Schedule B (Form 941) - Report of Tax Liability for Semiweekly Schedule Depositors

AH XSL/XML

Userid: CPM

Schema: instrx Leadpct: 100%

Pt. size: 9

Fileid: … I941SCHB/201401/A/XML/Cycle02/source

Page 1 of 3

Draft
Ok to Print
(Init. & Date) _______

17:48 - 27-Aug-2013

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

Instructions for Schedule B
(Form 941)

Department of the Treasury
Internal Revenue Service

(Rev. January 2014)

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 www.irs.gov/form941.

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, or Form
944-X, Amended Employer's ANNUAL 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 with your Form 941 (or Form
941-SS), do not 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 Amending a Previously Filed
Schedule B on page 2.

Who Must File?
File Schedule B 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.

!

Do not 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 of Form 941 or Form 941-SS.

General Instructions
Purpose of Schedule B
These instructions tell you about Schedule B, 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, social security, and
Medicare taxes (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, 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.
Do not use the Schedule B to show federal tax deposits. The
IRS gets deposit data from electronic funds transfers.
Aug 27, 2013

The IRS uses Schedule B to determine if you have
deposited your federal employment tax liabilities on
CAUTION
time. If you do not properly complete and file your
Schedule B 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 file Schedule B as an attachment to Form 944,
Employer's ANNUAL Federal Tax Return. Instead, if 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.

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, 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 matches the quarter checked on your Form 941 or
Form 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

Cat. No. 38683X

Page 2 of 3

Fileid: … I941SCHB/201401/A/XML/Cycle02/source

17:48 - 27-Aug-2013

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

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.

Month
1 (January)
1 (January)
2 (February)
3 (March)

For example, if your payroll period ended on December 31,
2013, and you paid the wages for that period on January 6,
2014, 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).

TIP

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 and the correction will not 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.
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 did not change. Write “Amended” at the top of
Schedule B. The IRS will refigure the penalty and notify you of
any change in the penalty.

Total Liability for the Quarter

To find your total liability for the quarter, add your monthly tax
liabilities.

Monthly schedule depositors. You can also file an amended
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 are not required.

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 Form
941-SS.

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.

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, 2013, 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.

Form 941-X
Tax decrease. If you are 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.

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, 2013)
line 31 (pay day, last day of the month)

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.

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: 01/04/13, 01/18/13, 02/01/13, 02/15/13,
03/01/13, 03/15/13, and 03/29/13. Employer B must report
employment tax liabilities on Schedule B as follows.
Month
1 (January)
2 (February)
3 (March)

Amount to report
$2,000
$110,000
$110,000
$110,000

Amending a Previously Filed Schedule B

Make sure you have checked the appropriate box in
Part 2 of Form 941 or Form 941-SS to show that you are
a semiweekly schedule depositor.

Month
1 (October)
2 (November)
3 (December)
3 (December)

Lines for dates wages were paid
line 11
lines 18, 25
lines 1, 8, 15, and 22
lines 1, 8, 15, 22, and 29

Tax increase — Form 941-X filed timely. If you are filing a
timely Form 941-X, do not file an amended Schedule B, unless
you were assessed an FTD penalty caused by an incorrect,
incomplete, or missing Schedule B. If you are filing an amended
Schedule B, do not include the tax increase reported on Form
941-X.

Lines for dates wages were paid
lines 4 and 8
lines 1 and 15
lines 1, 15, and 29

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 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 10, combined with any correction reported on Form
941-X, line 18, minus any advance EIC reported on Form 941-X,
line 19, for the quarter), less any previous abatements and
interest-free tax assessments.

Example 3. Employer C is a new business and monthly
schedule depositor for 2013. Employer C paid wages every
Friday and accumulated a $2,000 employment tax liability on
01/11/13. On 01/18/13, and on every subsequent Friday during
2013, 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 1/19/13, because Employer C had a total
accumulated employment tax liability of $112,000 on 1/18/13.
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 as shown below and
file it with Form 941 or 941-SS.

Paperwork Reduction Act Notice. We ask for the information
on Schedule B 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
-2-

Page 3 of 3

Fileid: … I941SCHB/201401/A/XML/Cycle02/source

17:48 - 27-Aug-2013

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

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.
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 www.irs.gov/formspubs. Click on More Information then
click on Comment on Tax Forms and Publications. You also
send your comments to: Internal Revenue Service, Tax Forms
and Publications Division, 1111 Constitution Ave. NW, IR-6526,
Washington, DC 20224. Do not send Schedule B to this
address. Instead, see Where Should You File? in the Form 941
or Form 941-SS instructions.

-3-