The federal payroll tax deposit deadline depends on which schedule the IRS has placed you on and what day of the week your employees were paid. Here are the exact rules, plus the quarterly Form 941 deadlines and the weekend and holiday shifts.
Federal payroll tax deposits follow one of two schedules: monthly or semi-weekly. The IRS determines which one applies to you based on your lookback period, and that schedule sets the deposit due date for every payroll you run during the year.
If you are on the monthly schedule, every payroll run during a calendar month rolls into one deposit. That deposit is due by the 15th day of the following month. A payroll dated anywhere in March, for example, deposits by April 15. A payroll dated in December deposits by January 15 of the next year.
This is the schedule most small employers land on. You qualify as a monthly depositor when your reported employment tax liability during the IRS lookback period (the 12 months ending June 30 of the prior year) was $50,000 or less. The schedule applies for the entire calendar year, regardless of how your payroll changes during it.
Semi-weekly depositors do not have one date per month. The deadline shifts with the day of the week your employees are paid. The pattern is consistent once you learn it.
| Payday falls on… | Deposit is due… |
|---|---|
| Wednesday, Thursday, or Friday | The following Wednesday |
| Saturday, Sunday, Monday, or Tuesday | The following Friday |
You land on this schedule when your lookback-period tax liability was more than $50,000. Semi-weekly depositors typically run a deposit every week, and many run two deposits in the same week when paydays land on both sides of the Wednesday split.
Separate from the deposit deadlines, employers also file Form 941 once per quarter to report the wages paid and the deposits made. Form 941 due dates are fixed and do not depend on your deposit schedule.
| Quarter | Reporting period | Form 941 due |
|---|---|---|
| Q1 | January – March | April 30 |
| Q2 | April – June | July 31 |
| Q3 | July – September | October 31 |
| Q4 | October – December | January 31 |
Very small employers (typically under $1,000 in annual employment tax liability) may qualify to file Form 944 annually instead of Form 941 quarterly. The IRS notifies you in writing if you qualify for Form 944.
When a deposit deadline lands on a Saturday, Sunday, or federal legal holiday, the deadline moves to the next business day. The IRS publishes the qualifying holidays in Publication 15 each year. The list includes:
The deposit is on time as long as you submit by 8 PM Eastern on the new deadline date. If you have any doubt, depositing on the last business day before the weekend is the safer move.
State agencies set their own deposit schedules and they rarely match the federal calendar. California EDD uses next-day, semi-weekly, monthly, and quarterly tiers based on accumulated state personal income tax withholding. New York and Illinois use their own thresholds.
If you operate in multiple states, the cleanest setup is one reminder per filing: one for the federal deposit, one for each state. They share an email address and take less than a minute each to set up.
Knowing the deadline is half the battle. The other half is remembering it on the right day, every month or every payroll cycle, with no missed cycles. A payroll tax deposit reminder is the simplest way to make sure the dates above arrive in your inbox before they arrive on your IRS notice.
See also: how to know which schedule applies to you, or read about what the IRS charges when a deposit slips past the deadline.
Set the reminder for your next deposit date, and let it recur.
Done in seconds. No sign-up required.
It depends on your deposit schedule. Monthly depositors owe by the 15th of the month following payroll. Semi-weekly depositors owe on the following Wednesday for paydays Wednesday through Friday, and on the following Friday for paydays Saturday through Tuesday. A separate next-day rule kicks in when a single payday triggers $100,000 in tax liability.
Form 941 itself is filed quarterly with the IRS, but the deposits it reports are made throughout the quarter on either the monthly or semi-weekly schedule. The Form 941 filing deadlines are April 30, July 31, October 31, and January 31 for the prior quarter.
If your payday is weekly and you are a semi-weekly depositor, each payroll triggers its own deadline three or five business days later depending on which day of the week the payday falls on. Wednesday–Friday paydays deposit by the following Wednesday. Saturday–Tuesday paydays deposit by the following Friday.
The deposit is considered timely if you make it by the next business day. Saturdays, Sundays, and federal legal holidays push the deadline forward. IRS Publication 15 lists the legal holidays that qualify each year.
No. State agencies set their own schedules. California EDD uses next-day, semi-weekly, monthly, or quarterly tiers based on the employer's state PIT withholding. New York, Illinois, and other states each have their own thresholds and calendars. Set a separate reminder for each state filing.
Form 941 is filed quarterly, with returns due April 30, July 31, October 31, and January 31. Employers with very small payroll tax liability may qualify to file Form 944 annually instead, with a January 31 deadline. The form deadlines are separate from the deposit deadlines covered above.
A few days. You want enough lead time to pull figures from payroll, log into EFTPS, and queue the payment without rushing. Set the reminder for the deposit due date itself and you will get advance notice automatically before that date arrives.
Free reminder email, no account. Pick the next deposit date, set it to recur, and the deadline shows up in your inbox before it shows up on an IRS notice.
Set My Payroll Tax Deposit ReminderLast modified: