New Hampshire Workers’ Comp Exemption
We file workers’ compensation exemptions for New Hampshire sole proprietors, LLC members, and corporate officers. Send us your details and we’ll confirm whether you qualify and handle the filing.
When coverage is required in New Hampshire
Under RSA 281-A:5, every New Hampshire employer that has any employees, full- or part-time, must carry workers' compensation coverage through a licensed carrier — there is no minimum headcount threshold for a true employer with employees.
Who can be excluded in New Hampshire
Sole proprietors
Sole proprietors and self-employed persons are not required to carry workers' compensation coverage on themselves, but may elect to be covered pursuant to RSA 281-A:3. If they hire any employees, those employees must be covered under RSA 281-A:5.
Partners
Same treatment as sole proprietors: partners are not required to cover themselves but may elect coverage under RSA 281-A:3.
LLC members
LLC members are addressed together with corporate officers under RSA 281-A:18-a (see corporateOfficers) — a corporation or LLC with 3 or fewer executive officers/members and no other employees is not required to carry coverage on those officers/members (though it may elect to under RSA 281-A:3); larger entities can still exclude up to 3 such individuals under RSA 281-A:18-a.
Corporate officers
Under RSA 281-A:18-a, a corporation or LLC may exclude UP TO THREE executive officers or LLC members from mandatory workers' compensation coverage. To make the exclusion effective, the employer provides its insurance agent with the date of birth, name, address, and specific title of each officer/member to be excluded; the agent notifies the carrier, which in turn notifies the NH Department of Labor. The statute also directs the Commissioner to adopt administrative rules (under RSA 541-A) governing the filing of such exclusions. This exclusion provision took effect January 4, 2008. A separate baseline rule: a corporation/LLC with 3 or fewer officers/members and NO other employees is not mandatorily required to cover those officers/members at all (coverage remains elective under RSA 281-A:3).
Construction rules in New Hampshire
New Hampshire requires workers' compensation coverage for corporate officers and LLC members who perform hands-on work at construction sites, REGARDLESS of the company's size or the general officer-exclusion rule — construction work overrides the RSA 281-A:18-a exclusion. Additionally, a sole proprietor or partner without employees who works as a subcontractor under a general contractor may be required by that general contractor to carry workers' compensation coverage as a condition of the subcontract, even though the state itself would not otherwise require it.
How the exemption is filed
New Hampshire is in the 'excluded/electable by default' regime for sole proprietors and partners (no state filing needed to be excluded; a written election under RSA 281-A:3 is needed to get IN). For the up-to-three-officer/LLC-member exclusion, the mechanism is a filing routed through the employer's insurance agent/carrier to the NH Department of Labor (per RSA 281-A:18-a) rather than a direct state agency application with its own form number and fee — no specific form name, fee amount, or NH DOL form number was found in the sources reviewed, so those fields are left null rather than guessed.
- Form
- No state exemption form — see above
- Statute
- RSA 281-A:3 (elective coverage), RSA 281-A:5 (mandatory coverage for employers with employees), RSA 281-A:18-a (exclusion of up to three executive officers or LLC members)
- Market
- Competitive — coverage is bought from a private carrier.
Notes and open questions
RSA 281-A:18-a text was fetched directly from the official New Hampshire General Court site (gc.nh.gov), which is a genuine primary source. The NH Department of Labor's own FAQ page could not be re-fetched directly during this session ('socket closed' on WebFetch), so the sole-proprietor/RSA 281-A:3/RSA 281-A:5 framing and the construction/subcontractor notes are drawn from search-engine snippets that quote dol.nh.gov content, not from a page I personally rendered end-to-end. No fee or specific form number for the officer-exclusion filing was located — do not publish a fee/form number for NH without further verification.
Sources
- https://gc.nh.gov/rsa/html/XXIII/281-A/281-A-18-a.htm
- https://www.dol.nh.gov/resource-center/frequently-asked-questions/workers-compensation-insurance-faqs
Source material dated gc.nh.gov statute page reflects law as amended through the 2008 effective date noted in the text; accessed 2026-08-30. Compiled from official New Hampshire sources as a starting point, not legal advice — rules change, and your situation may turn on facts this page cannot see. Confirm with New Hampshire Department of Labor or ask us and we’ll check it for you.
Workers' comp exemption filing in New Hampshire
Tell us about your New Hampshire business and we'll confirm whether you qualify for an exemption.