Employment Taxes
- Withholding Taxes
- Social Security and Medicare Taxes
- Employer's Payroll Tax Liability
- State Employment Taxes
- Depositing Payroll Taxes
- Accuracy of Deposit Rule
- Employment Tax Payments With Return
- Federal Unemployment Tax (FUTA)
- Advance Earned Income Credit Payments
- Non-Employee Withholding Taxes
- Reporting Employment Taxes
- Household Employees
- Employment Tax Deposit Penalties
- Trust Fund Recovery Penalty
- Delinquent Employment Taxes
- Using a Payroll Service
More Tax Topics
- Business Structures
- Start-up Costs
- Depreciation
- Car Expenses
- Home Office Deduction
- Travel Expenses
- Hiring Workers
- Meals and Entertainment
- Retirement
- Top Tax Myths
- Per Diem Rates - IRS Publication 1542 Oct 2011 for Travel Within the Continental U.S (for employers who pay a per diem allowance to employees)
Quick Links
Hot Topics
Need Some Deductions for 2011?
Don't overlook these!
Updated for 2011
Depositing Employment Taxes
<< Previous
When To Determine Your Employment Tax Deposit Schedule
Before the beginning of each calendar year you must determine which of the two deposit schedules, monthly or semiweekly, you will be required to use.
How to Determine Your Employment Tax Deposit Schedule
The IRS requires an employer to use a specific period of time, called a lookback period, to determine the appropriate deposit schedule.
Your Lookback Period:
The deposit schedule that you are required to use is based on the total tax liability that you reported on Form 941 during a specific period of time referred to as your lookback period (discussed below).
Reminder: How often you issue paychecks to your employees has no bearing on your deposit schedule.
NOTE: These rules do not apply to federal unemployment (FUTA) tax.
Three Steps to Determine Your Deposit Schedule (monthly or semiweekly):
- Identify your look back period.
- Add the total taxes from line 8 of Form 941 that you reported during the lookback period.
- Based on steps 1 and 2, determine if you are a monthly or semiweekly schedule depositor.
STEP 1: Identify your lookback period.
The first step in figuring out whether you are a monthly or semiweekly depositor, is to look-back to a specific 12-month period, called the look back period.
The reason for the look back period is to enable the IRS to accurately see what your tax liability was for a full year.
Here's how to identify your lookback period:
Your look back period is the 12-month period ending on June 30th of the prior year, broken down into four quarters.
For 2011 Your Lookback Period Is:
- The four quarters ending on June 30, 20010, which include.
- July through September 2009
- October through December 2009
- January through March 2010
- April through June 2010
STEP 2: Add up employment taxes.
The next step is to add up the employment taxes shown on Form 941, Line 8 for each quarter in the lookback period (STEP 1).
Next:
Depositing Employment Taxes: How to Determine Your Employment Tax Deposit Schedule-Continued (STEP 3)
Related Links
- What Are Payroll Withholding Taxes
- Who Pays Social Security and Medicare Taxes?
- Social Security and Medicare Tax Rates
- Wage Base for Social Security Taxes
- Employer's Liability for Employment Taxes
- State Income Taxes
- State Unemployment Taxes (SUTA)
- Employer's SUTA Experience Rate
- Unemployment Insurance Claims
- Depositing Employment-Related Taxes
- Nonpayroll Tax Deposits
- When to Deposit Employment Taxes
- How to Deposit Employment Taxes
- When an Insufficient Employment Tax Deposit May Not Cause a Penalty
- Payment of Employment Taxes With Form 941 (or Form 944)
- Who Pays Federal Unemployment Taxes (FUTA)?
- FUTA Tax Deposits
- When You Can Pay FUTA Taxes Annually With Form 940
- Payments Exempt from FUTA Tax
- What Are Advance Earned Income Credit Payments?
- Withholding Taxes and Advance Earned Income Credit Payments
- Advance Earned Income Credit Payments Treated as Tax Deposits
- Reporting Advance Earned Income Payments
- Taxes Withheld From Income Distributions Not Related to Employment
- Depositing Payroll Taxes versus Reporting Payroll Taxes
- Employment Tax Forms
- Employment Tax Forms Explained
- Zero Wage Return
- Schedule H, Household Employment Taxes
- Taxes Reported on Schedule H
- Schedule H and Form 1040
- Filing Extension and Schedule H
- Filing Schedule H When You're Not Required to File a Tax Return
- Federal Income Taxes for Household Employees
- IRS Employment Tax Penalty Refund Offer
- Employment Tax Deposit Penalties
- Order in Which Employment Tax Deposits Are Applied
- What Are Trust Fund Taxes?
- How the Trust Fund Recovery Penalty is Assessed
- Who is Responsible For the Trust Fund Recovery Penalty?
- What Should You Pay First-Debts to Business Creditors or Taxes?
- Paying Past Due Taxes
- Advantages of Using a Payroll Service
- Your Role When Using a Payroll Service
- What a Payroll Service Does
- State New Hire Registry
Copyright © 2008-2012 Larry Villano. All rights reserved.