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Set up or change your payroll tax filing or payment schedules

SOLVED•by QuickBooks•298•Updated December 13, 2023

Learn how to change your payroll form filing and tax deposit frequency in QuickBooks Online Payroll or QuickBooks Desktop Payroll.

If the IRS or your state agency sends you a new form filing or tax deposit schedule, you’ll need to update the info in your payroll product. This will help make sure you file the correct form and pay taxes on time. 

Select which action you want to take, then select your payroll product.

Note: Not sure which payroll service you have? Here's how to find your payroll service.

Set up or change your federal tax form (941, 944, 943)

  1. Go to Settings ⚙, then Payroll Settings.
  2. Select Edit ✎ next to Federal tax.
  3. From How often do you pay your taxes?, select Edit. 
  4. Select which form you file, how often you pay your taxes, and its effective date.
  5. Select Save, then Done.

If your federal or state form filing frequency changes, email your change notice to taxnoticeresolution@intuit.com.  We’ll change it for you. 

You don't need to update anything. You can select the correct form you're required to file when it's time to file it.

  1. Go to Employees, and select Payroll Center.
  2. Select File Forms.
  3. Select the form you need to file.

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Set up or change your tax payment frequency

You can change your tax payment schedule if:

  • It's current quarter and taxes haven’t been paid yet
  • It's for a future quarter or year
  1. Go to Settings ⚙, then Payroll Settings.
  2. Select Edit ✎ next to federal or the state you need to update.
  3. From How often do you pay your taxes?, select Edit. 
  4. Select your new schedule and effective date. 
  5. Select Save. 

If you can’t make the change, you can upload or send us your schedule and we’ll update it for you.

Note: We may automatically update your tax payment schedule to a more frequent one if your payroll taxes are above the federal or state thresholds.

If your federal or state deposit frequency changes, email your change notice to taxnoticeresolution@intuit.com.  We’ll change it for you. 

You’ll need to update your tax payment schedule if you e-pay your taxes through QuickBooks. 

  1. Go to Employees, and select Payroll Center.
  2. Select the Pay Liabilities tab.  From Other Activities select Change Payment Method.
  3. In the QuickBooks Payroll Setup, select Schedule payments.
  4. Select the tax liability you want to set up a schedule for. 
  5. Select Edit. 
  6. From the Payment frequency ▼ dropdown, select your schedule.
  7. Select Next, then Finish.

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Understand your tax form filing frequency

Federal forms

  • Form 941: Quarterly tax return (most common form)
  • Form 944: Annual tax return (for business with a tax liability of less than $1000 in a year)
  • Form 943: Annual tax return (Agricultural)

State forms

  • Withholding: quarterly or annual depending on the state and your tax liability
  • Unemployment: quarterly (IL also has monthly, but this isn’t supported by QuickBooks)
  • Combined (CA, OR, NJ, NY): quarterly

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Understand your tax payment frequency

Federal taxes

The IRS has two deposit frequencies: semiweekly and monthly

Semiweekly depositors

Your due date depends on the day of the week you pay your employees.

  • If your paycheck date is Wednesday, Thursday, or Friday, your taxes are due the following Wednesday.
  • If your paycheck date is Saturday, Sunday, Monday, or Tuesday, your taxes are due Friday of the same week.

Monthly depositors

If you’re a monthly payroll tax depositor, your taxes for the current month are due by the 15th day of the following month. If the 15th falls on a weekend or a federal holiday, your taxes are due the next banking day.

State taxes

  • State withholding deposit frequencies vary. Check out your state withholding website for details. 
  • State unemployment frequency: quarterly

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