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

Instructions for Schedule B
(Form 941)

Department of the Treasury
Internal Revenue Service

(Rev. June 2020)

Use with the January 2017 revision of Schedule B (Form 941)
Report of Tax Liability for Semiweekly Schedule Depositors
Section references are to the Internal Revenue Code
unless otherwise noted.

Virgin Islands, Guam, American Samoa, and the
Commonwealth of the Northern Mariana Islands.

Future Developments

Federal law requires you, as an employer, to withhold
certain taxes from your employees’ pay. 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. You must also
withhold Additional Medicare Tax from wages you pay to
an employee in excess of $200,000 in a calendar year.
Under the withholding system, taxes withheld from your
employees are credited to your employees in payment of
their tax liabilities.

For the latest information about developments related to
Schedule B and its instructions, such as legislation
enacted after they were published, go to IRS.gov/
Form941.

What’s New
Adjusting tax liability for nonrefundable credits
claimed on lines 11a, 11b, and 11c of Form 941 or
Form 941-SS. See Adjusting Tax Liability for
Nonrefundable Credits Claimed on Lines 11a, 11b, and
11c of Form 941 or Form 941-SS, later, for instructions on
how to report on Schedule B adjustments to your tax
liabilities for the qualified small business payroll tax credit
for increasing research activities, the credit for qualified
sick and family leave wages, and the employee retention
credit.

Reminders
Reporting prior period adjustments. Prior period
adjustments are reported on Form 941-X, Adjusted
Employer's QUARTERLY Federal Tax Return or Claim for
Refund, or Form 944-X, Adjusted Employer's ANNUAL
Federal Tax Return or Claim for Refund, and aren’t taken
into account when figuring the tax liability for the current
quarter.
When you file Schedule B with your 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),
don’t change your current quarter tax liability by
adjustments reported on any Form 941-X or 944-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. See Correcting Previously
Reported Tax Liability, later.

General Instructions
Purpose of Schedule B
These instructions tell you about Schedule B. To
determine if you’re a semiweekly schedule depositor, see
section 11 of Pub. 15, Employer's Tax Guide, or section 8
of Pub. 80, Federal Tax Guide for Employers in the U.S.
Jun 22, 2020

Federal law also requires employers 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.
On Schedule B, list your tax liability for each day. Your
tax liability is based on the dates wages were paid. Your
liability includes:
• The federal income tax you withheld from your
employees' pay, and
• Both employee and employer social security and
Medicare taxes.
Don’t use Schedule B to show federal tax deposits. The
IRS gets deposit data from electronic funds transfers.
The IRS uses Schedule B to determine if you’ve
deposited your federal employment tax liabilities
CAUTION on time. If you're a semiweekly schedule
depositor and you don’t properly complete and file your
Schedule B with Form 941 or Form 941-SS, the IRS may
propose an “averaged” FTD penalty. See Deposit
Penalties in section 11 of Pub. 15 or section 8 of Pub. 80
for more information.

!

Who Must File?
File Schedule B if you’re a semiweekly schedule
depositor. You’re a semiweekly depositor if you reported
more than $50,000 of employment taxes in the lookback
period or accumulated a tax liability of $100,000 or more
on any given day in the current or prior calendar year. If
you became a semiweekly schedule depositor during the
quarter, you must complete Schedule B for the entire
quarter. See section 11 of Pub. 15 or section 8 of Pub. 80
for more information.

!

CAUTION

Cat. No. 38683X

Don’t complete Schedule B if you have a tax
liability that is less than $2,500 during the quarter.

When Must You File?

Tax Liability for Month 1
+ Tax Liability for Month 2
+ Tax Liability for Month 3
Total Liability for the Quarter

Schedule B is filed with Form 941 or Form 941-SS.
Therefore, the due date of Schedule B is the same as the
due date for the applicable Form 941 or Form 941-SS. In
some situations, Schedule B may be filed with Form
941-X. See Form 941-X, later, for details.

Your total liability for the quarter must equal
line 12 on Form 941 or Form 941-SS; therefore,
CAUTION don't reduce your total liability reported on
Schedule B by the deferred amount of the employer share
of social security tax, the refundable portion of the credit
for qualified sick and family leave wages, or the
refundable portion of the employee retention credit.

!

Don’t file Schedule B as an attachment to Form 944,
Employer's ANNUAL Federal Tax Return. Instead, if
you’re a semiweekly schedule depositor that is required to
file a report of tax liability with Form 944, use Form 945-A,
Annual Record of Federal Tax Liability.

Specific Instructions

Example 1. Cedar Co. is a semiweekly schedule
depositor that pays wages for each month on the last day
of the month. On December 24, 2019, Cedar Co. also
paid its employees year-end bonuses (subject to
employment taxes). Cedar Co. must report employment
tax liabilities on Schedule B for the fourth quarter
(October, November, December), as follows.

Completing Schedule B
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, Form
941-SS, or Form 941-X.

Month
1 (October)
2 (November)
3 (December)
3 (December)

Calendar Year

Enter the calendar year that applies to the quarter
checked.

Lines for dates wages were paid
line 31 (pay day, last day of the month)
line 30 (pay day, last day of the month)
line 24 (bonus paid December 24, 2019)
line 31 (pay day, last day of the month)

Example 2. Fir Co. is a semiweekly schedule depositor
that pays employees every other Friday. Fir Co.
accumulated a $20,000 employment tax liability on each
of these pay dates: January 3, 2020; January 17, 2020;
January 31, 2020; February 14, 2020; February 28, 2020;
March 13, 2020; and March 27, 2020. Fir Co. must report
employment tax liabilities on Schedule B as follows.

Check the Box for the Quarter

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, Form 941-SS, or Form 941-X.

Enter Your Tax Liability by Month

Month
1 (January)
2 (February)
3 (March)

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. Enter your
tax liabilities in the spaces that correspond to the dates
you paid wages to your employees, not the date payroll
liabilities were accrued or deposits were made.

Lines for dates wages were paid
lines 3, 17, and 31
lines 14 and 28
lines 13 and 27

Example 3. Elm Co. is a new business and monthly
schedule depositor for 2020. Elm Co. paid wages every
Friday and accumulated a $2,000 employment tax liability
on January 17, 2020. On January 24, 2020, and on every
subsequent Friday during 2020, Elm Co. accumulated a
$110,000 employment tax liability. Under the deposit
rules, employers become semiweekly schedule
depositors on the day after any day they accumulate
$100,000 or more of employment tax liability in a deposit
period. Elm Co. became a semiweekly schedule depositor
on January 25, 2020, because Elm Co. had a total
accumulated employment tax liability of $112,000 on
January 24, 2020. For more information, see section 11 of
Pub. 15 or section 8 of Pub. 80.
Elm Co. must complete Schedule B as shown next and
file it with Form 941 or Form 941-SS. Don't check the
second box on Form 941, line 16, even though Elm Co.
was a monthly schedule depositor until January 25, 2020.

For example, if your payroll period ended on December
31, 2019, and you paid the wages for that period on
January 6, 2020, 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).
Make sure you have checked the appropriate box

TIP in Part 2 of Form 941 or Form 941-SS to show that
you’re a semiweekly schedule depositor.

Total Liability for the Quarter

To find your total liability for the quarter, add your monthly
tax liabilities.

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Instructions for Schedule B (Form 941) (Rev. 6-2020)

Month
1 (January)
1 (January)
2 (February)
3 (March)

Lines for dates wages were paid
line 17
lines 24 and 31
lines 7, 14, 21, and 28
lines 6, 13, 20, and 27

employer share of social security tax starting with the first
payroll payment of the quarter that includes payments of
wages subject to social security tax to your employees.
The credit may be taken to the extent of the employer
share of social security tax on wages associated with the
first payroll payment, and then to the extent of the
employer share of social security tax associated with
succeeding payroll payments in the quarter until the credit
is used. Any credit for qualified sick and family leave
wages that is remaining at the end of the quarter because
it exceeds the employer share of social security tax for the
quarter is claimed on line 13c as a refundable credit. The
refundable portion of the credit doesn’t reduce the liability
reported on Schedule B. For more information about the
credit for qualified sick and family leave wages, including
the dates for which the credit may be claimed, go to
IRS.gov/PLC.

Amount to report
$2,000
$110,000
$110,000
$110,000

Adjusting Tax Liability for Nonrefundable
Credits Claimed on Lines 11a, 11b, and 11c of
Form 941 or Form 941-SS

Semiweekly schedule depositors must account for
nonrefundable credits claimed on lines 11a, 11b, and 11c
when reporting their tax liabilities on Schedule B. The total
tax liability for the quarter must equal the amount reported
on line 12. Failure to account for the nonrefundable credits
on Schedule B may cause Schedule B to report more than
the total tax liability reported on line 12. Don't reduce your
daily tax liability reported on Schedule B below zero.

Nonrefundable portion of employee retention credit
(line 11c of Form 941 or Form 941-SS). The
nonrefundable portion of the employee retention credit
applies to the employer share of social security tax on
wages paid in the quarter that is remaining after it is
reduced by any credit claimed on Form 941, line 11a, for
the qualified small business payroll tax credit for
increasing research activities; any credit to be claimed on
Form 5884-C, line 11, for the work opportunity credit for
qualified tax-exempt organizations hiring qualified
veterans; and/or any credit claimed on Form 941,
line 11b, for the nonrefundable portion of the credit for
qualified sick and family leave wages. In completing
Schedule B, you take into account the employee retention
credit against the liability for the employer share of social
security tax starting with the first payroll payment of the
quarter that includes payments of wages subject to social
security tax to your employees. The credit may be taken
to the extent of the employer share of social security tax
on wages associated with the first payroll payment, and
then to the extent of the employer share of social security
tax associated with succeeding payroll payments in the
quarter until the credit is used. Any employee retention
credit that is remaining at the end of the quarter because it
exceeds the employer share of social security tax for the
quarter is claimed on line 13d as a refundable credit. The
refundable portion of the credit doesn’t reduce the liability
reported on Schedule B. For more information about the
employee retention credit, including the dates for which
the credit may be claimed, go to IRS.gov/ERC.

Qualified small business payroll tax credit for increasing research activities (line 11a of Form 941 or
Form 941-SS). The qualified small business payroll tax
credit for increasing research activities applies to the
employer share of social security tax on wages paid in the
quarter that begins after the income tax return electing the
credit has been filed. In completing Schedule B, you take
into account the payroll tax credit against the liability for
the employer share of social security tax starting with the
first payroll payment of the quarter that includes payments
of wages subject to social security tax to your employees.
The credit may be taken to the extent of the employer
share of social security tax on wages associated with the
first payroll payment, and then to the extent of the
employer share of social security tax associated with
succeeding payroll payments in the quarter until the credit
is used. If any payroll tax credit is remaining at the end of
the quarter that hasn’t been used completely because it
exceeds the employer share of social security tax for the
quarter, the excess credit may be carried forward to the
succeeding quarter and allowed as a payroll tax credit for
the succeeding quarter. The payroll tax credit may not be
taken as a credit against income tax withholding,
Medicare tax, or the employee share of social security tax.
Also, the remaining payroll tax credit may not be carried
back and taken as a credit against wages paid from
preceding quarters. For more information about the
payroll tax credit, go to IRS.gov/ResearchPayrollTC.

Correcting Previously Reported Tax Liability

Nonrefundable portion of credit for qualified sick and
family leave wages (line 11b of Form 941 or Form
941-SS). The nonrefundable portion of the credit for
qualified sick and family leave wages applies to the
employer share of social security tax on wages paid in the
quarter that is remaining after it is reduced by any credit
claimed on Form 941, line 11a, for the qualified small
business payroll tax credit for increasing research
activities, and/or any credit to be claimed on Form 5884C, line 11, for the work opportunity credit for qualified taxexempt organizations hiring qualified veterans. In
completing Schedule B, you take into account the credit
for sick and family leave wages (including the qualified
health plan expenses and employer share of Medicare tax
allocable to those wages) against the liability for the
Instructions for Schedule B (Form 941) (Rev. 6-2020)

Semiweekly schedule depositors. 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.
Example. You reported a liability of $3,000 on day 1 of
month 1. However, the liability was actually for month 3.
Prepare an amended Schedule B showing the $3,000
liability on day 1 of month 3. Also, you must enter the
liabilities previously reported for the quarter that didn’t
change. Write “Amended” at the top of Schedule B. The

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IRS will refigure the penalty and notify you of any change
in the penalty.

corrected tax (Form 941, line 12, combined with any
correction reported on Form 941-X, line 19) for the
quarter, less any previous abatements and interest-free
tax assessments.

Monthly schedule depositors. You can file a
Schedule B 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 for this situation, only enter the monthly totals.
The daily entries aren’t required.

Form 941-X will be revised in July 2020. If you’re
using the July 2020 revision, the total tax reported
CAUTION on the “Total liability for the quarter” line of the
amended Schedule B must match the corrected tax (Form
941, line 12, combined with any correction reported on
Form 941-X, line 23) for the quarter, less any previous
abatements and interest-free tax assessments.

!

Where to file. File your amended Schedule B, or, for
monthly schedule depositors, your original Schedule B at
the address provided in the penalty notice you received. If
you're filing an amended Schedule B, you don’t have to
submit your original Schedule B.

Paperwork Reduction Act Notice. We ask for the
information on Schedule B to carry out the Internal
Revenue laws of the United States. You’re required to
give us the information. We need it to ensure that you’re
complying with these laws and to allow us to figure and
collect the right amount of tax.

Form 941-X

You may need to file an amended Schedule B with Form
941-X to avoid or reduce an FTD penalty.
Tax decrease. If you’re filing Form 941-X for a quarter,
you can file an amended Schedule B with Form 941-X if
both of the following apply.
1. You have a tax decrease.
2. You were assessed an FTD penalty.

You’re 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.

File your amended Schedule B with Form 941-X. The total
liability for the quarter reported on your amended
Schedule B 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.

The time needed to complete and file Schedule B will
vary depending on individual circumstances. The
estimated average time is 2 hours, 53 minutes.

Tax increase—Form 941-X filed timely. If you’re filing a
timely Form 941-X showing a tax increase, don’t file an
amended Schedule B, unless you were assessed an FTD
penalty caused by an incorrect, incomplete, or missing
Schedule B. If you’re filing an amended Schedule B, don’t
include the tax increase reported on Form 941-X.

If you have comments concerning the accuracy of this
time estimate or suggestions for making Schedule B
simpler, we would be happy to hear from you. You can
send us comments from IRS.gov/FormComments. Or you
can send your comments to Internal Revenue Service,
Tax Forms and Publications Division, 1111 Constitution
Ave. NW, IR-6526, Washington, DC 20224. Don’t send
Schedule B to this address. Instead, see Where Should
You File? in the Form 941 or Form 941-SS instructions.

Tax increase—Form 941-X filed late. If you owe tax
and are filing a late Form 941-X, that is, after the due date
of the return for the return period in which you discovered
the error, you must file an amended Schedule B with Form
941-X. Otherwise, the IRS may assess an “averaged”
FTD penalty.
The total tax reported on the “Total liability for the
quarter” line of the amended Schedule B must match the

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Instructions for Schedule B (Form 941) (Rev. 6-2020)