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Instructions for Schedule B (Form 941)

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9:45 - 19-FEB-2009

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Instructions for Schedule B

(Form 941)

Department of the Treasury

Internal Revenue Service

(Rev. February 2009)

Report of Tax Liability for Semiweekly Schedule Depositors

What’s New?

Who Must File?

Change in 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 new 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.

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.

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”

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

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

!

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

a tax liability that is less than $2,500 (after you

CAUTION subtract 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 wages to your employees, not the date

payroll deposits were made.

Cat. No. 38683X

Page 2 of 2

Instructions for Schedule B (Form 941)

9:45 - 19-FEB-2009

The type and rule above prints on all proofs including departmental reproduction proofs. MUST be removed before printing.

For example, if your payroll period ended on December

31, 2008, and you paid the wages for that period on

January 6, 2009, 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 on

TIP line 17 of Form 941 or Form 941-SS to show that

you are a semiweekly schedule depositor.

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 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).

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

line 8 on Form 941-SS.

Here are some examples.

• 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

Lines for dates wages were paid

1 (October)

2 (November)

3 (December)

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

line 30 (pay day, last day of the month)

lines 22 (bonus paid) + 31 (pay day)

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 AND

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. If you are filing Form 941-X showing a tax

increase, 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 an

amended Schedule B (Form 941) you file to correct an

incorrect, incomplete, or missing Schedule B (Form 941).

• 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

Lines for dates wages were paid

1 (January)

2 (February)

3 (March)

lines 13 and 27

lines 10 and 24

lines 10 and 24

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

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.

• 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)

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

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