Federal Payroll Tax Deposit Schedules and Lookback Periods

The federal payroll tax deposit schedule the IRS assigns you is either monthly or semi-weekly, and which one applies depends on how much payroll tax you reported during a 12-month lookback period. Employers with $50,000 or less in reported tax during that window deposit monthly; employers above $50,000 deposit semi-weekly. A separate rule overrides both: any single day on which you accumulate $100,000 or more in payroll tax liability triggers a deposit due by the close of the next business day.¹

The money you withhold from employee paychecks for federal income tax, Social Security, and Medicare is held in trust for the government from the moment it comes out of the check.² Missing a deposit is not the same as running late on a bill. The penalties are tiered from 2% to 15%, and the unpaid amount can be assessed personally against anyone at the company who had the authority to pay it.

How the Lookback Period Decides Your Schedule

Your schedule for a given calendar year is set before the year begins, based on the four Form 941 quarters running from July 1 two years back through June 30 of the prior year. For 2026, that means July 1, 2024, through June 30, 2025.³

Add up line 12 (total taxes after adjustments and nonrefundable credits) from each of those four quarterly returns. Use the numbers as originally reported. The IRS instructions specifically say not to adjust the lookback total for any corrections you later filed on Form 941-X.³

$50,000 or less puts you on the monthly schedule. More than $50,000 puts you on semi-weekly.

Monthly Deposit Schedule

Employers on the monthly schedule combine all payroll taxes from wages paid during a calendar month and deposit the total by the 15th of the following month.⁴ So taxes on January wages are due February 15, February wages are due March 15, and so on.

When the 15th lands on a weekend or a legal holiday, the deposit is on time if you make it by the next business day. Read “legal holiday” strictly: it means a legal holiday in the District of Columbia. A state holiday that shuts your local bank does not extend the federal deadline.¹

New employers start on the monthly schedule by default. Quarters before your business existed count as zero liability, which keeps your first lookback total well under the $50,000 line.⁴

Semi-Weekly Deposit Schedule

Above the $50,000 threshold, deposits run on a rolling schedule tied to your actual payday.⁴

Pay employees on Wednesday, Thursday, or Friday: deposit is due by the following Wednesday.
Pay employees on Saturday, Sunday, Monday, or Tuesday: deposit is due by the following Friday.

You always get at least three business days after the semi-weekly period closes. When a D.C. legal holiday falls inside those three business days, add one day for each holiday.¹ Multiple paydays within the same week can produce overlapping deposit windows, so the semi-weekly schedule really does need either reliable payroll software or a carefully maintained calendar.

The $100,000 Next-Day Deposit Rule

This rule overrides your normal schedule. If you accumulate $100,000 or more in payroll tax liability on any single day, you must deposit the full amount by the close of the next business day.¹ Large bonuses, commission runs, or a wave of new hires are the usual triggers.

How you count toward the threshold depends on your current schedule. Monthly depositors look at accumulated liability across the calendar month. Semi-weekly depositors look only within the current Wednesday-through-Friday or Saturday-through-Tuesday window, and each window starts fresh.⁵ A semi-weekly depositor sitting at $95,000 on Tuesday does not carry that forward: adding $10,000 on Wednesday does not trigger the next-day rule, because Wednesday opens a new period.

The next-day rule also changes your schedule going forward. A monthly depositor who hits the $100,000 threshold immediately becomes a semi-weekly depositor for the rest of the current year and all of the following year.⁴

How To Actually Make the Deposit

All federal tax deposits have to be made electronically.⁶ Mailing a check does not count, even if it arrives on time. Free options include a business tax account on IRS.gov, Direct Pay for businesses, and the Electronic Federal Tax Payment System (EFTPS). You can also route deposits through your bank via ACH credit or same-day wire, though your bank may charge for those.

EFTPS enrollment is not instant. After you validate your information, the IRS mails a personal identification number to your address of record, which takes roughly five to seven business days. If your first deposit is due next week and you have not enrolled, you will not make the deadline. Payroll providers can handle deposits for you, but the legal responsibility to deposit on time still sits with you.

Small Employer Exceptions

Under $2,500 for the Quarter

If your total tax liability is less than $2,500 for both the current quarter and the prior quarter, you can skip separate deposits and pay the balance with a timely filed Form 941.⁷ The exception disappears the moment you trigger the $100,000 next-day rule in that quarter.

Annual Filing on Form 944

Very small employers, with annual liability for Social Security, Medicare, and withheld income tax of $1,000 or less, may qualify to file Form 944 once a year rather than Form 941 quarterly.⁸ You cannot choose this on your own. The IRS has to notify you in writing that you are eligible.⁹ Once your payroll grows past $1,000 in annual liability, you go back to quarterly filing.

FUTA Runs on Its Own Schedule

Federal Unemployment Tax Act deposits are separate from the FICA and income tax withholding schedules described above. When your cumulative FUTA liability tops $500 in a quarter, deposit it by the last day of the following month.¹⁰ If a quarter’s liability stays at $500 or less, carry it into the next quarter. If the balance is still $500 or under at the end of the fourth quarter, you can either deposit it or pay it with Form 940 by January 31.

What Late or Missed Deposits Cost

The failure-to-deposit penalty is calculated on the undeposited amount, and the tiers replace each other rather than stacking:¹¹

1 to 5 calendar days late: 2%
6 to 15 calendar days late: 5%
More than 15 calendar days late: 10%
More than 10 days after the first IRS notice, or upon a demand for immediate payment: 15%

The penalty applies to deposits that are short, late, or made through the wrong method (a mailed check, for instance). Interest accrues on top of the penalty.

Personal Liability for Withheld Taxes

Withheld income tax and the employee share of FICA are trust fund taxes. They belong to the government from the moment they leave the paycheck.¹² If they are not deposited, the IRS can assess the Trust Fund Recovery Penalty against any person responsible for collecting or paying them over who willfully failed to do so.¹³

The penalty equals 100% of the unpaid trust fund taxes. It is assessed against individuals personally, not the business. A “responsible person” is anyone who had authority over the company’s finances and could decide which bills got paid. That reaches officers, directors, shareholders, partners, and sometimes bookkeepers who exercised independent judgment over disbursements.¹²

Willfulness does not require bad intent. The IRS needs to show only that you knew or should have known about the outstanding taxes and either ignored the obligation or acted with plain indifference. Paying vendors or lenders out of available cash while leaving payroll taxes undeposited is treated as strong evidence of willfulness.¹² The corporate form offers no shelter here. Reaching individuals is the point of the rule.

1
Internal Revenue Service. Publication 15 (2026), (Circular E), Employers Tax Guide
2
Office of the Law Revision Counsel. 26 USC 7501 – Liability for Taxes Withheld or Collected
3
Internal Revenue Service. Instructions for Form 941
4
Internal Revenue Service. Notice 931 – Deposit Requirements for Employment Taxes
5
eCFR. 26 CFR 31.6302-1 – Deposit Rules for Taxes Under the Federal Insurance Contributions Act (FICA) and Withheld Income Taxes
6
Internal Revenue Service. Depositing and Reporting Employment Taxes
7
Internal Revenue Service. Topic No. 757, Forms 941 and 944 – Deposit Requirements
8
Internal Revenue Service. About Form 944, Employers Annual Federal Tax Return
9
Internal Revenue Service. Certain Taxpayers May File Their Employment Taxes Annually
10
Internal Revenue Service. Topic No. 759, Form 940, Employers Annual Federal Unemployment (FUTA) Tax Return – Filing and Deposit Requirements
11
Internal Revenue Service. Failure to Deposit Penalty
12
Internal Revenue Service. Employment Taxes and the Trust Fund Recovery Penalty (TFRP)
13
Office of the Law Revision Counsel. 26 US Code 6672 – Failure to Collect and Pay Over Tax, or Attempt to Evade or Defeat Tax