irs releases final instructions for form 941 schedule b and r 8

Instructions for Schedule B Form 941 06 2025 Internal Revenue Service

The federal income tax withholding tables are included in Pub. Schedule B is divided into the 3 months that make up a quarter of a year. Each month has 31 numbered spaces that correspond to the dates of a typical month.

• Dayna is no stranger to teaching she has taught at the Metro Phoenix American Payroll Association meetings and at the Arizona, Pennsylvania and Illinois State Payroll Conference.
• Dayna Reum ,CPP, FPC is currently the Director of Payroll Operations at a major medical center in Chicago.
• Because qualified sick leave and family leave wages aren’t subject to the employer portion of Social Security tax, you only need to multiply those wages by 6.2% (0.062).
• Schedule R must also be filed if clients deferred the employer share of Social Security tax.

Tax & accounting community

Starting as a payroll clerk at a small Tucson company, Dayna moved on to be a Payroll Team Leader at Honeywell Inc. During Dayna’s time at Honeywell she obtained her FPC (Fundamental Payroll Certification) through the American Payroll Association. She also received several merit awards for Customer Service and Acquisitions and Divestitures. Dayna is no stranger to teaching she has taught at the Metro Phoenix American Payroll Association meetings and at the Arizona, Pennsylvania and Illinois State Payroll Conference.

If you’re a governmental employer, wages you pay aren’t automatically exempt from social security and Medicare taxes. Your employees may be covered by law or by a voluntary Section 218 Agreement with the SSA. If you’re filing your tax return electronically, a valid EIN is required at the time the return is filed. If a valid EIN isn’t provided, the return won’t be accepted. Federal law also requires you to pay any liability for the employer share of social security and Medicare taxes. This share of social security and Medicare taxes isn’t withheld from employees.

Run Balancing Report

These include fields F, and K through Y, all of which were related to lines which were removed from Form 941 for 2024. While some of the changes reserve lines for future use, others are now used for the sum of two different lines and fields Q and R now reference data from lines 12 and 13 on Form 941 respectively. The instructions for Schedule R were similarly updated with changes reflecting the changes found with the fields on the form itself. The IRS released final instructions for Form 941 (Employer’s Quarterly Federal Tax Return), Schedule B (Report of Tax Liability for Semiweekly Schedule Depositors), and Schedule R (Allocation Schedule for Aggregate Form 941 Filers).

• Therefore, the payroll tax credit applies against Rose Co.’s share of social security tax (up to $250,000) and Medicare tax on wages paid to employees in the third quarter of 2025.
• Allocated tips aren’t reportable on Form 941 and aren’t subject to withholding of federal income, social security, or Medicare tax.
• To become a CPEO, the organization must apply through the IRS Online Registration System.
• No adjustment is reported on line 8 for sick pay that is paid through a third party as an employer’s agent.
• For more information on electronic payment options, go to IRS.gov/Payments.

Adapting to change: Ensure your indirect tax data quality

The refundable portion of the credit is allowed irs releases final instructions for form 941 schedule b and r after the employer share of Medicare tax is reduced to zero by nonrefundable credits applied against the employer share of Medicare tax. Qualified wages paid March 13 through March 31, 2020, for the employee retention credit – This amount is also entered on Worksheet 1, Step 3, line 3c. A monthly schedule depositor for the entire quarter, and enter your tax liability for each month of the quarter . Once again, you’ll file Schedule B along with Form 941 if you’re a semiweekly depositor.Generally, the same wages can’t be used as both qualified sick leave wages and qualified family leave wages. Additionally, you may not benefit from both the credit for qualified sick and family leave wages and the employee retention credit with respect to the same wages.

Reviews

If line 12 is more than line 13, enter the difference on line 14. To notify employees about the EIC, you must give the employees, except for employees in American Samoa, Guam, Puerto Rico, the CNMI, and the USVI, one of the following items. You must complete both pages of Form 941 and sign on page 2.

The second quarter Form 941 and its schedules, when applicable, are due July 31 (August 10, if all tax deposits were submitted timely for the second quarter). TaxZerone® is an IRS-authorized e-file service provider that helps businesses and individuals file multiple IRS forms, such as excise, employment tax, extension, information returns, and tax-exempt forms, easily and securely. If your employees receive tips, you must file Form 8027, Employer’s Annual Information Return of Tip Income and Allocated Tips, to report final tip income and allocated tips. If you want to allow an employee, a paid tax preparer, or another person to discuss your Form 941 with the IRS, check the “Yes” box in Part 4.

If you used an EIN (including a prior owner’s EIN) on Form 941 that is different from the EIN reported on Form W-3, see Box h—Other EIN used this year in the General Instructions for Forms W-2 and W-3. On Form W-3 (PR), “Other EIN used this year” is reported in box f. Filing a Form 941 with an incorrect EIN or using another business’s EIN may result in penalties and delays in processing your return. For more information on depositing taxes, see section 11 of Pub.

If you’ve been assessed an FTD penalty for a quarter and you made an error on Schedule B and the correction won’t change the total liability for the quarter you reported on Schedule B, you may be able to reduce your penalty by filing an amended Schedule B. Under Report for this Quarter at the top of Schedule B, check the appropriate box of the quarter for which you’re filing this schedule. Make sure the quarter checked on the top of the Schedule B matches the quarter checked on your Form 941 or 941-X. The 2021 Form 941, Employer’s Quarterly Federal Tax Return, and its instructions were updated to reflect that provisions allowing deferrals of the employer and employee portions of Social Security tax were not extended to 2021. The finalized 2021 Form 941 was not substantially changed from the draft version released Jan. 29.

Take care of your employees

Generally, you should have a balance due only if your total taxes after adjustments and nonrefundable credits (line 12) for the current quarter or prior quarter are less than $2,500, and you didn’t incur a $100,000 next-day deposit obligation during the current quarter. 15 for information about payments made under the accuracy of deposits rule. The IRS uses two different sets of deposit rules to determine when businesses must deposit their social security, Medicare, and withheld federal income taxes.

Required Notice to Employees About the Earned Income Credit (EIC)

The COVID-19 pandemic has also caused additional legislation to be passed that impacts Form 941 these will be reviewed as well along with what has stopped and what are we continuing to report into 2023. The table below explains the screen prompts, description and instructions for the lines entered for Part 2, Part 3, Part 4 and Part 5 of the return. The table below explains the screen prompts, description and instructions for the lines entered for Part 1 of the return. ERS Action Code «480» generates for returns with future tax periods after the tax period has been entered. If you back up to the ERS Action Code or other prior fields after the tax period has been entered and ERS Action Code «480» is now present, do not clear the field.

Inventory Report

Each time you pay wages, you must withhold—or take out of your employees’ pay—certain amounts for federal income tax, social security tax, and Medicare tax. For third-party payers filing Form 941 that transferred the liability, a negative adjustment is made on line 8 for any employer share taxes paid by the employer. Sick pay should be reported on lines 5a and 5c and on line 5d if the withholding threshold is met.