I understand your frustration with the error you encountered while managing your payroll account in QuickBooks Online, @instant.
First off, can you please let me know which payroll subscription you are currently using? It will enable me to provide you with the most accurate solution.
However, if you are using Standard Payroll or Core, please know there's an ongoing investigation (INV-85709) into the issue you've mentioned about the unexpected behavior while subscribing to QuickBooks Online Payroll.
We don't have any idea yet of what causes this issue. However, this case has been raised to our engineers to understand why this unexpected behavior is happening, and our team is rolling out potential remedies for this error.
With that, I encourage you to call our support team so they can add you to the affected users.
Please see the steps below:
1. Log in to your account.
2. Click the? Help button at the top right corner.
3. Go to the Search tab, then select Contact Us.
4. Enter a brief discussion with your concern, then click Continue.