Unpaid Payroll Liabilities Not Showing in the "Pay Liabilities" Tab

Hey there, @ebo8302.

Thanks for reaching out to the Community for support. I'm happy to lend a hand with your payroll liabilities. 

I recommend making a liability adjustment. You can create liability adjustments to correct employee's year-to-date (YTD) or quarter-to-date (QTD) payroll info. I've included some steps below to create a liability adjustment. 

1. From the Employees menu, choose Payroll Taxes and Liabilities, then click on Adjust Payroll Liabilities.  
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2. Fill in the required fields. 
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3. Select the employee. 
4. Complete the Taxes and Liablitles fields. 
5. Choose Accounts Affected and then OK. 

Please know that adjusting payroll liabilities can be tricky. It's best to consult with your accountant as they know what's best for you and your business. If you don't have an accountant, don't sweat. You can find one here in our Resource Center. 

For more in-depth details about entering payroll liability adjustments, check out Adjust payroll liabilities in QuickBooks Desktop.

Please let me know if you have additional questions or concerns. I'll be here every step of the way. You can reach out to the Community at any time. Take care! 

But... I'm not wanting to adjust them. They genuinely need paid. 

They show as unpaid on all reports. 

The only place they're not showing is on the tab where I would normally pay them from (Payroll Liabilities tab).

I can confirm they weren't paid by a regular check or thru bill payments.

I know it's bad practice to pay payroll liabilities by either of these methods. Which is why I need them to reappear on the Payroll Liabilities tab so I can pay them.

Thanks for your prompt response, @ebo8302.

I'll help you make the tax liabilities for Q1 to Q3 reappear on the Payroll Liabilities tab.

If you're planning on using E-Pay to pay through Payroll Liabilities, it won't go through for prior payments. Also, you're unable to E-File forms on historical periods.

For record-keeping purposes, you can delete those recorded tax liability payments made from Quarters 1 to 3 in 2019. This is the only way to reappear them on the Payroll Liabilities tab.

Also, ensure to take note of the details or backup your payroll data before doing this step. This way, you can easily restore it in case of data issues.

Here's how to delete the tax payment:

1. Go to Lists and then select Chart of Accounts (COA).
2. In the COA window, double-click the account you use to pay the liabilities.
3. Find and then right-click on the transaction in question.
4. Select Delete Check or Delete Bill/Pmt- Check.

Once done, go back to the Payroll Liabilities tab to view the Q1 to Q3 2019 tax liabilities.

I'd also recommend consulting with your accountant for professional advice. If you don't have one, you can find an accountant near your place.

The steps shared by my colleague, Tori B can also help clear the tax payments in the Payroll Liability tab. Clicking the Accounts Affected button and selecting the Do not affect accounts will help resolve differences.

Please let me know how it goes. I'm always here to help. Stay safe and healthy.

I am having the same issue, but I have no history. Just started running payroll for the first time for this client. The taxes show on reports, but not under the Payroll Liabilities Tab for me to be able to pay.

Hi Adele,

Welcome, and thank you for using our payroll service for your client.

Your payroll tax dues will not appear in the Pay Liabilities section if they have already been paid or you have not set up their payment frequencies yet. So, let's check out your tax set up to find out. I've added the steps below, but you can also refer to this article: Set up and pay scheduled or custom (unscheduled) liabilities.

1. In the Pay Liabilities section, click Manage Payment Methods at the bottom.
   
2. In the QuickBooks Payroll Setup window, click Schedule payments.
3. Choose a Payment (deposit) method and a Payment (deposit) frequency for all your taxes. Once done, the list of taxes will be updated with their payment method and frequency. If you missed one, just highlight and edit that particular tax.
   
4. Click Finish to exit from the setup window.
   
   

On the other hand, there may be chances that you will pay your payroll taxes directly to the tax agency. If that case, you will need to reflect your payment in the QuickBooks system to update your list of tax payables. Here's an article to guide you through that: Enter historical tax payments in Desktop payroll.

If you need more help setting up your tax deposit frequency, just let us know.

I am now having the same issue.  I have unpaid quarterly taxes on which I am making payments.  They were always on my Pay Liabilities window and I would make payments towards balance due and the amount due would be updated.  Now they are just gone from the window.  I too do not need to make an adjustment to the amount owed as it is correct.  I just need to go in and make my monthly payments towards the balance due.

I am now having the same issue.  I have unpaid quarterly taxes on which I am making payments.  They were always on my Pay Liabilities window and I would make payments towards balance due and the amount due would be updated.  Now they are just gone from the window.  I too do not need to make an adjustment to the amount owed as it is correct.  I just need to go in and make my monthly payments towards the balance due.  I need to make sure my payments are applied to the correct tax liability quarter/year.

Hi heymoeshell,

You can check the payment schedules of your liabilities. They could have been changed. Just follow the steps in my previous answer above.

Payment or an adjustment could've already been applied to your liabilities that's why they are gone. You can check for payments or adjustments by going to Employees, Payroll Center, and hitting the Transactions tab. From there, you can check the Liability checks, Liability adjustments, or Year-to-date adjustments list to look for payments dated this calendar year or last calendar quarter.

If you can't find any, you can run the Payroll Liability Balances report. Adjust the date range, and click the TOTAL balance to see the details per lability item. There should be a liability check an adjustment that has been applied to them.

I also included an article about paying a liability using a check or creating a custom payment in my answer above.

If you have other questions in mind about your taxes, you can always go back to this thread.

I ran the liabilities report and it shows the correct balance that is outstanding.  However, it just will not show in my liabilities to pay list.

I just figured out how to make the payments using the Create Custom Payments link and then putting in the date range I need that brings up what I owe for the quarter  I then select how much I want to pay for each liability and it creates a check for me.  I just can't get it to show in the list as being over due, which is fine because I can at least get them paid and posted to the correct QB accounts.

Thank you very much. Your answer was exactly what I needed to fix my Liabilities not showing up to be paid.

I appreciate your step by step instruction along with screen shots showing exactly where to look.

I'm having same problem - I created a custom payment. Meanwhile, I will keep reading the thread to find out why this is happening in the first place. This company's first payroll run was 4/14/2022.  This problem isn't happening on my other QuickBooks company, which we've been running for years.

Thanks for joining this thread, LHSY.

You may go directly to the instruction provided by JessT to find unpaid payroll liabilities. 

Also, I want to make sure your QuickBooks company file gets the full functionality of payroll updates. You'll want to check for updates at least once a month.

Here's how to update your QuickBooks company file.

1. Close your company files and QuickBooks.
2. Open the Windows Start menu.
3. Search for QuickBooks Desktop. Right-click the icon and select Run as administrator.
4. While on the No Company Open screen, go to the Help menu and select Update QuickBooks Desktop.
5. Go to the Options tab. Select Mark All and then select Save.
6. Go to the Update Now tab and select the Reset Update checkbox.
7. When you're ready, select Get Updates.

When the update finishes, close and reopen QuickBooks Desktop (QBDT). To install the updates, select Yes, and restart your computer.

Once done, download the latest tax table in QBDT.

1. Go to Employees, then Get Payroll Updates.
2. Mark the Download Entire Update checkbox.
3. Select Download Latest Update. 
4. An informational window appears when the download is complete.

If you need to see the latest available release for your version, check out these articles.

• QuickBooks 2022
• QuickBooks 2021
• QuickBooks 2020
• QuickBooks 2019.

Let me know once you've found your unpaid payroll liabilities. Just leave a comment below, and I'm always right here whenever you have follow-up questions.

THANK YOU!! My liabilities skipped an entire month of Aflac and I have no idea why. This gave me a good fix for this month. Next month shows completely normal, just like last month did?? So strange. I've been using QB for 20+ years and never had this happen. 

Good day @SPELLC.

I’m glad that my peer was able to resolve your payroll liabilities concern. Please know that you can always reach out to us whenever you need help.

In case you need more articles and tips about managing your company files, you can visit our Support page anytime. You can also bookmark our Resource Center. It has free tools and bookkeeping basics you need to organize your data.

Have a great day, and keep safe!

Thank you I have been looking everywhere in My QB and it's help menu to no advail after about an hour.  I then thought to google it and found this reply.  

I worked it is now showing on my Pay Liab. tab in payroll

Thank you - Thank you

Love the visuals as well

This did not work for me.  I am having the same issue.  One of my Aflac liabilities is not showing in the pay liabilities screen.  Do you have another suggestion?

Welcome, and thanks for joining this forum, @Vmathis. Let's get your Aflac liabilities to show in the pay liabilities screen. 

First off, let's ensure to update your QuickBooks company file to get the full functionality of payroll revises. I'd suggest checking for updates regularly.

Here's how:

1. Close QuickBooks, then click the Windows Start menu.
2. Search for QuickBooks Desktop, and right-click the icon.
3. Select Run as administrator.
4. On the No Company Open screen, go to the Help menu and select Update QuickBooks Desktop.
5. Go to the Options tab. Select Mark All, then cick lSave.
6. Go to the Update Now section, then select the Reset Update checkbox.
7. Click Get Updates.

Once completed, close and reopen QuickBooks Desktop (QBDT). Then, when promted to install the updates, select Yes, and restart your computer.

After that, relaunch QuickBooks and download the latest tax table in QBDT. Here's how:

1. Go to the Employees menu, then Get Payroll Updates.
2. Mark the Download Entire Update checkbox.
3. Click Download Latest Update. 

Once done, an informational window appears. Then, follow the instruction provided by JessT to find unpaid payroll liabilities. 

Should the issue persists, I'd recommend contacting our QuickBooks Customer Support to help you check what's causing this to happen. They can further assist you on the steps to fix this issue. 

Check out the latest available release for your version in these articles:

• QuickBooks 2022
• QuickBooks 2021
• QuickBooks 2020
• QuickBooks 2019.

Get back if you have additional concerns with your unpaid payroll liabilities. We're always around to help you again.

God you guys are terrible at actually answering the question! What Junk. That is not what the person asked. what a waste of a job you perform.

I called QB helpdesk, but they were not of any help, and they did not answer the question being asked.  What a waste of time!  We really need good technical support to help in answering the question. I am having the same issue where federal tax liability is not showing up in the "Pay Liabilities" window.  This is the first time that I am having this issue. Any solution on how to fix it?

I know that this hasn't been a good experience, @peaktsinc. 

I want to make sure the payroll liabilities are showing in the correct area.

Let's perform some troubleshooting steps to check if this issue is caused by data problems within your company file. 

To start with, let's create a sample company file and view your Payroll liabilities from there. Let me guide you how to do it in your QuickBooks Desktop (QBDT) software: 

1. Go to the File menu.
2. Select New company.
3. Select Express Start.
4. Follow the onscreen steps to finish the setup.

Here's an article you can read for more details: Create a QuickBooks Desktop Company File. 

If you're able to view your tax liabilities without any issues, then we'll have to run the Verify and Rebuild Data tools. This will resolve minor data issues within your company file. Here's how to run the tool. 

To Verify:

1. Go to the Window menu and select Close All.
2. Then, go to the File menu.
3. Select Utilities.
4. Click Verify Data.

To Rebuild:

1. Go to the File menu.
2. Select Utilities.
3. Click Rebuild Data.

I've got you this article for more detailed steps: Verify and Rebuild Data in QuickBooks Desktop.

However, if the issue persists while using a sample company file, I suggest running a clean install. This fixes any issues that keep you from opening your company file and a few other situations.

If all the steps above didn't work. I'd recommend contacting our QuickBooks Customer Support to help you check what's causing this to happen. They can further assist you on the steps to fix this issue. 

Also, I'm adding this article that you can use for reference. This resource provides complete details on how to let your employees view their pay stubs online: Invite employees to see pay stubs and W-2s online.

You're always welcome to post in the Community whenever you need further help. Our door is always open for you. Keep safe and take care!

I am having the same issue,  I went into payroll center and did the other activities, click on the create custom payments and found the payment I needed to make for a wage garnishment.  What I have not found in all of the responses on here is why is this not showing up under pay taxes &toher liabilities.  What have I entered wrong or what step did I not do that the payment is not listed in that box?

Can anyone help me with that.  Thank you, heidi

It's nice to have you here in the Community, @Heidi1. I can surely help you out.

Let me share some information about why your payroll liabilities not showing in the Pay taxes and other liabilities tab. 

There are some reasons that we need to consider:

• Payroll is not updated.
• There is a liability payment posted for that liability period.
• There is underlying data damage in QuickBooks.

To check on this, you may need to go on your payroll liability report. This report shows if you have existing unpaid liabilities.

Here's how to open the report:
 

1. Go to the Reports menu and choose Employees & Payroll.
2. Select Payroll Liability Balances.
3. Update the report date based on your liability schedule.

On the report, you will know if there is a pending liability to pay. Positive numbers mean there is a liability balance, and negative figures indicate an overpayment. A zero balance means that a liability has been paid.

To review the incorrect posting of liability payment, double-click the amount on the liability. Doing so will reveal the liability history and payment details.

If you see an overlapping liability payment, you can correct the dates to update your balances.
 

We also need to make sure that you're able to download the latest tax table update version, 22116. You may follow the steps provided by my colleague above, MaryLandT.

If the issue persists, you can run the Verify/Rebuild Data tool. It identifies common data issues within a company file that causes the liability not to show.

Please leave a comment down below if you have other QuickBook payroll liability questions. I'd be glad to assist. Stay safe and have a good one!