The tax liability on a Form 941 return includes your employees' withheld federal income tax, social security tax, and Medicare tax, and your share of social security and Medicare tax.

If you accumulate a liability for these taxes of $500 or more per quarter, you must deposit this amount by making payment to an authorized financial institution or the Federal Reserve bank for your area. A Form 8109, Federal Tax Deposit Coupon, or FTD, Coupon must accompany your payment. It is very important that you clearly mark the correct type of tax and tax period on each FTD coupon, as this information is used by the IRS to credit your account. Your check or money order should be made payable to the financial institution or Federal Reserve bank where you make your deposit, not the IRS.

New employers who apply for an employer identification number are sent an FTD coupon book. The IRS will keep track of the number of coupons you use and will automatically send you additional FTD coupons when you need them. If necessary, the IRS will assist you in completing blank coupons, which can be used to make a deposit if you do not have pre-printed Forms 8109. For more information, refer to Form 8109-B, or call IRS at 1-800-829- 1040.

To avoid a penalty, it is important that deposits be made timely. If the deposit due date falls on a Saturday, Sunday, or legal holiday, the deposit will be due by the next banking day.

You must deposit the Form 941 taxes based on either a monthly or semi-weekly deposit schedule.

New employers are generally monthly depositors for at least the first year. Otherwise your deposit status for 1997 is based on the amount of taxes you reported on Form 941 for the period July 1, 1995, through June 30, 1996. This is called the look back period.

If you reported taxes of $50,000 or less on Forms 941 for the look back period, you are a monthly schedule depositor and generally must deposit each month's Form 941 taxes on or before the 15th day of the following month. For example, taxes for January must be deposited by February 15th.

If you reported taxes of more than $50,000 for the look back period, you are a semi-weekly schedule depositor and generally must deposit Form 941 taxes on or before Wednesday or Friday, based on the following schedule;

The employment taxes on payments made to your employees on Wednesday, Thursday, and/or Friday must be deposited by the following Wednesday.

The taxes on payments made to your employees on Saturday, Sunday, Monday, and/or Tuesday must be deposited by the following Friday.

Whether you are a monthly depositor or a semi-weekly schedule depositor, if you accumulate taxes of $100,000 or more on any day during a deposit period, you must deposit them on the next banking day.

Deposit requirements are discussed in Publication 15, Employer's Tax Guide.

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