It’s almost time to file Form 941 for your third quarter. We know at this point you probably have pajama pants on in your Zoom meetings and are forgetting the days of the week, so we’re here to help you focus on staying in good standing with the IRS.
What is IRS Form 941?
Form 941 is the Employer’s Quarterly Federal Tax Return. If you have employees, this form is where you report the taxes the IRS requires you to withhold from their paychecks. Withholdings can be taxes for Medicare, income taxes, or Social Security.
Due to COVID-19, the IRS has issued a new draft of Form 941 that reflects all the different provisions and changes, including any tax credit your business has received. This covers the Families First Coronavirus Response Act (FFCRA), the CARES Act, and other tax relief programs. Even if you and Form 941 go way back, there are some new details you haven’t seen before. Find out more about Employee Retention Credit options and or how these Form 941 edits will show up for your business in your quarterly filing this year.
The major takeaway is that you’ll be able to record any aid you received in the new space provided by the 23 data fields the IRS is adding to Form 941.
Know Your Form 941 Deadline
Your Form 941 is due four times a year.
For most businesses, those dates end up being:
Quarter 1-April 30, 2020
Quarter 2- July 31, 2020
Quarter 3- November 2, 2020
Quarter 4- February 1, 2021
Be Prepared
In order to file Form 941, there’s some information you’ll want to collect. First of all, you’ll need to identify your business. This includes general stuff like your business’s name and address, but also your Employer Identification Number (EIN).
To report withholdings, you need to know how many employees you have been paying for this quarter, the total amount you paid them, and your taxable wages for Social Security and Medicare.
You will also need to know about the taxes you withheld. The numbers to have ready are the total amount you withheld from employee wages for income tax, Medicare, and Social Security, as well as the total employment tax deposits you made during this quarter.
Now, with the new draft of Form 941, you should also be ready to report any refundable or non-refundable tax credits you received for sick or family leave wages or Employee Retention Credit. You will also be able to report any advanced credits you received using Form 7200 and any Social Security Payments you may have deferred in anticipation of those credits.
E-file IRS Form 941 Easily
Now that you’ve dug up all your files and lined up your numbers, it’s time to submit your information to the IRS. Since ExpressE-file lets you access past returns, you won’t have to dig up all of that information every year. Our software is all about ease and efficiency. It only takes a few clicks to guarantee that your tax return pops up in the IRS’s system every quarter.
We’re here to help you meet your deadline with the most current version of Form 941 every quarter.
