Employer's Quarterly Federal Tax Return

Instructions for Schedule B
(Form 941)
(Rev. June 2025)

Use with the March 2024 revision of Schedule B (Form 941)
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 IRS.gov/
Form941.

Reminders
The COVID-19 related credit for qualified sick and
family leave wages is limited to leave taken after
March 31, 2020, and before October 1, 2021, and may
no longer be claimed on Form 941. Effective for tax
periods beginning after December 31, 2023, the lines
used to claim the credit for qualified sick and family leave
wages have been removed from Form 941 because it
would be extremely rare for an employer to pay wages
after December 31, 2023, for qualified sick and family
leave taken after March 31, 2020, and before October 1,
2021. Therefore, the instructions on adjusting your tax
liability for the nonrefundable portion of this credit have
been removed from these instructions. If you're eligible to
claim the credit for qualified sick and family leave wages
because you paid the wages after December 31, 2023, for
an earlier applicable leave period, file Form 941-X,
Adjusted Employer's QUARTERLY Federal Tax Return or
Claim for Refund, to claim the credit for qualified sick and
family leave wages for the quarter that you paid the wages
after you file Form 941. See the Instructions for Form
941-X for more information. Also see the March 2023
revision of these instructions for information on adjusting
tax liability for the nonrefundable portion of the credit for
qualified sick and family leave wages, which you may
need to do when filing Form 941-X.
Qualified small business payroll tax credit for increasing research activities. For tax years beginning
before January 1, 2023, a qualified small business may
elect to claim up to $250,000 of its credit for increasing
research activities as a payroll tax credit. The Inflation
Reduction Act of 2022 (the IRA) increases the election
amount to $500,000 for tax years beginning after
December 31, 2022. The payroll tax credit election must
be made on or before the due date of the originally filed
income tax return (including extensions). The portion of
the credit used against payroll taxes is allowed in the first
calendar quarter beginning after the date that the qualified
small business filed its income tax return. The election
and determination of the credit amount that will be used
Feb 18, 2025

against the employer’s payroll taxes are made on Form
6765, Credit for Increasing Research Activities. The
amount from Form 6765 must then be reported on Form
8974, Qualified Small Business Payroll Tax Credit for
Increasing Research Activities.
Starting in the first quarter of 2023, the payroll tax credit
is first used to reduce the employer share of social
security tax up to $250,000 per quarter and any remaining
credit reduces the employer share of Medicare tax for the
quarter. Any remaining credit, after reducing the employer
share of social security tax and the employer share of
Medicare tax, is then carried forward to the next quarter.
Form 8974 is used to determine the amount of the credit
that can be used in the current quarter. For more
information about the payroll tax credit, see IRS.gov/
ResearchPayrollTC. Also see Adjusting tax liability for the
qualified small business payroll tax credit for increasing
research activities (Form 941, line 11), later.
Reporting prior period adjustments. Prior period
adjustments are reported on Form 941-X or Form 944-X,
Adjusted Employer's ANNUAL Federal Tax Return or
Claim for Refund, and aren’t taken into account when
figuring the tax liability for the current quarter.
When you file Schedule B with your Form 941, don’t
change your current quarter 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 Correcting Previously
Reported Tax Liability, later.

General Instructions
Purpose of Schedule B
These instructions tell you about Schedule B. To
determine if you’re a semiweekly schedule depositor, see
section 11 of Pub. 15, Employer's Tax Guide.
Federal law requires you, as an employer, to withhold
certain taxes from your employees’ pay. Each time you
pay wages, you must withhold—or take out of your
employees’ pay—certain amounts for federal income tax,
social security tax, and Medicare tax. You must also
withhold Additional Medicare Tax from wages you pay to
an employee in excess of $200,000 in a calendar year.
Under the withholding system, taxes withheld from your
employees are credited to your employees in payment of
their tax liabilities.

Instructions for Schedule B (Form 941) (Rev. 6-2025) Catalog Number 38683X
Department of the Treasury Internal Revenue Service www.irs.gov

Federal law also requires employers to pay any liability
for the employer share of social security and Medicare
taxes. This share of social security and Medicare taxes
isn’t withheld from employees.
On Schedule B, list your tax liability for each day. Your
tax liability is based on the dates wages were paid. Your
liability includes:
• The federal income tax you withheld from your
employees' pay, and
• Both the employer and employee share of social
security and Medicare taxes.
Don’t use Schedule B to show federal tax deposits. The
IRS gets deposit data from electronic funds transfers.
The IRS uses Schedule B to determine if you’ve
deposited your federal employment tax liabilities
CAUTION on time. If you're a semiweekly schedule depositor
and you don’t properly complete and file your Schedule B
with Form 941, the IRS may propose an “averaged” FTD
penalty. See Deposit Penalties in section 11 of Pub. 15.

!

Who Must File?
File Schedule B if you’re a semiweekly schedule
depositor. You’re a semiweekly schedule 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. If you became a semiweekly schedule depositor
during the quarter, you must complete Schedule B for the
entire quarter. See section 11 of Pub. 15. The $100,000
tax liability threshold requiring a next-day deposit is
determined before you consider any reduction of your
liability for nonrefundable credits.

!

CAUTION

Don’t complete Schedule B if you have a tax
liability on Form 941, line 12, that is less than
$2,500 during the quarter.

When Must You File?
Schedule B is filed with Form 941. Therefore, the due date
of Schedule B is the same as the due date for the
applicable Form 941. In some situations, Schedule B may
be filed with Form 941-X. See Form 941-X, later, for
details.
Don’t file Schedule B as an attachment to Form 944,
Employer's ANNUAL Federal Tax Return. Instead, if you’re
a semiweekly schedule depositor that is 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 941-X.

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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’re
filing this schedule. Make sure the quarter checked on the
top of the Schedule B matches the quarter checked on
your Form 941 or 941-X.

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 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
liabilities were accrued or deposits were made.
For example, if your payroll period ended on December
31, 2025, and you paid the wages for that period on
January 6, 2026, 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

TIP in Part 2 of Form 941 to show that you’re a
semiweekly schedule depositor.

Example 1. Cedar Co. is a semiweekly schedule
depositor that pays wages for each month on the last day
of the month. On December 24, 2025, Cedar Co. also
paid its employees year-end bonuses (subject to
employment taxes). Cedar Co. must report employment
tax liabilities on Schedule B for the fourth quarter
(October, November, December) as follows.
Month
1 (October)
2 (November)
3 (December)
3 (December)

Lines for dates wages were paid
line 31 (payday, last day of the month)
line 30 (payday, last day of the month)
line 24 (bonus paid December 24, 2025)
line 31 (payday, last day of the month)

Example 2. Fir Co. is a semiweekly schedule depositor
that pays employees every other Friday. Fir Co.
accumulated a $20,000 employment tax liability on each
of these pay dates: April 4, 2025; April 18, 2025; May 2,
2025; May 16, 2025; May 30, 2025; June 13, 2025; and
June 27, 2025. Fir Co. must report employment tax
liabilities on Schedule B as follows.
Month
1 (April)
2 (May)
3 (June)

Lines for dates wages were paid
lines 4 and 18
lines 2, 16, and 30
lines 13 and 27

Example 3. Elm Co. is a new business and monthly
schedule depositor for 2025. Elm Co. paid wages every
Friday and accumulated a $2,000 employment tax liability
on April 18, 2025. On April 25, 2025, and on every
subsequent Friday during 2025, Elm Co. accumulated a
Instructions for Schedule B (Form 941) (Rev. 6-2025)

$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. Elm Co. became a semiweekly schedule depositor
on April 26, 2025, because Elm Co. had a total
accumulated employment tax liability of $112,000 on April
25, 2025. For more information, see section 11 of Pub. 15.
Elm Co. must complete Schedule B as shown next and
file it with Form 941. Elm Co. won’t check the second box
on Form 941, line 16, even though Elm Co. was a monthly
schedule depositor until April 26, 2025. Instead, Elm Co.
must check the third box on Form 941, line 16.
Month
1 (April)
1 (April)
2 (May)
3 (June)

Lines for dates wages were paid
line 18
line 25
lines 2, 9, 16, 23, and 30
lines 6, 13, 20, and 27

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

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 12
on Form 941.

CAUTION

Adjusting tax liability for the qualified small business
payroll tax credit for increasing research activities
(Form 941, line 11). Semiweekly schedule depositors
must account for the qualified small business payroll tax
credit for increasing research activities claimed on Form
941, line 11, when reporting their tax liabilities on
Schedule B. The total tax liability for the quarter must
equal the amount reported on Form 941, line 12. Failure to
account for the qualified small business payroll tax credit
for increasing research activities on Schedule B may
cause Schedule B to report more than the total tax liability
reported on Form 941, line 12. Don't reduce your daily tax
liability reported on Schedule B below zero.
Beginning with the first quarter of 2023, the qualified
small business payroll tax credit for increasing research
activities is first used to reduce the employer share of
social security tax (up to $250,000) for the quarter and any
remaining credit is then used to reduce the employer
share of Medicare tax for the quarter until it reaches zero.
In completing Schedule B, you take into account the
payroll tax credit against the liability for the employer
share of social security tax starting with the first payroll
payment of the quarter that includes payments of wages
subject to social security tax to your employees until you
use up to $250,000 of credit against the employer share of
social security tax and you then take into account any
remaining payroll tax credit against the liability for the
Instructions for Schedule B (Form 941) (Rev. 6-2025)

employer share of Medicare tax starting with the first
payroll payment of the quarter that includes payments of
wages subject to Medicare tax to employees. Consistent
with the entries on Schedule B, the payroll tax credit
should be taken into account in making deposits of
employment tax. If any payroll tax credit is remaining at
the end of the quarter that hasn't been used completely
because it exceeds $250,000 of the employer share of
social security tax and the employer share of Medicare tax
for the quarter, the excess credit may be carried forward to
the succeeding quarter and allowed as a payroll tax credit
for the succeeding quarter. The payroll tax credit may not
be taken as a credit against income tax withholding, the
employee share of social security tax, or the employee
share of Medicare tax. Also, the remaining payroll tax
credit may not be carried back and taken as a credit
against wages paid from preceding quarters. For more
information about the payroll tax credit, go to IRS.gov/
ResearchPayrollTC.
Example. Rose Co. is an employer with a calendar tax
year that filed its timely 2024 income tax return on April
15, 2025. Rose Co. elected to take the qualified small
business payroll tax credit for increasing research
activities on Form 6765. The third quarter of 2025 is the
first quarter that begins after Rose Co. filed the income tax
return making the payroll tax credit election. Therefore, the
payroll tax credit applies against Rose Co.'s share of
social security tax (up to $250,000) and Medicare tax on
wages paid to employees in the third quarter of 2025.
Rose Co. is a semiweekly schedule depositor. Rose Co.
completes Schedule B by reducing the amount of liability
entered for the first payroll payment in the third quarter of
2025 that includes wages subject to social security tax by
the lesser of (1) its share of social security tax (up to
$250,000) on the wages, or (2) the available payroll tax
credit. If the payroll tax credit elected is more than Rose
Co.'s share of social security tax on the first payroll
payment of the quarter, the excess payroll tax credit would
be carried forward to succeeding payroll payments in the
third quarter until it is used against up to $250,000 of Rose
Co.'s share of social security tax for the quarter. If the
amount of the payroll tax credit exceeds Rose Co.'s share
of social security tax (up to $250,000) on wages paid to its
employees in the third quarter, any remaining credit is
used against Rose Co.'s share of Medicare tax on the first
payroll payment of the quarter and then the excess payroll
tax credit would be carried forward to succeeding payroll
payments in the third quarter until it is used against Rose
Co.'s share of Medicare tax for the quarter. If Rose Co. still
has credit remaining after reducing its share of social
security tax (up to $250,000) and Medicare tax for the
third quarter, the remainder would be treated as a payroll
tax credit against its share of social security tax (up to
$250,000) and Medicare tax on wages paid in the fourth
quarter. If the amount of the payroll tax credit remaining
exceeded Rose Co.'s share of social security tax (up to
$250,000) and Medicare tax on wages paid in the fourth
quarter, it could be carried forward and treated as a payroll
tax credit for the first quarter of 2026.

Correcting Previously Reported Tax Liability
Semiweekly schedule depositors. If you’ve been
assessed an FTD penalty for a quarter and you made an
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error on Schedule B and the correction won’t change the
total liability for the quarter you reported on Schedule B,
you may be able to reduce your penalty by filing an
amended Schedule B.

amended Schedule B, unless you were assessed an FTD
penalty caused by an incorrect, incomplete, or missing
Schedule B. If you’re filing an amended Schedule B, don’t
include the tax increase reported on Form 941-X.

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 didn’t
change. Write “Amended” at the top of Schedule B. The
IRS will refigure the penalty and notify you of any change
in the penalty.

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 return period 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.

Monthly schedule depositors. You can file a
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
for this situation, only enter the monthly totals. The daily
entries aren’t required.
Where to file. File your amended Schedule B, or, for
monthly schedule depositors, your original Schedule B at
the address provided in the penalty notice you received. If
you're filing an amended Schedule B, you don’t have to
submit your original Schedule B.

Form 941-X

You may need to file an amended Schedule B with Form
941-X to avoid or reduce an FTD penalty.

Tax decrease. If you’re 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.
File your amended Schedule B with Form 941-X. The total
liability for the quarter reported on your amended
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.

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 12, combined with any
correction reported on Form 941-X, line 23) for the
quarter, less any previous abatements and interest-free
tax assessments.
Paperwork Reduction Act Notice. We ask for the
information on Schedule B to carry out the Internal
Revenue laws of the United States. You’re required to give
us the information. We need it to ensure that you’re
complying with these laws and to allow us to figure and
collect the right amount of tax.
You’re 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 will
vary depending on individual circumstances. The
estimated burden for employers filing Schedule B is
approved under OMB control number 1545-0029 and is
included in the estimates shown in the Instructions for
Form 941.

Tax increase—Form 941-X filed timely. If you’re filing a
timely Form 941-X showing a tax increase, don’t file an

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Instructions for Schedule B (Form 941) (Rev. 6-2025)