution reports. We configure QuickBooks Time or Gusto to meet DCAA expectations.
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Restaurants & bars
Virginia tip credit minimum wage, allocated tips on W-2s, Form 8027, FICA tip credit (Form 8846) flowing to tax return, tip pooling rules under FLSA, Toast/Square/Clover POS-to-payroll integration so daily tips reconcile cleanly.
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Professional services (Rosslyn–Ballston)
Multi-state reciprocity for employees living in DC and Maryland, S-corp owner reasonable compensation documentation, partner draws vs. W-2 splits for law firms, equity comp tracking, and clean Form 941 / W-2 reporting.
Local expertise

Why Arlington, VA businesses choose
Capital Accounting Group

We're not a national chain. We understand Arlington, VA's local tax rules, industry mix, and what defense contractors owners actually need from a payroll processing Arlington VA.

What we know about Arlington, VA payroll
  • →Arlington's BPOL (Business, Professional & Occupational License) tax has strict annual deadlines
  • →Virginia PTET elections opened major savings for VA pass-through entities
  • →Virginia Employment Commission (VEC) filings are quarterly — missed ones trigger penalties
  • →Arlington has some of the highest commercial rents in the DMV — cash flow is critical
Book a free Arlington, VA consultation →
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Weekly — not monthly
Most bookkeeping services in the area reconcile once a month. We do it every week — your numbers are never more than 7 days stale.
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Risk-free guarantee
We get your books in order within 30 days — or your first month is free. We stand behind the work.
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Fast onboarding
Most Arlington, VA payroll clients are up and running within 1–2 weeks. No long contracts, no setup headaches.
How it works

From first call to clean books —
in less than two weeks.

1
Free consultation
15 min — we learn your Arlington, VA business, current setup, and what payroll you need most.
2
Secure access
You grant read-only account access. No sensitive data ever emailed back and forth.
3
We get to work
Your first payroll cycle starts within 1–2 weeks. Clean, fast, no drama.
4
Ongoing support
Reports, proactive updates, and real humans who flag problems before they become penalties.
A representative payroll engagement

What a typical Arlington
payroll engagement looks like.

A small Arlington-based GovCon firm (S-corp, eight W-2 employees) came to us mid-year. Their payroll had been on a generic national provider for two years. Of eight employees, two lived in DC and two in Maryland. Reciprocity wasn't configured — Virginia tax was being withheld on all four out-of-state residents while their home states were also withholding. The firm had also misclassified one full-time worker as a 1099 contractor — a real audit risk.

Over four weeks we migrated payroll to Gusto with proper VA-DC and VA-MD reciprocity, refiled VA-5 corrections for affected periods, coordinated with the four employees on amended state returns, reclassified the 1099 to W-2 with prior-period gross-up, and set up DCAA-aligned timekeeping through QuickBooks Time so labor distribution by contract was clean for the prime's option-year audit. We now run payroll bi-weekly, file VA-5 monthly, VA-6 annually, VEC quarterly, and produce a quarterly labor-distribution report by contract.

That's a representative composite — not a single real client — but it's a pattern we see two or three times a quarter in Arlington's GovCon community.

Frequently asked questions

Arlington, VA payroll
FAQ.

How much does payroll cost in Arlington, VA?+
For an Arlington small business, ongoing payroll typically runs $35–$150 per pay run depending on employee count and complexity. Our pricing is bundled into the monthly bookkeeping plan: $350/month for sole proprietors, $650/month for businesses with payroll up to 10 employees, $1,500/month for the CFO Partner tier. We use Gusto and QuickBooks Payroll depending on integration needs.
How does Virginia / DC / Maryland reciprocity work for my Arlington employees?+
Virginia has reciprocity agreements with both DC and Maryland. DC residents working in Virginia file Form VA-4 to claim DC residency and pay DC tax in lieu of Virginia tax. Maryland residents file the equivalent Maryland exemption. Without correct setup, both states withhold and the employee files multi-state amended returns to recover. Setup is part of standard onboarding.
What forms does an Arlington employer file each quarter and at year-end?+
Quarterly: federal Form 941, Virginia VEC FC-20 + FC-21. Monthly: Virginia VA-5 for most employers, plus federal payroll tax deposits. Annually: federal Form 940 (FUTA), Virginia VA-6, W-2 + W-3, 1099-NEC + 1096, Form 8027 for large food/beverage establishments.
Do you handle DCAA-aligned timekeeping for federal contractors?+
Yes. We configure QuickBooks Time or Gusto's time tracking to meet DCAA expectations: daily time entry, supervisor approval, audit-trail preservation, separation of direct vs. indirect labor, and labor distribution by contract. The DCAA may not audit every sub directly, but primes increasingly require DCAA-aligned timekeeping at option-year exercise.
Can you handle tipped wages and Form 8027 for an Arlington restaurant?+
Yes. Virginia tip credit minimum wage rules apply. We configure tip credit, allocated tips on W-2s, FICA tip credit (Form 8846) flowing to the tax return, and Form 8027 if your establishment qualifies as a "large food and beverage establishment" (over 10 employees). Toast, Square, and Clover all integrate cleanly.
What's the deadline for new hire reporting in Virginia?+
Virginia requires new-hire reporting to the Virginia New Hire Reporting Center within 20 days of hire. Form I-9 must be completed within three business days. E-Verify is required for federal contractors. We handle new-hire reporting automatically through Gusto and QuickBooks Payroll.
How do you classify W-2 employees vs. 1099 contractors for Arlington businesses?+
The IRS uses a three-factor test: behavioral control, financial control, and relationship type. Misclassifying a W-2 as a 1099 contractor is one of the highest-cost audit findings — back FICA, FUTA, state unemployment, plus penalties. If unsure, we coordinate with your employment attorney; we don't make the legal call ourselves.
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