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Rates are set by fiscal year, effective October 1 each year. Find current rates in the continental United States ("CONUS Rates").
Employment Tax Deposit Schedules
If you operate a small business, you may not be required to make a tax deposit depending on your employment tax liability.
Liability Under $2,500
If you're required to file Form 941 and your employment tax liability for the preceding quarter or current quarter is less than $2,500, you may pay the taxes for the current quarter with your timely filed return instead of making deposits, provided you don't incur a $100,000 next-day deposit obligation during the current quarter.
Liability of $2,500 or More
Unless you're eligible to make payments with your return (as indicated above), you must deposit your taxes. If you're a Form 941 filer (meaning, you remit Social Security taxes, Medicare taxes and federal income taxes) and you're not sure your total tax liability for the current quarter will be less than $2,500, and your liability for the preceding quarter was $2,500 or more, then make deposits using either the semiweekly or monthly rules so you won't be subject to failure-to-deposit penalties.
Deposits Due on Business Days Only:
If a deposit is due on a day that isn't a business day, the deposit is considered to have been made timely if it is made by the close of the next business day. A business day is any day other than a Saturday, Sunday, or legal holiday.
Semiweekly schedule depositors have at least 3 business days following the close of the semiweekly period to make a deposit. That is, if any of the 3 weekdays after the end of a semiweekly period is a legal holiday, you'll have an additional business day to deposit for each day that is a legal holiday
Deposit Schedules
There are two deposit schedules for determining when you deposit Social Security taxes, Medicare taxes and federal income taxes withheld:
- Monthly Schedule
- Semiweekly Schedule
The terms monthly schedule depositor and semiweekly schedule depositor don't refer to how often your business pays its employees or even how often you must make deposits. These terms identify which deposit rules you must follow when an employment tax liability arises. The deposit rules are based on the dates wages are paid and not when employment tax liabilities are accrued. The purpose of these rules is to tell you when a deposit is due after a tax liability arises after any given payday.
Reminder:
1. These deposit schedule rules for Form 941 taxes do not apply to Federal Unemployment Taxes (FUTA).
2. Your deposit schedule has no bearing on how often you pay your employees or make deposits.
Federal Unemployment Tax (FUTA) - Form 940:
Only the employer pays FUTA tax and it is not withheld from the employee's wages. Report your FUTA taxes by filing Form 940, Employer's Annual Federal Unemployment (FUTA) Tax Return. Deposits for FUTA Taxes (Form 940) are required for the quarter within which the tax due exceeds $500 and must be deposited by the end of the month following the end of the quarter.
How to Determine Your Employment Tax Deposit Schedule (Form 941)
Lookback Period - Form 941:
Your deposit schedule for a calendar year is determined from the total taxes reported on Form 941 in a 4-quarter lookback period. The lookback period begins July 1 and ends June 30.
Before the beginning of each calendar year, you must determine which of the two deposit schedules you are required to use. The deposit schedule you must use is based on the total employment tax liability you reported during the lookback period (discussed below) on Form 941.
(Form more information see Publication 15 for Forms 941, 944 and 945. For Form 943, review Publication 51.)
How to Make Federal Tax Deposits
You must use electronic funds transfer (EFT) to make all federal tax deposits. Generally, an EFT is made using the Electronic Federal Tax Payment System (EFTPS). If you don't want to use EFTPS, you can arrange for your tax professional, financial institution, payroll service, or other trusted third party to make electronic deposits on your behalf.
Also, you may arrange for your financial institution to initiate a same-day wire payment on your behalf. EFTPS is a free service provided by the Department of the Treasury. Services provided by your tax professional, financial institution, payroll service, or other third party may have a fee.
Three Steps to Determine Your Deposit Schedule
- Identify your look back period.
- Add the total taxes reported on Form 941 during the lookback period.
- Based on steps 1 and 2, determine if you are a monthly or semiweekly schedule depositor.
Step 1: Identify Your Form 941 Lookback Period:
The first step in figuring out whether you are a monthly or semiweekly depositor, is to identify your Form 941 lookback period. The reason for the look back period is to enable the IRS to accurately see what your tax liability was for a full year.
How to identify your Form 941 lookback period:
Your deposit schedule for a calendar year is determined from the total taxes reported on your Forms 941 in a 4-quarter lookback period. The lookback period is the 12-month period ending on June 30th of the prior year. For example, for calendar year 2024, June 30, 2023 of the prior year is the 12th month of the lookback period which began July 1, 2022 and ended June 30, 2023 (this takes into account the 3rd and 4th quarter of 2022 and the 1st and 2nd quarter of 2023).
Calendar Year 2024 (Jan.-Dec.) Lookback Period:
- July 1, 2022 thru Sept. 30, 2022 (3rd quarter 2022)
- Oct. 1, 2022 thru Dec 31, 2022 (4th quarter 2022)
- Jan. 1, 2023 thru Mar 31, 2023 (1st quarter 2023)
- Apr. 1, 2023 thru June 30,2023 (2nd quarter 2023)
Step 2: Determine Your Total Tax Liability for the Lookback Period:
Add up the total tax liability reported on each Form 941 included in the lookback period to determine the total liability for that 12-month period. Your total liability is the amount you reported on each Form 941, line 12 during the lookback period. (Note that your total liability is not reduced by the refundable portion of the credit for qualified sick and family leave wages.)
Step 3: Determine If You Are a Monthly Schedule Depositor or Semiweekly Schedule Depositor:
You're a monthly schedule depositor for a calendar year if:
- Form 941 tax liabilities for the four quarters of the lookback period total $50,000 or less.
New employer:
Your tax liability for any quarter in the lookback period before the date you started or acquired your business is considered to be zero. Therefore, you are a monthly schedule depositor for the first calendar year of your business. However, if you accumulate a tax liability of $100,000 or more on any day during a deposit period, you must deposit the tax by the close of next business day.
When to Deposit Taxes if You're a Monthly Schedule Depositor:
Deposit accumulated taxes on payments made during a calendar month by the 15th day of the following month. For example, July employment taxes are due on or before August 15th.
If no wages are paid during any particular month, then no deposit with regard to that month would be required. For example, if you didn't pay any wages for the entire month of January then no deposit would be required on February 15 (the 15th of the following month). In other words, the deposit schedule is followed when wages are actually paid.
You're a Semiweekly Schedule Depositor for a Calendar year if:
- Form 941 tax liabilities for the four quarters of the lookback period total more than $50,000.
When to Deposit Taxes if You're a Semiweekly Schedule Depositor:
- Deposit taxes from payrolls paid on Saturday, Sunday, Monday or Tuesday, by the following Friday.
- Deposit the taxes from payrolls paid on Wednesday, Thursday, or Friday by the following Wednesday.
When does the tax liability arise?
The tax liability arises (is triggered) on the dates wages are actually paid (the payment days) and NOT when employment tax liabilities are accrued. If wages are paid only once a month, taxes are deposited only once a month according to the deposit schedule.
For example, say you pay your employees once a month, on the last Friday of the monthly payroll period. As a semiweekly schedule depositor you would make a deposit on the following Wednesday because the tax liability for the month's wages occurred on the last Friday of the month.
Example of Monthly and Semiweekly Schedules
Janet reported Form 941 tax liabilities as follows:
2023 Lookback Period:
- 3rd Quarter 2021: $12,000
- 4th Quarter 2021: $12,000
- 1st Quarter 2022: $12,000
- 2nd Quarter 2022: $12,000
- TOTAL: $48,000
For calendar year 2023, Janet is a monthly schedule depositor. Her tax liability for the four quarters in the lookback period was not more than $50,000.
2024 Lookback Period:
- 3rd Quarter 2022: $12,000
- 4th Quarter 2022: $12,000
- 1st Quarter 2023: $12,000
- 2nd Quarter 2023: $15,000
- TOTAL: $51,000
For calendar year 2024, Janet is a semiweekly schedule depositor. Her tax liability for the four quarters in the lookback period was more than $50,000.
Deposit Rule for Payroll Taxes of $100,000
If you accumulate a tax liability of $100,000 or more on any day during a deposit period, you must deposit the tax by the close of the next business day, whether you're a monthly or semiweekly schedule depositor.
How to Correct a Form 941 Reporting Error
If you discover that you made a mistake on Form 941 in reporting your tax liability, use Form 941-X: Adjusted Employer's Quarterly Federal Tax Return or Claim for Refund to correct it.
Accuracy in Deposit Rule
You are required to deposit 100% of your tax liability on or before the deposit due date. However, penalties won't be applied for depositing less than 100% if both of the following conditions are met:
- Any deposit shortfall doesn't exceed the greater of $100 or 2% of the amount of taxes otherwise required to be deposited.
- The deposit shortfall is paid or deposited by the shortfall makeup date (described next).
Makeup Date for Deposit Shortfall
Monthly schedule depositor:
Deposit or pay the shortfall with your return by the due date of the return. You may pay the shortfall with your return even if the amount is $2,500 or more.
Semiweekly schedule depositor:
Deposit by the earlier of:
- The first Wednesday or Friday that falls on or after the 15th of the month following the month in which the shortfall occurred, or
- The due date of your return (for the return period of the tax liability). Form 941, Form 943, Form 944, and Form 945 are due by the last day of the month following the period for which the returns were made. Form CT-1 is due by the last day of the second month following the calendar year.