Instructions for Schedule B (2011)

Instructions for Schedule B

(Form 941)

Department of the Treasury

Internal Revenue Service

(Rev. June 2011)

Report of Tax Liability for Semiweekly Schedule Depositors

Section references are to the Internal Revenue Code unless

otherwise noted.

Reminders

Reporting prior period adjustments. Prior period

adjustments are 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.

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 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.

Who Must File?

File Schedule B (Form 941) if you are a semiweekly schedule

depositor. You are 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. See section 11 of Pub.

15 (Circular E) for more information.

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Do not complete Schedule B (Form 941) if you have a

tax liability that is less than $2,500 during the quarter.

CAUTION

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, if required to file a

report of tax liability with either of these forms, 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

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.

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.

Do not use the Schedule B (Form 941) to show federal tax

deposits. The IRS gets deposit data from electronic funds

transfers.

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

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”

failure-to-deposit penalty. See Deposit Penalties in section 11

of Pub. 15 (Circular E) for more information.

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Jul 08, 2011

Enter Your Tax Liability by Month

Cat. No. 38683X

• Enter your tax liability on line 6 (because line 6 represents

$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).

the sixth day of the month).

Make sure you have checked the appropriate box in

TIP 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

Form 941-X

Your total liability for the quarter must equal line 10 on Form 941 or

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, 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

1 (October)

2 (November)

3 (December)

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 — 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.

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 22 (bonus paid December 22, 2010)

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

1 (January)

2 (February)

3 (March)

Lines for dates wages were paid

lines 14 and 28

lines 11 and 25

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

1 (January)

1 (January)

2 (February)

3 (March)

Lines for dates wages were paid

line 14

lines 21, 28

lines 4, 11, 18, 25

lines 4, 11, 18, 25

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 email us

at: taxforms@irs.gov. Enter “Schedule B (Form 941)” on the

subject line. Or 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.

Amount to report

$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

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

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