How Long does an EDD Audit Usually Take? So the payroll tax audit process if everything is done correctly shouldn’t take any longer than six months it’s a lot of time I know you think they’re gonna go through my payroll records for six months but the reality is from the time that the client gets the initial notice to the time the case gets assigned to an auditor to the time you have the meeting to the time the auditor works on the report to the time it gets finalized that’s about a six-month process the problem with the EDD is they’re so overwhelmed the auditors are asked to go through these cases quickly to write these reports and there’s such a backlog of cases particularly on the current climate that exists now that happens so the best thing that you can do to try and get this process over with is to come in with a very well organized plan and a very well developed presentation to kind of lead the auditor through the process the more boxes you can check for them initially the more that you can help them write their report and the more that you can address the issues in that report the faster your payroll tax all that’s going to move and the quicker you can get yourself out of trouble.