Form 941 (Employer’s Quarterly Federal Tax Return): The IRS form employers use to report federal income tax withheld from employee paychecks, as well as the employer and employee shares of Social Security and Medicare taxes (FICA). Form 941 is filed with the IRS four times per year.

Basic Payroll: The Patriot Payroll plan where you calculate payroll and manage employee pay yourself, but you are responsible for depositing and filing your own payroll taxes. Patriot does not file or pay taxes on your behalf under this plan.

Full Service Payroll: The Patriot Payroll plan where Patriot handles payroll tax payments and filings for you.

Deposit schedule: The IRS-assigned schedule (monthly or semi-weekly) that determines how often you must deposit your federal payroll taxes. Your deposit schedule is based on the total taxes you reported during the lookback period.

Lookback period: The 12-month window the IRS uses to determine your deposit schedule for the calendar year — specifically, July 1 of the second preceding calendar year through June 30 of the preceding calendar year. For example, the lookback period for 2026 is July 1, 2024 through June 30, 2025.

EFTPS (Electronic Federal Tax Payment System): The free IRS system used to make federal tax deposits electronically. As of the 2026 revision of Form 941, all federal tax deposits must be made electronically, either through EFTPS, IRS Direct Pay, your IRS business tax account, or arrangements made through your financial institution.

Employer identification number (EIN), business name, trade name, and address

The quarter checkbox at the top of the form

Line 1: Number of employees who received wages for the pay period that includes March 12, June 12, September 12, or December 12

Line 2: Wages, tips, and other compensation

Line 3: Federal income tax withheld

Line 5a and 5c: Taxable Social Security wages and taxable Medicare wages and tips, including the calculated tax amounts in Column 2

Line 5e: Total Social Security and Medicare taxes

Line 6: Total taxes before adjustments

Line 10: Total taxes after adjustments

Line 12: Total taxes after adjustments and nonrefundable credits

Your printed name and daytime phone number in Part 5

Line 13, Total deposits for this quarter: Enter the total federal tax deposits you made with the IRS for the quarter, including any overpayment applied from a prior quarter or from a Form 941-X, 941-X (PR), or 944-X filed in the current quarter.

Line 14 or Line 15a: Once you've entered your deposit total on Line 13, compare it to Line 12.

Line 15b–15e, refund or credit election: If Line 15a shows an overpayment, check whether you want it applied to your next return or refunded on Line 15b.

Part 2, Line 16 – deposit schedule and tax liability: Indicate whether you're a monthly or semiweekly schedule depositor for the quarter.

Part 3: Check the boxes only if your business closed during the quarter or you're a seasonal employer.

Part 4: Complete only if you want to authorize a third-party designee to discuss the return with the IRS.

Part 5, Sign Here: Sign and date the return yourself. Patriot pre-fills your printed name and phone number, but the signature line and date must be completed by you.

Form 941-V (Payment Voucher): If you're paying a balance due by check or money order, Patriot pre-fills your EIN, business name, address, and quarter. You must still enter the payment amount and detach the voucher to mail with your payment.

Your lookback period determines your default schedule. Your deposit schedule for the calendar year is based on the total taxes you reported on Line 12 of Form 941 across all four quarters in your lookback period (see Definitions, above). If that total is $50,000 or less, you're a monthly schedule depositor for the entire year and don't need Schedule B. If it's more than $50,000, you're a semiweekly schedule depositor for the entire year and do need Schedule B.

The $100,000 next-day deposit threshold can also trigger it mid-quarter. Accumulating a $100,000 tax liability on any single day triggers two separate things: you must deposit that amount by the next business day, and you also become a semiweekly schedule depositor for the rest of the current calendar year and all of the following calendar year, even if your lookback period made you a monthly depositor. Because Schedule B is required for any quarter in which you were a semiweekly depositor for any part of it, you must complete Schedule B for the entire quarter in that case, not just the days on or after you crossed the threshold.

New employers: if you didn't exist for the full lookback period, any quarter you didn't exist is treated as zero tax liability. Most new employers start out as monthly schedule depositors unless the $100,000 next-day rule applies during the year.

To verify payroll amounts for a quarter, use Reports > Payroll Reports > Payroll Details, set the date range, keep all employees, locations and sources checked and and group by pay date.