A PEO, or professional employer organization, is an outside company that shares the legal role of employer with you and runs payroll, benefits and HR. A certified PEO, or CPEO, is one the IRS has approved under a federal program that affects only federal payroll taxes. The IRS publishes its list of certified PEOs as three PDF files on its CPEO public listings page: active, suspended and revoked. To check a PEO, look up the legal name of the company on your contract, not the brand, in the active list, then in the other two.

For what certification means and why it matters, see what a certified PEO is.

The short version

  • The list is free and public. It is three PDF files on one IRS page, not a search tool.
  • Look up the exact legal name of the company that signs your contract. Big PEO brands often do business through several separate companies, each with its own legal name.
  • New names are added each quarter, so a PEO that was just approved may not be on it yet.
  • Certification only affects federal payroll taxes. It says nothing about service, price, benefits or state rules.
  • If you already use a PEO, ask for your copy of the IRS form that links your business to it. It shows whether your contract is one the certified program covers.

Where the list is, and how often it changes

The law says the IRS "shall make available to the public the name and address of" every certified PEO, and of every PEO whose certification is suspended or revoked. The IRS does that with three files:

The IRS says the active list "will be updated to reflect newly certified CPEOs by the 15th day of the first month of every calendar quarter", so by mid-January, April, July and October. A revoked PEO goes on the revoked list "as soon as practicable, but no later than the next update of the list". A suspended PEO is moved from the active list to the suspended list.

When we downloaded the files on October 27, 2026, the active list had 122 rows and a Report Date (the date printed on the file) of 8/7/2026. The suspended list had 2 rows (Report Date 04/15/2026) and the revoked list had 27 rows, with no report date printed. Each row is one legal company, not one PEO brand.

How to look up a PEO, step by step

  1. Get the legal name, not the brand. Before you sign, ask the PEO in writing which company will sign your contract and file your payroll tax returns. On the IRS form that links a customer to a certified PEO, the PEO must enter its legal name, "not the trade name" (the brand it markets under).
  2. Open the active list from the IRS listings page.
  3. Search for one distinctive word with your PDF reader's find command (Ctrl+F or Cmd+F), not the full name. Long names wrap onto two lines in the file, so a full-name search can miss them. Don't scan by eye: the list is not in plain A-to-Z order, because names in capital letters are sorted before lower-case ones.
  4. Read the row. After the name and address come four dates. Effective Date is when that company's certification took effect. Report Date is the date of the file. The two "Past" columns, Past Certification Date and Past Revocation Date, are filled in for a company that was certified before, lost it and later got it back. On the list we checked, two rows had them. Zip codes lose their leading zero (a New Jersey zip of 08830 shows as 8830). That is how the file was made, not a warning sign.
  5. Compare the address on the row with the one on your contract.
  6. Check the suspended and revoked lists too. They show only the name, address and a date. If a name is on the revoked list, look for it on the active list as well. If it is there with "Past" dates filled in, it lost certification once and was certified again. One company on the active list we checked is in exactly that position.
  7. Already a client? Ask for your copy of Form 8973. A certified PEO files this IRS form to say it has started working with you, generally within 30 days of your contract starting. You sign part of it, and "The CPEO must provide the customer with a copy of the fully completed and signed Form 8973." Line 10 asks whether your contract is the kind the certified program covers. "Yes" means it is. "No" means it is not, so ask the PEO why, and ask your accountant what that means for you.

PEOIQ's PEO directory shows an "IRS Certified" badge on provider profiles. On October 27, 2026 we checked the nine brands in the table below that have a profile (all but Oasis) against the IRS file, and the badges match. The IRS file is the official record.

Ten well‑known PEO brands checked against the IRS list

Certification is a fact, not a ranking. Here is what the IRS active list (Report Date 8/7/2026) showed on October 27, 2026. We only matched names; we did not check which brand owns which company.

Ten PEO brands checked against the IRS certified list, October 27, 2026
BrandLegal name(s) on the IRS active listEffective dateCity, state
ADP TotalSource18 companies named ADP TotalSource, for example ADP TotalSource, Inc (full list below)1/1/2017 (all 18)Miami, FL
InsperityInsperity PEO Services, L.P.; Insperity PEO HR, Inc.1/1/2017; 1/1/2026Kingwood, TX
TriNetTriNet HR III-B, Inc. (the only TriNet name listed)7/1/2018Dublin, CA
JustworksJustworks Employment Group LLC; Justworks Employment Group II LLC, III LLC and IV LLC1/1/2017; 7/1/2025 (II, III, IV)New York, NY
Paychex PEOPaychex PEO VI LLC; Paychex PEO VII, LLC1/1/2017 (both)St. Petersburg, FL
Rippling PEONot on the list as of October 27, 2026NoneNone
OasisOasis HR Solutions III, LLC1/1/2017West Palm Beach, FL
VensureNot on the list as of October 27, 2026NoneNone
CoAdvantageCoAdvantage Resources 85, LLC7/1/2026Bradenton, FL
DeelNot on the list as of October 27, 2026NoneNone

Source: IRS active CPEO list (Report Date 8/7/2026), downloaded October 27, 2026. "Not on the list" means no name containing the brand appeared on the active, suspended or revoked list. It is not a judgment: the brand may use a different legal name, may have applied and be waiting, or may not seek certification. The list does not say which.

A brand can work through more than one legal company, so ask which one your contract is with.

Directory profiles for these brands: ADP TotalSource, Insperity, TriNet, Justworks, Paychex, Rippling PEO, VensureHR, CoAdvantage and Deel.

What the list tells you, and what it doesn't

Rows are companies, not PEOs. Large PEO groups often hold several legal companies, and the IRS asks each certified company in a group to send its own annual verification. ADP TotalSource alone has 18 rows. So 122 rows does not mean 122 PEOs.

New approvals take a while to show. Certification usually starts on the first day of the next calendar quarter after the IRS approves it, and a newly approved company "will not appear on this list until the IRS has received the proof of bond" (a financial guarantee the PEO must post). If a PEO says it was just certified, ask for the date its certification starts and check again after the next quarterly update.

Being listed is not the whole test. The tax rule for certified PEOs covers only "work site employees", and only wages the PEO actually pays. A work site employee is someone under a written contract of the kind the law describes. At that work site, at least 85 percent of your workers must be under such contracts. Some workers are left out of that count, such as people with under six months of service, people who normally work under 17.5 hours a week, and people who normally work six months a year or less. Line 10 of your Form 8973 says whether your contract is covered.

Federal payroll taxes only. Certification does not cover state registration or licensing (see PEO state registration and PEO licensing by state), or seals of approval from private groups (see our guide to ESAC accreditation). It says nothing about service, benefits or price.

Why the check matters. For PEOs in general, the IRS tells its own examiners that a business "is not relieved of its employment tax obligation" by using a PEO. In plain words: using a PEO generally does not remove your own duty to pay federal payroll taxes. The certified program is the exception the law makes, and only for work site employees. That does not make an uncertified PEO a bad choice. For how the two compare, see certified vs non-certified PEOs.

If a PEO is suspended or revoked

The IRS listings page spells out what happens.

  • Suspension. The certified-PEO tax rule "will not apply to any new CPEO contract" signed while the suspension lasts. Changes or extensions to contracts you already have don't count as new contracts. The PEO "must provide written notice to each of its customers within 10 days" of the suspension.
  • Revocation. The PEO must tell its customers in writing within 10 days after the IRS's final notice, and at least 30 days before the revocation takes effect. That notice must say the customers "may also be liable (as of the effective date of revocation) for federal employment taxes" on wages the PEO paid. In plain words, from that date you may also owe those taxes.

If you get either notice, call your accountant first. Our guides to PEO tax compliance, leaving a PEO and PEO contract terms cover the next steps.

Questions to ask a PEO that says it's certified

  1. What is the legal name and EIN (the federal tax ID number) of the company on our contract and on our employees' W-2 forms?
  2. Is that company on the current IRS active list, and what is its effective date?
  3. Will our contract be one the certified program covers, with "Yes" on line 10 of Form 8973, and will we get our signed copy?
  4. If you are not certified, or our contract is not covered, how are our federal payroll taxes handled, and who owes them if a payment is missed?

For the rest of the list, see our questions to ask a PEO.

The bottom line

The IRS list takes five minutes to check if you search for the legal name on your contract. It tells you one thing: whether the IRS counted that company as certified on the date printed on the file. Check all three lists, read the date, and keep your signed Form 8973.

If you would like help comparing PEOs, certified or not, we can connect you with our independent broker, a separate business that gathers quotes from several PEOs. Request a Consultation through our PEO quotes page. It takes several business days, because quotes are built from your payroll and plan details. The consultation is free to you. If you sign through the broker, he shares part of his fee with us.

The 18 ADP TotalSource names on the IRS list

All at 10200 Sunset Drive, Miami, FL, and all effective 1/1/2017, as printed on the IRS active list (Report Date 8/7/2026): ADP TotalSource, Inc; ADP TotalSource I, Inc.; ADP TotalSource II, Inc.; ADP TotalSource III, Inc.; ADP TotalSource CO XXI, Inc.; ADP TotalSource CO XXII, Inc.; ADP TotalSource of CO XXIII, Inc.; ADP TotalSource DE IV, Inc.; ADP TotalSource FL XI, Inc.; ADP TotalSource FL XVI, Inc.; ADP TotalSource FL XVII, Inc.; ADP TotalSource FL XVIII, Inc.; ADP TotalSource FL XIX, Inc.; ADP TotalSource FL XXIX, Inc.; ADP TotalSource MI VI, LLC; ADP TotalSource MI VII, LLC; ADP TotalSource MI XXX, Inc.; ADP TotalSource NH XXVIII, Inc.

Sources