Schedule B (Form 941) - Report of Tax Liability for Semiweekly Schedule Depositors

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Instructions for Schedule B (Form 941)

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Instructions for Schedule B
(Form 941)

Department of the Treasury
Internal Revenue Service

(Rev. February 2010)
For use with the Schedule B (Form 941)(Rev. February 2009)
Report of Tax Liability for Semiweekly Schedule Depositors

Reminders

failure-to-deposit penalty. See Deposit Penalties in section 11
of Pub. 15 (Circular E) for more information.

Reporting prior period adjustments. Prior period
adjustments previously reported on lines 7d-7g of Form 941
and Form 941-SS are no longer reported on Schedule B (Form
941). Prior period adjustments are now reported on Form
941-X, Amended Employer’s QUARTERLY Federal Tax Return
or Claim for Refund, and are not taken into account when
figuring the tax liability for the current quarter.
When you file Schedule B (Form 941) with your Form 941
(or Form 941-SS), do not change your tax liability by
adjustments reported on any Form 941-X.
Amended Schedule B. If you have been assessed a
failure-to-deposit (FTD) penalty, you may be able to file an
amended Schedule B (Form 941). See Amending a Previously
Filed Schedule B (Form 941) on page 2.

Who Must File?

General Instructions
Purpose of Schedule B (Form 941)
These instructions tell you about Schedule B (Form 941),
Report of Tax Liability for Semiweekly Schedule Depositors. To
determine if you are a semiweekly depositor, visit the IRS
website at www.irs.gov and type “semiweekly depositor” in the
search box. Also see Pub. 15 (Circular E), Employer’s Tax
Guide, or Pub. 80 (Circular SS), Federal Tax Guide for
Employers in the U.S. Virgin Islands, Guam, American Samoa,
and the Commonwealth of the Northern Mariana Islands.
Federal law requires you, as an employer, to withhold taxes
from your employees’ paychecks. Each time you pay wages,
you must withhold – or take out of your employees’ paychecks
– certain amounts for federal income tax, social security tax,
and Medicare tax (payroll taxes). Under the withholding system,
taxes withheld from your employees are credited to your
employees in payment of their tax liabilities.
Federal law also requires employers to pay any liability for
the employer’s portion of social security and Medicare taxes.
This portion of social security and Medicare taxes is not
withheld from employees.
On Schedule B (Form 941), list your tax liability for each
day. Your liability includes:
• The federal income tax you withheld from your employees’
paychecks, and
• Both employee and employer social security and Medicare
taxes.
Note. Subtract any advance earned income credit payments
from your tax liability.
Do not use the Schedule B (Form 941) to show federal tax
deposits. Deposit information is taken from your deposit
coupons (Form 8109, Federal Tax Deposit Coupon) or from the
Electronic Federal Tax Payment System (EFTPS).
The IRS uses Schedule B (Form 941) to determine if
you have deposited your federal employment tax
CAUTION liabilities on time. If you do not properly complete and
file your Schedule B (Form 941) with Form 941 or
Form 941-SS, the IRS may propose an “averaged”

!

File Schedule B (Form 941) if you are:
• A semiweekly schedule depositor, or
• A monthly schedule depositor who accumulated a tax liability
of $100,000 or more on any given day in the reporting
period. See $100,000 Next-Day Deposit Rule in section 11
of Pub. 15 (Circular E) for important details.
Do not complete Schedule B (Form 941) if you have a
tax liability that is less than $2,500 (after you subtract
CAUTION any advance earned income credit (EIC) payment)
during the quarter.

!

When Must You File?
Schedule B (Form 941) is filed with Form 941, Employer’s
QUARTERLY Federal Tax Return, or Form 941-SS, Employer’s
QUARTERLY Federal Tax Return (American Samoa, Guam,
the Commonwealth of the Northern Mariana Islands, and the
U.S. Virgin Islands). File Schedule B (Form 941) with your Form
941 or Form 941-SS every quarter when Form 941 or Form
941-SS is due.
Do not file Schedule B (Form 941) as an attachment to Form
944, Employer’s ANNUAL Federal Tax Return, or Form
944-SS, Employer’s ANNUAL Federal Tax Return (American
Samoa, Guam, the Commonwealth of the Northern Mariana
Islands, and the U.S. Virgin Islands). Instead, use Form 945-A,
Annual Record of Federal Tax Liability.

Specific Instructions
Completing Schedule B (Form 941)
Enter Your Business Information
Carefully enter your employer identification number (EIN) and
name at the top of the schedule. Make sure that they exactly
match the name of your business and the EIN that the IRS
assigned to your business and also agree with the name and
EIN shown on the attached Form 941 or Form 941-SS.

Calendar Year
Enter the calendar year that applies to the quarter checked.

Check the Box for the Quarter
Under Report for this Quarter at the top of Schedule B (Form
941), check the appropriate box of the quarter for which you are
filing this schedule. Make sure the quarter checked on the top
of the Schedule B (Form 941) matches the quarter checked on
your Form 941 or
Form 941-SS.

Enter Your Tax Liability by Month
Schedule B (Form 941) 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. Enter your tax
liabilities in the spaces that correspond to the dates you paid

Cat. No. 38683X

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Instructions for Schedule B (Form 941)

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The type and rule above prints on all proofs including departmental reproduction proofs. MUST be removed before printing.

wages to your employees, not the date payroll deposits were
made.
For example, if your payroll period ended on December 31,
2009, and you paid the wages for that period on January 6,
2010, you would:
• Go to Month 1 (because January is the first month of the
quarter), and
• Enter your tax liability on line 6 (because line 6 represents
the sixth day of the month).

you made an error on Schedule B (Form 941) AND the
correction will not change the total liability for the quarter you
reported on Schedule B (Form 941), you may be able to reduce
your penalty by filing a corrected Schedule B (Form 941).
Example. You reported a liability of $3,000 in day 1 of
month 1. However, the liability was actually for month 3.
Prepare an amended Schedule B (Form 941) showing the
$3,000 liability in day 1 of month 3. Also, you must enter the
liabilities previously reported for the quarter that did not change.
Write “Amended” at the top of Schedule B (Form 941). The IRS
will refigure the penalty and notify you of any change in the
penalty.
Monthly schedule depositors. You can also file an amended
Schedule B (Form 941) if you have been assessed an FTD
penalty for a quarter and you made an error on the monthly tax
liability section of Form 941. When completing Schedule B
(Form 941), only enter the monthly totals. The daily entries are
not required.
Where to file. File your amended Schedule B at the address
provided in the penalty notice you received. You do not have to
submit your original Schedule B (Form 941).

Make sure you have checked the appropriate box on

TIP line 17 of Form 941 or Form 941-SS to show that you
are a semiweekly schedule depositor.

Total Liability for the Quarter
To find your total liability for the quarter, add your monthly tax
liabilities.
Tax Liability for Month 1
+Tax Liability for Month 2
+Tax Liability for Month 3
Total Liability for the Quarter

Form 941-X

Your total liability for the quarter must equal line 10 on Form 941 or line
8 on Form 941-SS.

Tax decrease. If you are filing Form 941-X for a quarter, you
can file an amended Schedule B (Form 941) with Form 941-X if
both of the following apply.
1. You have a tax decrease.
2. You were assessed an FTD penalty.

Example 1. Employer A is a semiweekly schedule
depositor who pays wages for each month on the last day of the
month. On December 22, 2009, Employer A also paid its
employees year-end bonuses (subject to employment taxes).
Because Employer A is a semiweekly schedule depositor,
Employer A must record employment tax liabilities on Schedule
B (Form 941). For the 4th quarter (October, November,
December), Employer A should report tax liability in this way —
Month
1 (October)
2 (November)
3 (December)

File your amended Schedule B (Form 941) with Form 941-X.
The total liability for the quarter reported on your corrected
Schedule B (Form 941) must equal the corrected amount of tax
reported on Form 941-X. If your penalty is decreased, the IRS
will include the penalty decrease with your tax decrease.
Tax increase. If you owe tax and are filing a timely Form
941-X, do not file an amended Schedule B (Form 941) unless
you were assessed an FTD penalty caused by an incorrect,
incomplete, or missing Schedule B (Form 941). Do not include
the tax increase reported on Form 941-X on any amended
Schedule B (Form 941) you file.
If you owe tax and are filing a late Form 941-X, that is, after
the due date for Form 941 for the quarter in which you
discovered the error, you must file an amended Schedule B
(Form 941) with the Form 941-X. Otherwise, the IRS may
assess an “averaged” FTD penalty.

Lines for dates wages were paid
line 31 (pay day, last day of the month)
line 30 (pay day, last day of the month)
lines 22 (bonus paid) and 31 (pay day)

Example 2. Employer B is a semiweekly schedule
depositor who pays employees every other Friday. Employer B
accumulated a $20,000 employment tax liability on each of
these pay dates:1/13/09, 1/27/09, 2/10/09, 2/24/09, 3/10/09,
and 3/24/09. Since Employer B is a semiweekly schedule
depositor, Employer B must record tax liabilities on Schedule B
(Form 941) in this way —
Month
1 (January)
2 (February)
3 (March)

Paperwork Reduction Act Notice. We ask for the information
on Schedule B (Form 941) to carry out the Internal Revenue
laws of the United States. You are required to give us the
information. We need it to ensure that you are complying with
these laws and to allow us to figure and collect the right amount
of tax.
You are not required to provide the information requested on
a form that is subject to the Paperwork Reduction Act unless
the form displays a valid OMB control number. Books or
records relating to a form or its instructions must be retained as
long as their contents may become material in the
administration of any Internal Revenue law. Generally, tax
returns and return information are confidential, as required by
Code section 6103.
The time needed to complete and file Schedule B (Form
941) will vary depending on individual circumstances. The
estimated average time is 2 hours, 53 minutes.
If you have comments concerning the accuracy of this time
estimate or suggestions for making Schedule B (Form 941)
simpler, we would be happy to hear from you. You can send
comments by email to *[email protected] or you can write to:
Internal Revenue Service, Tax Products Coordinating
Committee, SE:W:CAR:MP:T:T:SP, 1111 Constitution Ave.
NW, IR-6526, Washington, DC 20224. Do not send Schedule B
(Form 941) to this address. Instead, see Where Should You
File? in the Form 941 or Form 941-SS instructions.

Lines for dates wages were paid
lines 13 and 27
lines 10 and 24
lines 10 and 24

Example 3. Employer C is a new business and monthly
schedule depositor for 2009. Employer C pays wages every
Friday and has accumulated a $2,000 employment tax liability
on 1/13/09 and a $110,000 liability on 1/20/09 and on every
subsequent Friday during 2009. Under the deposit rules,
employers become semiweekly schedule depositors on the
day after any day they accumulate $100,000 or more of tax
liability in a deposit period. For more information, see section 11
of Pub. 15(Circular E) or section 8 of Pub. 80 (Circular SS).
Because Employer C accumulated $112,000 on 1/20/09,
Employer C became a semiweekly schedule depositor on the
next day and must complete Schedule B (Form 941) and file it
with Form 941 or Form 941-SS. Employer C should record tax
liabilities in this way —
Month
1 (January)
1 (January)
2 (February)
3 (March)

Lines for dates wages were paid
line 13
lines 20, 27
lines 3, 10, 17, 24
lines 3, 10, 17, 24

Amount to record
$2,000
$110,000
$110,000
$110,000

Amending a Previously Filed Schedule B (Form
941)
Semiweekly schedule depositors. If you have been
assessed a failure-to-deposit (FTD) penalty for a quarter AND

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