IRS Federal Tax Form 941 Instructions for 2011, 2012

The IRS Form 941 is also known as the “Employer’s Quarterly Federal Tax Return”. All employers are required to withhold federal taxes from their employees’ compensation, including Social Security tax, income tax, and Medicare tax.

Form 941 is used to report the following amounts:

• Wages you have paid to your employees
• Tips your employees have received
• Federal income tax you have withheld from employees
• Social Security and Medicare taxes
• Sick pay, tips and group term life insurance
• Advanced earned income credit payments

And a few others….read Pub. 941 for full report

When Should You File Form 941?

You should file your initial IRS federal tax form 941 for the first quarter in which you paid wages. After your initial filing you will have to file every quarter from then on, even if you don’t have taxes to report. There is one exception and that is for seasonal employers who are filing their final return.

Special Rules for Some Employers

Seasonal employers do not have to file a 941 tax form for the quarters in which they have no tax liability. If you’re not paying wages then you don’t have the tax liability. You do have to let the IRS know on line 19 that you did not have any wages to report. Be sure to do explain that every quarter you file tax form 941.

Household employees create another special circumstance. As an employer of a household employee, you do not file a tax form 941 for them, you will use a Schedule H attached to your 1040. See Publication 926 for more information on that employment situation.

If you employ farm employees, you do not file tax form 941. Take a look at tax form 943. Tax form 943 is the employer’s annual tax return for agricultural employees.

If you happened to make an error on a previously filed Form 941, make the correction using Form 941-X. This will need to be filed separately from Form 941. You can read Section 13 of Publication 15, which can be found on the web site of the IRS.

An easy way to calculate IRS Federal Tax for form 941

Completing Form 941 can be a daunting and confusing task, and many employers have to leave the job in the hands of professional tax preparers.

Instead of spending so much money to hire a professional, you should consider the QuickBooks online payroll service. Their program will help you with your quarterly tax withholdings and guarantee accurate tax calculations.