Instructions for Schedule B (2017)

Instructions for Schedule B

(Form 941)

Department of the Treasury

Internal Revenue Service

(Rev. January 2017)

Report of Tax Liability for Semiweekly Schedule Depositors

Section references are to the Internal Revenue Code unless

otherwise noted.

Future Developments

For the latest information about developments related to

Schedule B and its instructions, such as legislation enacted after

they were published, go to IRS.gov/form941.

What’s New

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 isn’t withheld from

employees.

On Schedule B, list your tax liability for each day. Your liability

includes:

The federal income tax you withheld from your employees'

pay, and

Both employee and employer social security and Medicare

taxes.

Adjusting tax liability for the qualified small business pay­

roll tax credit for increasing research activities. You must

account for any qualified small business payroll tax credit for

increasing research activities that you reported on Form 941 or

Form 941-SS, line 11, when reporting your liabilities on

Schedule B. The total liability for the quarter must equal Form

941 or Form 941-SS, line 12. Failure to account for the amount

reported on Form 941 or Form 941-SS, line 11, may cause Form

941 or Form 941-SS, line 12, to be less than the total tax liability

reported on Schedule B. Don't reduce tax liability reported on

Schedule B below zero.

Don’t use the Schedule B to show federal tax deposits. The

IRS gets deposit data from electronic funds transfers.

Reminders

File Schedule B if you’re a semiweekly schedule depositor.

You’re 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

for more information.

Reporting prior period adjustments. Prior period

adjustments are reported on Form 941-X, Adjusted Employer's

QUARTERLY Federal Tax Return or Claim for Refund, or Form

944-X, Adjusted Employer's ANNUAL Federal Tax Return or

Claim for Refund, and aren’t taken into account when figuring

the tax liability for the current quarter.

When you file Schedule B with your Form 941 (or Form

941-SS), don’t change your tax liability by adjustments reported

on any Form 941-X or 944-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. See Correcting Previously Reported Tax

Liability, later.

General Instructions

Purpose of Schedule B

These instructions tell you about Schedule B. To determine if

you’re a semiweekly schedule depositor, visit IRS.gov and type

“semiweekly depositor” in the search box. Also see Pub. 15,

Employer's Tax Guide, or Pub. 80, 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 certain

taxes from your employees’ pay. Each time you pay wages, you

must withhold - or take out of your employees’ pay - certain

amounts for federal income tax, social security tax, and

Medicare tax. You must also withhold Additional Medicare Tax

from wages you pay to an employee in excess of $200,000 in a

calendar year. Under the withholding system, taxes withheld

from your employees are credited to your employees in payment

of their tax liabilities.

Feb 27, 2017

The IRS uses Schedule B to determine if you’ve

deposited your federal employment tax liabilities on

CAUTION time. If you don’t properly complete and file your

Schedule B with Form 941 or Form 941-SS, the IRS may

propose an “averaged” FTD penalty. See Deposit Penalties in

section 11 of Pub. 15 for more information.

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Who Must File?

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Don’t complete Schedule B if you have a tax liability that

is less than $2,500 during the quarter.

CAUTION

When Must You File?

Schedule B 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). Therefore, the due date of Schedule B is the

same as the due date for the applicable Form 941 or Form

941-SS.

Don’t file Schedule B as an attachment to Form 944,

Employer's ANNUAL Federal Tax Return. Instead, if you’re a

semiweekly schedule depositor that is required to file a report of

tax liability with Form 944, use Form 945-A, Annual Record of

Federal Tax Liability.

Specific Instructions

Completing Schedule B

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.

Cat. No. 38683X

Calendar Year

Month

1 (January)

2 (February)

3 (March)

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, check the

appropriate box of the quarter for which you’re filing this

schedule. Make sure the quarter checked on the top of the

Schedule B matches the quarter checked on your Form 941 or

Form 941-SS.

Example 3. Employer C is a new business and monthly

schedule depositor for 2017. Employer C paid wages every

Friday and accumulated a $2,000 employment tax liability on

01/13/17. On 01/20/17, and on every subsequent Friday during

2017, Employer C accumulated a $110,000 employment tax

liability. 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

01/21/17, because Employer C had a total accumulated

employment tax liability of $112,000 on 01/20/17. For more

information, see section 11 of Pub. 15 or section 8 of Pub. 80.

Employer C must complete Schedule B as shown below and

file it with Form 941 or 941-SS.

Enter Your Tax Liability by Month

Schedule B 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,

2016, and you paid the wages for that period on January 6,

2017, 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).

Month

1 (January)

1 (January)

2 (February)

3 (March)

Make sure you have checked the appropriate box in Part

TIP 2 of Form 941 or Form 941-SS to show that you’re a

semiweekly schedule depositor.

Lines for dates wages were paid

line 13

lines 20, 27

lines 3, 10, 17, and 24

lines 3, 10, 17, 24, and 31

Amount to report

$2,000

$110,000

$110,000

$110,000

Correcting Previously Reported Tax Liability

Total Liability for the Quarter

Semiweekly schedule depositors. If you’ve been assessed

an FTD penalty for a quarter and you made an error on

Schedule B and the correction won’t change the total liability for

the quarter you reported on Schedule B, you may be able to

reduce your penalty by filing a corrected Schedule B.

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

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 showing the $3,000 liability on day 1 of

month 3. Also, you must enter the liabilities previously reported

for the quarter that didn’t change. Write “Amended” at the top of

Schedule B. The IRS will refigure the penalty and notify you of

any change in the penalty.

Your total liability for the quarter must equal line 12 on Form 941 or Form

941-SS.

Monthly schedule depositors. You can file a Schedule B 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, only enter the monthly totals. The

daily entries aren’t required.

Example 1. Employer A is a semiweekly schedule depositor

who pays wages for each month on the last day of the month.

On December 24, 2017, Employer A also paid its employees

year-end bonuses (subject to employment taxes). Employer A

must report employment tax liabilities on Schedule B for the 4th

quarter (October, November, December), as follows.

Month

1 (October)

2 (November)

3 (December)

3 (December)

Lines for dates wages were paid

lines 6 and 20

lines 3 and 17

lines 3, 17, and 31

Where to file. File your amended Schedule B at the address

provided in the penalty notice you received. You don’t have to

submit your original Schedule B.

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 24 (bonus paid December 24, 2017)

line 31 (pay day, last day of the month)

Form 941­X

Tax decrease. If you’re filing Form 941-X for a quarter, you can

file an amended Schedule B with Form 941-X if both of the

following apply.

1. You have a tax decrease.

2. You were assessed an FTD penalty.

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: 01/06/17, 01/20/17, 02/03/17, 02/17/17,

03/03/17, 03/17/17, and 03/31/17. Employer B must report

employment tax liabilities on Schedule B as follows.

File your amended Schedule B with Form 941-X. The total

liability for the quarter reported on your corrected Schedule B

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 941­X filed timely. If you’re filing a

timely Form 941-X, don’t file an amended Schedule B, unless

you were assessed an FTD penalty caused by an incorrect,

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Instructions for Schedule B (Form 941) (Rev. 1­2017)

incomplete, or missing Schedule B. If you’re filing an amended

Schedule B, don’t include the tax increase reported on Form

941-X.

Paperwork Reduction Act Notice. We ask for the information

on Schedule B to carry out the Internal Revenue laws of the

United States. You’re required to give us the information. We

need it to ensure that you’re complying with these laws and to

allow us to figure and collect the right amount of tax.

Tax increase — Form 941­X 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 return period in which you discovered the error, you must

file an amended Schedule B 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 must match the corrected tax (Form

941, line 12 (line 10 for quarters ending before January 1, 2017),

combined with any correction reported on Form 941-X, line 18)

for the quarter, less any previous abatements and interest-free

tax assessments.

You’re 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 will vary

depending on individual circumstances. The estimated average

time is 2 hours, 53 minutes.

Form 941-X will be revised in April 2017. If you are using

the April 2017 revision, the total tax reported on the

CAUTION “Total liability for the quarter” line of the amended

Schedule B must match the corrected tax (Form 941, line 12

(line 10 for quarters ending before January 1, 2017), combined

with any correction reported on Form 941-X, line 19) for the

quarter, less any previous abatements and interest-free tax

assessments.

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Instructions for Schedule B (Form 941) (Rev. 1­2017)

If you have comments concerning the accuracy of this time

estimate or suggestions for making Schedule B simpler, we

would be happy to hear from you. You can send us comments

from IRS.gov/formcomment. Or you can send your comments to

Internal Revenue Service, Tax Forms and Publications Division,

1111 Constitution Ave. NW, IR-6526, Washington, DC 20224.

Don’t send Schedule B to this address. Instead, see Where

Should You File? in the Form 941 or Form 941-SS instructions.

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