Enter amounts on line 1 that would also be included in box 1 of your employees' Forms W-2. See the Instructions for Forms W-2 and W-3 for details.

Enter the federal income tax that you withheld (or were required to withhold) from your employees on this year's wages, tips, taxable fringe benefits, and supplemental unemployment compensation benefits.

If no wages, tips, and compensation are subject to social security or Medicare taxes, check the box on line 3 and go to line 5. If this question does not apply to you, leave the box blank. For more information about exempt wages, see section 15 of Pub. 15 (Circular E). For religious exemptions, see section 4 of Pub. 15-A.

Add the federal income tax withheld from wages, tips, and other compensation (line 2) and total social security and Medicare taxes before adjustments (line 4d) and enter the result on line 5.

Enter tax amounts on lines 6a through 6e that result from current or prior period adjustments. Use a minus sign (if possible) to show an adjustment that decreases the total taxes shown on line 5. Otherwise, use parentheses. Do not enter an amount on line 6d or line 6e unless the IRS has sent you a notice instructing you to do so.

For errors discovered after 2008, make corrections to a previously filed Form 944 on Form 944-X. Lines 6b, 6c, 6d, 6e, and 6f will be deleted from the 2009 Form 944.

If you are adjusting an employee's social security wages, social security tips, or Medicare wages and tips for a prior year, you must also file Form W-2c, Corrected Wage and Tax Statement, and Form W-3c, Transmittal of Corrected Wage and Tax Statements.

Combine the amounts shown on lines 5 and 6f and enter the result on line 7.

Enter the amount of the advance earned income credit (EIC) payments that you made to your employees. Eligible employees may choose to receive part of the EIC as an advance payment. Those who expect to have a qualifying child must give you a completed Form W-5 stating they expect to qualify for the EIC. Once the employee gives you a signed and completed Form W-5, you must make the advance EIC payments starting with the employee's next wage payment. Advance EIC payments are generally made from withheld federal income tax and employee and employer social security and Medicare taxes. See
section 10 of Pub. 15 (Circular E) and Pub. 596.

If line 8 is more than line 7, you may claim a refund of the overpayment or elect to have the credit applied to your return for the next year. Attach a statement to Form 944 identifying the amount of excess payment and the pay periods in which you paid it.

Calculate your total taxes as shown below.

Enter your deposits for this year, including any deposits that you were required to make to cover prior period liabilities resulting from adjustments shown on lines 6a–6e. Also include in the amount shown any overpayment from a previous period that you applied to this return.

If line 9 is more than line 10, write the difference on line 11. Otherwise, see Overpayment on page 7.

You do not have to pay if line 11 is less than $1. Generally, you should have a balance due only if your total taxes after adjustment for advance EIC (line 9) are less than $2,500. See If line 9 is $2,500 or more above for an exception.

If line 11 is:

You may pay the amount shown on line 11 using EFTPS, a credit card, or electronic funds withdrawal (EFW). Do not use a credit card or EFW to pay taxes that were required to be deposited. For more information on paying your taxes with a credit card or EFW, visit the IRS website at
www.irs.gov and click on the electronic IRS link.

If you pay by EFTPS or credit card, file your return using the “Without a payment” address on page 4 under Where Should You File? and do not file Form 944-V.

If you are required to make deposits and, instead, pay the taxes with Form 944, you may be subject to a penalty.

If line 10 is more than line 9, enter the amount on line 12. Never make an entry on both lines 11 and 12.

If you deposited more than the correct amount for a year, you can choose to have the overpayment refunded to you or applied to your next return. Check the appropriate box in
line 12. If you do not check either box, we will automatically refund the overpayment. We may apply your overpayment to any past due tax account that is shown in our records under your EIN.

If line 12 is less than $1, we will send a refund or apply it to your next return only if you ask us in writing to do so.

You must complete both pages of Form 944 and sign on page 2. Failure to do so may delay processing of your return.

If line 9 is less than $2,500, check the first box in line 13 and go to Part 3, line 15.

If line 9 is $2,500 or more, check the second box on
line 13. If you are a monthly schedule depositor, fill out your tax liability for each month and figure the total liability for the year. If you do not enter your tax liability for each month, the IRS will not know when you should have made deposits and may assess an “averaged” failure-to-deposit penalty. See
section 11 of Pub. 15 (Circular E). If your tax liability for any month is negative (for example, if you are adjusting an overreported liability in a prior month), do not enter a negative amount for the month. Instead, enter zero for the month and subtract that negative amount from your tax liability for the next month.

If you are a semiweekly schedule depositor or if you accumulate $100,000 or more in tax liability on any day in a deposit period, you must complete Form 945-A and file it with Form 944. See the Next Day Deposit Rule in section 11 of Pub. 15 (Circular E). Do not complete lines 13a–13m if you file Form 945-A.

If you made deposits of taxes reported on Form 944, write the two-letter United States Postal Service abbreviation for the state where you deposit your taxes using Form 8109 or initiate EFTPS transfers. IRS uses the state shown to determine banking days for purposes of deposit due dates. Official state holidays for the state shown are not counted as banking days. If you deposit in multiple states, enter “MU” in the spaces provided.

When you deposit in multiple states, IRS cannot determine what portion of your liability was affected by a state holiday and may propose a deposit penalty for one or more of the states where you made deposits. If you receive a notice and your deposit due date was extended because of a state bank holiday, respond to the notice citing the state holiday and applicable deposit amount.

If you go out of business or stop paying wages, you must file a final return. To notify the IRS that a particular Form 944 is your final return, check the box on line 15 and enter the date you last paid wages in the space provided.

•Sole proprietorship—   The individual who owns the
business.

•Corporation (including a limited liability company(LLC) treated as a corporation)—   The president,
vice president, or other principal officer.

•Partnership (including an LLC treated as apartnership) or unincorporated organization—   A
responsible and duly authorized member or officer having
knowledge of its affairs.

•Single member LLC treated as a disregarded entity—   
The owner of the LLC.

•Trust or estate—   The fiduciary.

Alternative signature method.   Corporate officers or duly authorized agents may sign Form 944 by rubber stamp, mechanical device, or computer software program. For details and required documentation, see Rev. Proc. 2005-39. You can find Rev. Proc. 2005-39 on page 82 of Internal Revenue Bulletin 2005-28 at
www.irs.gov/pub/irs-irbs/irb05-28.pdf.

Paid preparers.   A paid preparer must sign Form 944 and provide the information in the Paid Preparer's Use Only section of Part 5 if the preparer was paid to prepare
Form 944 and is not an employee of the filing entity. Paid preparers must sign paper returns with a manual signature. The preparer must give you a copy of the return in addition to the copy to be filed with the IRS.

  If you are a paid preparer, write your SSN or your Preparer Tax Identification Number (PTIN) in the space provided. Include your complete address. If you work for a firm, write the firm's name and the EIN of the firm. You can apply for a PTIN using Form W-7P, Application for Preparer Tax Identification Number. You cannot use your PTIN in place of the EIN of the tax preparation firm.

  Generally, do not complete this section if you are filing the return as a reporting agent and have a valid Form 8655, Reporting Agent Authorization, on file with the IRS. However, a reporting agent must complete this section if the reporting agent offered legal advice, for example, advising the client on determining whether its workers are employees or independent contractors for Federal tax purposes.