Should my Employer taxes be a Negative number now with the Employee Retention Credit?

Nice to have you here in the Community, @samantha20.

The Employee Retention Credit is a fully refundable tax credit for employers equal to 50 percent of the qualified wages paid after March 12, 2020, and before January 1, 2021. This means that since it's only 50 percent of the wages, the amount shouldn't be negative. You can find more information about the Employer taxes in these articles:

• How the CARES Act affects your payroll
• Employee Retention Credit under the CARES Act

Feel free to comment below if you have any other questions or concerns. Best wishes.

Employer taxes are around 10% of wages. The Employee Retention Credit is 50% of wages. So since the credit is greater than the taxes due, won't that make the employer taxes due negative? 

Hey SonnyP. The Employee Retention credit is for 50% of the employee's wages, not their taxes paid. Check out our article on how to set up the Employee Retention Credit for a detailed explanation of this.

It will help clear up any confusion you have. But rest assured it is functioning correctly and I want to do anything I can to help. So if there are any other questions or concerns, leave a reply below. 

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I have entered the payroll items as your instructions state.  I have also entered a few paychecks to test the new payroll item. Everything seems to work fine. But when I create a 2nd quarter 941 the wage line is 0. 

Hi corp2. This is to account for the weeks where payroll was paid but the tax table changes were not implemented yet into QuickBooks. It will look off for a bit while the taxes catch up but I can assure you everything is working as intended. Just remember, if you need anything else or have any other concerns please leave a reply below. 

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Thank Steve_C. When I enter a payroll check as I normally would without utilizing the CARES Employee Retention option the wages populate on the 941. I have multiple businesses that I do payroll for and want to be sure that everything is working properly. When I call for support they just read a script and are of no additional help. I'm beginning to wonder if I am better off creating excel spreadsheets rather than hoping that it will work eventually. When the businesses are up and running I won't have time to try to figure it all out and sit on the phone with support unfortunately. 

Thanks Steve_C. When I run payroll without utilizing the CARES Employee retention option the wages populate on the 941. I have called support for help but they just read a script and are of no additional help. I have over a dozen businesses that I do payroll for and am trying to get it all setup in each company profile and assure that it is working properly.  I am wondering if I would be better off creating excel spreadsheets and calculating manually rather than hoping that it will eventually work correctly. I have the most recent update downloaded also. 

Sorry, but the people above are correct.  My payroll wages are around three thousand.  Liabilities due are around seven hundred.  The retention credit is 50% of wages, or around fifteen hundred.  Seven hundred minus fifteen hundred equals negative eight hundred.  Quickbooks will not allow me to record a negative liability payment, and says I still owe the seven hundred.  With a big red exclamation point badge.   What to do?

Hi, srp1621. I'll share some information with you about why payroll liabilities can show as negative amounts.
 

A negative liability amount means that there's a tax overpayment taking place. Here are the most common reasons why this can occur:

• A duplicate payment was made.
• Incorrect tax rate.
• Paychecks were deleted after the tax payment was approved for the payroll period.
• An incorrect reconciliation of historical taxes.

The steps to correct an overpayment in your books will depend on the exact reason why it's happening. You can use the following resources to begin fixing the problem:

• Resolving a tax overpayment
• What to do with overpayments or underpayments?

If there's anything else I can help with, I'm just a post away. Have yourself a great day!