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 wages to your employees, not the date payroll deposits were made.

For example, if your payroll period ended on December 31, 2010, and you paid the wages for that period on January 6, 2011, 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 in Part 2 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  
     
Your total liability for the quarter must equal line 10 on Form 941 or Form 941-SS.

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, 2010, Employer A also paid its employees year-end bonuses (subject to employment taxes). Employer A must report employment tax liabilities on Schedule B (Form 941) for the 4th quarter (October, November, December), as follows.

Month Lines for dates wages were paid
1 (October) line 31 (pay day, last day of the month)
2 (November) line 30 (pay day, last day of the month)
3 (December) line 22 (bonus paid December 22, 2010)
3 (December) line 31 (pay day, last day of the month)

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: 1/14/11, 1/28/11, 2/11/11, 2/25/11, 3/11/11, and 3/25/11. Employer B must report employment tax liabilities on Schedule B (Form 941) as follows.

Month Lines for dates wages were paid
1 (January) lines 14 and 28
2 (February) lines 11 and 25
3 (March) lines 11 and 25

Example 3.

Employer C is a new business and monthly schedule depositor for 2011. Employer C pays wages every Friday and has accumulated a $2,000 employment tax liability on 1/14/11 and a $110,000 employment tax liability on 1/21/11 and on every subsequent Friday during 2011. 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. Employer C became a semiweekly schedule depositor on 1/22/11, because Employer C had a total accumulated employment tax liability of $112,000 on 1/21/11. For more information, see section 11 of Pub. 15 (Circular E) or section 8 of Pub. 80 (Circular SS).

Employer C must complete Schedule B (Form 941) as shown below and file it with Form 941 or 941-SS.

Month Lines for dates wages were paid Amount to report
1 (January) line 14 $2,000  
1 (January) lines 21, 28 $110,000  
2 (February) lines 4, 11, 18, 25 $110,000  
3 (March) lines 4, 11, 18, 25 $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 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 on 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 on 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).

Form 941-X

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.

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 — Form 941-X filed timely.   If you 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). If you are filing an amended Schedule B (Form 941), do not include the tax increase reported on Form 941-X.

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 filing period of the Form 941 in which you discovered the error, you must file an amended Schedule B (Form 941) 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 (Form 941) must match the corrected tax (line 10 of Form 941 combined with any correction reported on line 21 of Form 941-X for the quarter), less any previous abatements and interest-free adjustments.


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