Workers Compensation Liability

We appreciate you joining this forum and sharing your insights, @Jjones2750,

You may notice that QuickBooks changes tax amounts by a few pennies, even though there are no changes to the employee's pay rate, tax setup, or deductions. These differences are due to rounding for taxes that are calculated at exact rates (such as Social Security and Medicare). Our system ensures that the employee's YTD totals for those taxes are always exactly correct. You and the employee don't need to be concerned about these small variations.

For now, the option to turn off rounding with the Worker's Comp amount is currently unavailable. It is a default function in QuickBooks to automatically round off amounts to have a flat rates to avoid discrepancies. For more details about this, you can check out this article: Rounded numbers cause discrepancies in tax calculations.

Having the option to change this preference is a brilliant idea. Did you know that you can also take part with our product enhancements? We want your voice to be heard and be put in action. To log a suggestion to our developers for estimates, go to the Help menu and select Send Feedback Online.

For now, you can use the liability adjustment option if you want to correct this penny differences.

If you have additional questions about payroll or Worker's Comp, let me know in the comment. I'll be glad to share some more insight to help your way around QuickBooks. Have a good day!

Thank you for responding, I don't believe I explained my problem very well.   On the "Payroll Liabilities Report"  my workers compensation liability (also what is on the balance sheet) is incorrect and only calculated $66.33 for the monthly liability while the Workers Compensation Summary report is correct with over $5000.00.  Shouldn't the two amounts reconcile?

Hello there, Jjones2750.

The amount showing on the Payroll Liabilities report depends on the payroll items that use the payroll liabilities in QuickBooks Desktop. That is why the report is generating a different amount compared to the other report you've mentioned.

You may want to take a look at this website to get additional information about the incorrect figures for payroll liabilities in QuickBooks Desktop: Payroll Liability and/or Balance Sheet Report shows incorrect amounts for payroll liabilities. 

Comment below if you need anything else. Stay safe and healthy. 

was your issue ever resolved?  I'm having the same problem and can not make any sense of it at all!

We appreciate you joining in on this thread, hastings24. Allow me to help you correct inaccurate payroll liability reports.

Beforehand, may I know what specific issue you're experiencing when doing payroll tasks? Any additional information would be much appreciated so I can further provide you with an accurate resolution.

If you've encountered incorrect payroll liability balances, inaccurate posting of payroll items, or voided a paycheck after the liability has been paid:  Fix a discrepancy on the Payroll Liability Balances report in QuickBooks Desktop Payroll.

However, if you require to correct liabilities, you can perform payroll liability adjustments. Please seek additional guidance from your accounting professional to further provide you with the assistance you need. To do that:

1. Ensure to find payroll discrepancies.
2. Adjust payroll liabilities.
3. Check if the liability balances are updated.

For more tips and detailed information, please visit this article: Adjust payroll liabilities in QuickBooks Desktop Payroll.

If you're referring to something else, feel free to let me know in the comments below.

I've also added this reference to help you learn more about how to handle underpaid and overpaid taxes in your payroll: 

• Resolve a payroll tax underpayment.
• Resolve a payroll tax overpayment.

Keep us posted if you have additional queries. We'll get back to you to help you further. Have a good one!