About this Form:

Employers use Form 941 to report income taxes, social security tax, or Medicare tax withheld from employee's paychecks and to pay the employer's portion of social security or Medicare tax.

How do I fill out Form 941?

Federal law requires employers to withhold certain taxes from employees' pay. Each time an employer pays wages, they must take out certain amounts for federal income tax, social security tax, and Medicare tax of their employees' pay. Starting at the top left, enter your employer identification number. Below that line, enter your business name, if you use a trade name enter that in the line below. Next, enter the business’ street address, suite or office number if that applies. Moving down, enter your city, to the right, enter your abbreviated state, and finally enter your zip code. If your business is located in a foreign country, enter that information in the last three boxes. Part 1 needs you to answer the number of employees who received wages, tips, or other compensation On line 1, enter the number of employees on payroll for the pay periods for March 12, June 12, September 12, or December 12, for the quarter indicated at the top of Form 941. Down on line 2, enter total wages, tips, or other compensation you paid for your employees. Line 3 needs the total amount paid toward the federal income tax withheld from wages, tips, and other compensation. For line 4, check the box if no wages, tips, and other compensation are subject to social security or Medicare tax, and move along to line 6. There are six parts to line 5. For 5a, enter total wages, sick pay, and taxable fringe benefits you paid during the quarter in column 1. Multiply this by 0.124 for column 2. For 5b, enter all tips reported to you during the quarter for column 1, and then multiply this by 0.124 for column 2. For 5c, enter all wages, tips, sick pay, and taxable fringe benefits that are subject to Medicare tax for column 1, and then multiply this by 0.124 for column 2. Line 5d, Enter all wages, tips, sick pay, and taxable fringe benefits that are subject to Additional Medicare Tax withholding in column 1, and then multiply this by 0.124 for column 2. Finally, for line 5e, add all the amounts in column 2, and enter that total on line 5e. For line 6 you need to add together the total federal income tax withheld from wages, tips, and other compensation from line 3, total social security and Medicare taxes before adjustments from line 5e, and any tax due under line 5f, and enter the total. Moving to line 7, enter your current quarter’s adjustment for fractions of cents. For line 8, enter current quarter’s adjustment for sick pay, and on line 9, enter the current quarter’s adjustments for tips and group-term life insurance. Line 10 wants your total taxes after adjustments, which is the total result of adding together lines 6 through 9. Line 11 requires you to reference Form 8974 (also found here on DocsHelper), and enter the amount of the credit from line 12 to line 11. Line 12 needs you to subtract line 11 from line 10 and enter the result. Moving to line 13, enter total deposits for this quarter, including overpayment applied from a prior quarter and any overpayments applied from Form 941-X, 941-X (PR), 944-X, or 944-X (SP) filed in the current quarter. For line 14, you need to assess if line 12 is more than line 13. If there is a difference, enter the result on line 14. For line 15, the opposite applies; If line 13 is more than line 12, calculate the difference and enter the result. Part 2 defines your quarterly deposit schedule and tax liability for this quarter You must check one of the three boxes on line 16. De minimis exception. If line 12 is less than $2,500 or line 12 on the prior quarterly return was less than $2,500, and you didn't incur a $100,000 next-day deposit obligation during the current quarter, check the first box on line 16 and go to Part 3. If you reported $50,000 or less in taxes during the lookback period, you are considered a monthly schedule depositor unless the $100,000 Next-Day Deposit Rule applies. Check the second box on line 16 and enter tax liability for each month in the quarter. Enter your tax liabilities in the month that corresponds to the dates wages were paid to your employees. If you reported more than $50,000 of taxes for the lookback period, you are classified as a semiweekly schedule depositor and need to check the third box. Part 3 needs information about the business Check the box if your business has closed or you stopped paying wages and enter the final date you paid wages. For line 18, check the box if you are a seasonal employer and don’t have to file a quarterly return. Part 4 asks if you would like an employee, tax preparer, or another person to discuss this form with the IRS If you check the “Yes” box, enter the person’s name and number and pick a 5-digital personal identification number. Otherwise, check the “No” box and move onto part 5. Part 5 requires your signature. You must sign and date this form as well as print your name, print your title, add your daytime phone number, and add today’s date. If you used a preparer, they must enter their information and sign this form. You have now completed Form 941.