Trying to file 941 quarterly -- Not letting me because I haven't drawn a salary?

Hello, nazderian. 

Thanks for stopping by the Community, Your best course of action at this time would be to run a certified payroll report to verify you haven't drawn a salary and then take that report to our Customer Service team as they have the tools to see exactly what's going on in your specific account. Follow along below.

1. Go to the Reports menu.
2. Choose Employees & Payroll.
3. Go to More Payroll Reports in Excel, then choose New! Certified Payroll Report.
4. Follow the on-screen instructions to create the report.

Once created you can reach out to the Support team via these steps:

1. Open QuickBooks.
2. Go to Help, then select QuickBooks Desktop Help.
3. Select Contact Us.
4. Give a brief description of your issue, then select Continue.
5. We’ll provide you a few support options. Select which one is best for you.

If you have any other questions or concerns, feel free to reach out below. Thank you for your time and have a nice evening. 

Thanks for getting back to me.

When I go to run a certified payroll report, it has no dates in the drop down menu. I have not drawn a salary this year so there is no payroll for this year - so it doesn't allow me to certify a report to send.

However, I do still have a company and plan to pay myself salary in the future. I was under the impression (as had been done in the past) that you have to file a 941 every quarter regardless if there was payroll?

So, no certified payroll report because there was no payroll. And it's not letting me generate a 941 because there has been no payroll this year.

SO - is something wrong with the upgrades on my quickbooks - i.e. is this a glitch in the QB system? Or am I truly not supposed to generate a 941 if there has been no payroll? It did allow me to file the quarterly CA DE9 and DE9C without a problem.

Please advise.
Thanks

Sonya

Thanks for getting back to me with those instructions.

Unfortunately, the drop down to certify a payroll period doesn't let me generate anything because there has been no payroll this year. That is why the 941 is not allowing me to generate a report. It says I have no payroll this year, which is correct. BUT, I was able to file a 941 last quarter and I had no payroll then. either.

So, is this a glitch with QB's upgrade? Or is it truly that IRS changed their requirements and I am not supposed to file a 941 if I haven't had a payroll in the year? And if this is the case, why did it allow me to file last quarter when I didn't have a payroll?

I was able to file for CA - the DE9 and DE9C for both quarters without a problem.

Please advise?
Thanks

Sonya

Running into the same problem...state unemployment quarterlies can be processed with zero payroll but not 941s....has anyone found a solution?  

I am having the same issue as well. Filed QTR 1 no issue and no wages were paid. I need to file QTR 2 since the company is staying open but it will not populate the form. Any fixes for this yet? I have run the payroll update as well just to make sure nothing had been missed and still no luck. 

I found this on another page and it worked for me. I can now prepare a zero 941 as in the past!!

I contacted support and was told to make a zero adjustment to solve the problem.  The representative said it would only be like this for Q2 of 2020 but we will see in Q3.  Follow these steps:

Click on Employees | Payroll Taxes and Liabilities | Adjust Payroll Liablilities ->

• Fill in 6/30/2020 or last day in quarter for the effective date.
• Select an employee in the "Adjustment is for" dropdown.
• Select Federal Withholding in the "Item Name" dropdown in the table "Taxes and Liablities.  Leave zeros in the prefilled fields
• Click OK

Process your 941 like normal

Hey there, ekleinsewellcpa. Thanks for reaching out to the Community about this.
 

I've reviewed our Federal & State Forms blocked article and don't see that Form 941 is currently unavailable. This means it's available in QuickBooks. Additionally, it's published on the Internal Revenue Service's website.
 

Since you're still unable to generate it, I went ahead and checked our investigations database and see some users have reported an error message which reads "No employees have been paid in the given year" when trying to load this specific document. That investigation (INV-48016) is still ongoing. To confirm my understanding of your situation, are you receiving this same notification, or is it saying something different when trying to populate the form?
 

I recommend making sure your books are updated to Intuit's latest release. Here's how:
1. Open the application.
2. Hit F2 (or CTRL + 1) on your keyboard to open the Product Information window.
3. Review your current version and release.

• QuickBooks Desktop 2020: Release 7 (R7) - May 2020
• QuickBooks Desktop 2019: Release 12 (R12) - March 2020
• QuickBooks Desktop 2018: Release 15 (R15) - April 2020

If you're not up-to-date, you can perform a download and installation of our latest release.
 

I'd also like to point out these forms can be filed manually. Steps for where to mail Form 941 are listed on the official IRS website.

I'll be looking forward to hearing back from you. Have a wonderful day!