Instructions for Form 943 (2006)

State code. If you made your deposits by FTD coupon (Form 8109) or by using an EFTPS bank account in a state other than that shown in your address on Form 943, enter the state code for the state where you made deposits or initiated EFTPS transfers in the box provided in the upper-left corner of Form 943. Use the Postal Service two-letter state abbreviation as the state code. Enter the code “MU” in the state code box if you deposit in more than one state. If you deposit in the same state as shown in your address, do not make an entry in this box.

Line 1—Number of agricultural employees. Enter the number of agricultural employees on your payroll during the pay period that included March 12, 2006. Do not include household employees, persons who received no pay during the pay period, pensioners, or members of the Armed Forces.

An entry of 250 or more on line 1 indicates that you must file Forms W-2 electronically. Call the SSA at 1-800-772-6270 or access the SSA's Employer Reporting Instructions and Information website at
www.socialsecurity.gov/employer for more information on electronic filing requirements. SSA no longer accepts magnetic media submissions of wage information.

Line 2—Total wages subject to social security tax. Enter the total cash wages subject to social security tax that you paid to your employees for farmwork during the calendar year. Enter the amount before deductions. Cash wages include checks, money orders, etc. Do not include (a) the value of noncash items such as food or lodging, or (b) pay for services other than farmwork. See section 3 of
Pub. 51 (Circular A) for more information. Do not report an employee's social security wages over $94,200 for 2006. If you, as a qualifying employer, receive an approved
Form 4029, Application for Exemption From Social Security and Medicare Taxes and Waiver of Benefits, from one or more of your employees, write “Form 4029” to the right of the entry space.

Line 4—Total wages subject to Medicare tax. Enter the total cash wages subject to Medicare tax that you paid to your employees for farmwork during the calendar year. Enter the amount before deductions. Do not include (a) the value of noncash items such as food or lodging, or (b) pay for services other than farmwork. There is no limit on the amount of wages subject to Medicare tax. If you, as a qualifying employer, receive an approved Form 4029, Application for Exemption From Social Security and Medicare Taxes and Waiver of Benefits, from one or more of your employees, write “Form 4029” to the right of the entry space.

Line 6—Federal income tax withheld. Enter federal income tax withheld on wages paid to your employees. Generally, you must withhold federal income tax from employees from whom you withhold social security and Medicare taxes. See sections 5 and 13 of Pub. 51
(Circular A) for more information on withholding rules.

Line 8—Adjustment to taxes. Use line 8 to:

Adjust for rounding of fractions of cents,
Correct errors in social security and Medicare taxes reported on a prior year return, and
Correct an administrative error in reporting federal income tax withholding on a prior year return. See section 9 in
Pub. 51 (Circular A).
Use a minus sign (if possible) to show a decrease to the amounts reported on lines 3 or 5. Otherwise, use parentheses.

Fractions of cents. If there is a small difference between net taxes (line 11) and total deposits (line 12), it may be caused by rounding to the nearest cent each time you computed payroll. This rounding occurs when you figure the amount of social security and Medicare tax to be withheld from each employee's wages. See Pub. 51 (Circular A) for details. If the fractions of cents adjustment is the only entry on line 8, write “Fractions Only” in the margin of Form 943.

Prior year adjustments. Prior year adjustments include errors in social security and Medicare taxes reported on earlier returns. If you report both an underpayment and an overpayment, show only the difference.

Because any amount shown on line 8 increases or decreases your tax liability, the adjustment must also be included on your Monthly Summary of Federal Tax Liability on Form 943 (line 15) or Form 943-A, Agricultural Employer's Record of Federal Tax Liability. For details on how to report adjustments on the Monthly Summary of Federal Tax Liability, see the instructions for line 15, later, or the instructions for Form 943-A.

Explain any prior year adjustments on Form 941c, Supporting Statement To Correct Information, or attach a statement that shows the same information. Enter on
Form 941c or include in the statement the total wages for all of your employees as previously reported and as corrected. Do not file Form 941c (or statement) separately from
Form 943.

If you are adjusting an employee's social security or Medicare wages for a prior year, you must also file Form W-2c, Corrected Wage and Tax Statement, and Form W-3c, Transmittal of Corrected Wage and Tax Statements, with the Social Security Administration. You can get these from the IRS by calling 1-800-829-3676.

Federal income tax adjustments. Generally, you cannot adjust amounts reported as federal income tax withheld in a prior calendar year unless it is to correct an administrative error. An administrative error occurs if the amount that you entered on the return is not the amount that you actually withheld. See section 9 of Pub. 51 (Circular A) for details.

Line 9—Total taxes. Combine lines 7 and 8; enter the result on line 9.

Line 10—Advance earned income credit (EIC) payments made to employees. Employees who are eligible can receive advance earned income credit (EIC) payments with their wages by giving you Form W-5, Earned Income Credit Advance Payment Certificate, annually. For more information, see sections 6 and 14 of Pub. 51 (Circular A).

Line 12—Total deposits. Enter the total amount deposited for the year, including any overpayment from 2005, as shown in your records.

Line 13—Balance due. You do not have to pay if line 13 is under $1.

Generally, you should show a balance due on line 13 only if your net tax liability for the year (line 11) is less than $2,500. However, see section 7 of Pub. 51
(Circular A) regarding payments made under the “accuracy of deposits” rule.

If you fail to make deposits as required and instead pay the taxes with Form 943, you may be subject to a penalty.

Line 14—Overpayment. If you deposited more than the correct amount for the year, you can have the overpayment refunded or applied to your next return.

Line 15—Monthly Summary of Federal Tax Liability.
This is a summary of your yearly tax liability, not a summary of deposits made. If line 11 is less than $2,500, do not complete line 15 or Form 943-A.

Complete line 15 only if you were a monthly schedule depositor for the entire year and line 11 is $2,500 or more. The amount entered on line 15M must equal the amount reported on line 11. See section 7 of Pub. 51 (Circular A) for details on the deposit rules. You are a monthly schedule depositor for the calendar year if the amount of your
Form 943 taxes (line 9) reported for the lookback period is not more than $50,000. The lookback period is the second calendar year preceding the current calendar year. For example, the lookback period for 2007 is 2005.

Reporting adjustments on line 15. If your net adjustment during a month is negative (for example, correcting an overreported liability in a prior period) and it exceeds your total liability for the month, do not enter a negative amount for the month. Instead, enter “-0-” for the month and carry over the unused portion of the adjustment to the next month.

For example, Pine Tree Farm discovered on February 6, 2006, that it overreported social security tax on its 2005 Form 943 by $2,500. Its Form 943 taxes for the first 3 months of 2006 were: January—$2,000; February—$2,000; and March—$2,000. Pine Tree Farm should complete
line 15 by entering “2,000” on line A, “-0-” on line B, and “1,500” on line C.

The prior period adjustment ($2,500) offsets the $2,000 liability for February and the excess $500 must be used to offset the March liabilities. Since the error was not discovered until February, it does not affect January liabilities reported on line A.

Additional information. Pub. 51 (Circular A) has information that you may need about social security, Medicare, federal unemployment (FUTA), withheld federal income taxes, and the advance earned income credit. It includes tables showing the federal income tax to withhold from an employee's wages.

Third-Party Designee. If you want to allow any individual, corporation, firm, organization, or partnership to discuss your 2006 Form 943 with the IRS, check the “Yes” box in the Third-Party Designee section of the return. Also, enter the name, phone number, and any five numbers that the designee chooses as his or her personal identification number (PIN). The authorization applies only to the tax form upon which it appears.

By checking the “Yes” box, you are authorizing the IRS to speak with the designee to answer any questions relating to the information reported on your tax return. You are also authorizing the designee to:

Exchange information concerning your tax return with the IRS and
Request and receive written tax return information relating to your tax return including copies of specific notices, correspondence, and account transcripts.

You are not authorizing the designee to receive any refund check, bind you to anything (including additional tax liability), or otherwise represent you before the IRS. If you want to expand the designee's authorization or desire automatic issuances of copies of notices, see Pub. 947, Practice Before the IRS and Power of Attorney.

The Third-Party Designee authorization is substantially equivalent to Form 8821, Tax Information Authorization, but automatically expires one year from the due date (without regard to extensions) for filing your 2006 Form 943. If you or your designee desire to terminate the authorization, a written statement conveying your wish to revoke the authorization should be submitted to the IRS service center where the return was processed (see Where to file (without a payment) on page 2).

Who must sign. Form 943 must be signed as follows:

Sole proprietorship—The individual who owns the business.
Corporation (including an LLC treated as a corporation)— The president, vice president, or other principal officer.
Partnership (including an LLC treated as a partnership) or unincorporated organization— A responsible and duly authorized member or officer having knowledge of its affairs.
Single member limited liability company (LLC) treated as a disregarded entity— The owner of the limited liability company (LLC).
Trust or estate—The fiduciary.

Form 943 may also be signed by a duly authorized agent of the taxpayer if a valid power of attorney has been filed.

Alternative signature method. Corporate officers or duly authorized agents may sign Form 943 by rubber stamp, mechanical device, or computer software program. For details and required documentation, see Rev. Proc. 2005-39. You can find Rev. Proc. 2005-39 on page 82 of Internal Revenue Bulletin 2005-28 at http://www.unclefed.com/Tax-Bulls/2005/irb05-28.html

Specific Instructions