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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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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 *TaxForms@irs.gov 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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