EOR or your own entityfor hiring in Ohio.
Teamed hires your Ohio team under its own registered entity today, so you skip formation and payroll setup while keeping the option to build your own later.
At a glance
What Ohio actually costs you, either way
Ohio does not levy a corporate income tax, so an Ohio entity does not add that layer of state tax on top of federal obligations. Instead, the state applies its commercial activity tax on a gross receipts basis, which behaves differently from a profit tax and needs its own tracking regardless of how you hire. Forming an LLC through the Ohio Secretary of State costs a $99 filing fee for the Articles of Organization, a one-time cost that sits separate from the ongoing registered agent, payroll, and compliance work an entity demands.
- Corporate income tax
- 0%
- Franchise tax basis
- gross receipts
- Formation / registration fee
- $99
The entity path
What owning an Ohio entity really involves
Filing the Articles of Organization with the Ohio Secretary of State is the easy part, and it costs $99. The harder part is everything that follows: setting up state payroll withholding, registering for unemployment insurance, tracking the commercial activity tax on your gross receipts, and keeping a registered agent current year after year.
None of that is unusual for Ohio specifically, most states ask for the same layers. What changes is the arithmetic. If you're hiring one or two people to test the market, the fixed cost of standing up and running an entity rarely pays for itself quickly. If you're planning a real Ohio office with dozens of hires, it almost always does.
The EOR path
How Teamed removes the setup step
When you hire through Teamed's Ohio entity, you skip the Secretary of State filing, the registered agent contract, and the commercial activity tax bookkeeping. Your new hire is employed compliantly from day one, under an entity that already understands Ohio's gross receipts based tax structure and files against it correctly.
You still get a real Ohio-based employment relationship, proper payroll, and correct handling of state requirements. What you don't get is the administrative weight of owning the legal entity yourself while your headcount is still small or your plans are still firming up.
Making the call
Which one actually fits your situation
The decision usually comes down to two things: how many people you're hiring in Ohio, and how confident you are that you're staying. A single hire testing whether Ohio has the talent you need is a straightforward EOR case. A confirmed office lease and a hiring plan spanning a year or more starts to tilt toward owning the entity outright.
Cost matters, but it's not the only variable. Ohio's lack of a corporate income tax makes the entity path slightly less punishing than in states that stack corporate tax on top of everything else, but the $99 formation fee is the smallest part of what an entity costs to run properly. Talk through your specific headcount and timeline before deciding either way.
Before you commit
Sometimes an employer of record is the better fit
An employer of record is sometimes the better answer, not a lesser one, especially for a small or still-changing Ohio team or when you're testing whether the market works for you. Talk to a member of the team about your specific plans, or run the numbers yourself in the crossover calculator, since the right call depends on salaries and how long you intend to stay.
Contractors, employer of record and your own entity all run on one platform at Teamed, so moving between them later does not mean changing provider or re-onboarding anybody. Real HR and legal experts handle the work rather than a ticket queue.
Talk to a member of the team and we will tell you plainly which one suits where you are. If you would rather look at the numbers yourself first, the crossover calculator models it on local salaries and employer costs rather than on a headcount rule of thumb.
Who carries it
Your own entity, when it's time. We set it up, migrate you in, and hand it back intact.
Global Entity and Employment Operations, which we call GEMO, is how Teamed forms your company, registers it for tax and payroll, runs it month to month and keeps its filings current, across 100+ countries. You stay the employer. We do the work behind it.
In Ohio, that means we handle the Secretary of State filing, the registered agent relationship, and the commercial activity tax setup, then transfer the completed entity to you with your team already employed under it. Nothing gets rebuilt from scratch, and nothing about your Ohio operations pauses during the handover. Global Entity and Employment Operations, which we call GEMO, works the same way across 100+ countries, so the same playbook applies wherever your team grows next.
They set up our EU entity and moved hires across without missing a payroll.
Questions
Ohio EOR and entity questions
Does Ohio charge corporate income tax on my new entity?
No. Ohio does not levy a corporate income tax. Instead, the state applies its commercial activity tax on a gross receipts basis, which is a different calculation and needs its own tracking regardless of how you structure your Ohio presence.
How much does it cost to register an entity in Ohio?
Filing the Articles of Organization with the Ohio Secretary of State costs $99. That figure covers formation only, it does not include the ongoing costs of a registered agent, payroll registration, or tax compliance that come with running the entity.
Can I hire in Ohio without forming my own entity?
Yes, hiring through an employer of record like Teamed lets you employ someone in Ohio under an entity that already exists and is already compliant, so you skip the formation and setup work entirely.
When does it make sense to switch from EOR to my own Ohio entity?
It depends on your headcount, your salary levels, and how long you plan to keep operating in Ohio, not on a fixed number of employees. Run your specifics through the crossover calculator or talk to a member of the team to see where the math lands for you.
Will Teamed help me move to my own entity later if I start with EOR?
Yes. Teamed's GEMO service sets up your Ohio entity, migrates your existing team into it, and hands it back to you fully intact, so switching later doesn't mean starting your Ohio operation over.
Where these figures come from
Sources
Figures on this page are drawn from the Ohio Department of Taxation's commercial activity tax publication and the Ohio Secretary of State's Articles of Organization filing information.
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