What Is the Due Date for Semi-Weekly 941 Deposits?

If you are on the semi-weekly deposit schedule, your Form 941 deposit due date depends on when you paid your employees. Paydays that fall on Wednesday, Thursday, or Friday require you to deposit the withheld and matching taxes by the following Wednesday. Paydays that fall on Saturday, Sunday, Monday, or Tuesday require deposit by the following Friday.¹ Those deadlines cover federal income tax withholding, Social Security and Medicare tax withheld from paychecks, and your employer share of Social Security and Medicare.

How the Two Deposit Windows Work

The schedule runs on two windows each week. The first window covers paydays Wednesday through Friday and closes the following Wednesday. The second covers paydays Saturday through Tuesday and closes the following Friday.¹

“Semi-weekly” describes the two windows, not a requirement to deposit twice a week. You make a deposit only when you actually ran payroll in one of those windows. An employer that runs a single monthly payroll has one semi-weekly deposit that month. The point of the schedule is to compress the gap between payday and when the tax reaches the Treasury.

When a Holiday Shifts the Deadline

If a Wednesday or Friday deposit deadline lands on a Saturday, Sunday, or legal holiday, the due date moves to the next business day. Legal holidays for this purpose include every holiday recognized in the District of Columbia and by the federal government, even ones your state or city does not observe.¹

Several 2026 federal holidays fall on the days that matter for semi-weekly deposits:

New Year’s Day is Thursday, January 1. A Wednesday deposit deadline that week is not affected, but a same-day accumulation triggering the next-day rule would push.
Juneteenth is Friday, June 19. Any Friday deposit deadline that week moves to Monday, June 22.
Independence Day falls on Saturday, July 4, so the federal holiday is observed Friday, July 3. A Friday deposit deadline moves to Monday, July 6.
Veterans Day is Wednesday, November 11. A Wednesday deposit deadline moves to Thursday, November 12.
Christmas Day is Friday, December 25. A Friday deposit deadline moves to Monday, December 28.²

Monday federal holidays like Martin Luther King Jr. Day, Presidents Day, Memorial Day, Labor Day, and Columbus Day do not fall on a Wednesday or Friday, so they generally do not shift the standard semi-weekly deadlines. They can still matter for the next-day deposit rule, because the following business day after a Friday accumulation would land on Tuesday.

The $100,000 Rule That Overrides Everything

If your accumulated tax liability reaches $100,000 on any single day, the normal Wednesday or Friday deadline no longer applies to that amount. You must deposit it by the close of the next business day.¹ The rule ignores your normal classification and can hit any employer on any day.

For semi-weekly filers, the $100,000 threshold resets with each semi-weekly period (Wednesday through Friday or Saturday through Tuesday). If you cross the threshold on one day and then have more liability on a later day inside the same period, the second day is its own deposit with its own deadline.³ For instance, $115,000 accumulated Monday and $30,000 more Tuesday produces two obligations: $115,000 due Tuesday and $30,000 due the following Friday.

A monthly depositor who crosses $100,000 becomes a semi-weekly depositor for the rest of the current calendar year and all of the following year.⁴

Making the Deposit on Time

Federal employment tax deposits have to be made electronically. The options are the Electronic Federal Tax Payment System (EFTPS), your IRS business tax account, or IRS Direct Pay for businesses. A same-day wire through your bank is also allowed, though your bank sets the availability, cost, and cutoff.⁵⁶

EFTPS is the most common route. Payments scheduled through EFTPS or the IRS voice response system have to be submitted by 8 p.m. Eastern Time on the day before the due date.⁵ Your working deadline is effectively one day earlier than the official one. Enrollment in EFTPS takes five to seven business days for the PIN to arrive by mail, so a first-time user cannot register the same week a deposit is due.⁷ Save the EFTPS confirmation number for each payment.

If a payroll service handles deposits for you, the legal responsibility still sits with you. When the provider fails to remit, the IRS can pursue you personally as the responsible party.⁸ Verify each deposit independently through your IRS account or EFTPS records.

Schedule B Goes With the Schedule

Semi-weekly depositors have to file Schedule B (Form 941) with each quarterly Form 941. Schedule B reports your tax liability by the date wages were paid, not the date you actually made the deposit. The form is laid out as three months of 31 numbered spaces, and the total has to match Form 941.⁹

If you became a semi-weekly depositor partway through a quarter, for example by tripping the $100,000 rule, Schedule B still covers the entire quarter.¹⁰

Safe Harbor for a Small Shortfall

Depositing slightly less than the full amount does not automatically produce a penalty. The shortfall is protected if it does not exceed the greater of $100 or 2 percent of what you were required to deposit.³

You still have to make up the difference by the required makeup date. For semi-weekly depositors, that date is the earlier of the first Wednesday or Friday on or after the 15th of the month following the month of the shortfall, or the Form 941 due date for that quarter.¹¹ A shortfall from an August deposit has a makeup date on the first Wednesday or Friday on or after September 15. A shortfall from a November deposit may run instead to the January 31 return due date, if that comes first.

What Being Late Costs

The failure-to-deposit penalty is tiered by how late the deposit is:

1 to 5 calendar days late: 2 percent of the unpaid amount.
6 to 15 calendar days late: 5 percent of the unpaid amount.
More than 15 calendar days late: 10 percent of the unpaid amount.
More than 10 days after the first IRS notice, or upon a demand for immediate payment: 15 percent of the unpaid amount.¹²

The penalty applies to the amount not deposited on time, not to your full liability. Treating yourself as a monthly depositor when the rules put you on the semi-weekly schedule can produce a penalty on every deposit for the year.

Personal Liability for the Money You Withheld

Federal income tax withholding and the employee share of Social Security and Medicare are trust fund taxes, held by the employer for the government. If the business fails to deposit them and the IRS cannot collect from the business, it can assess the Trust Fund Recovery Penalty against responsible individuals for the full amount.¹³

A responsible person is anyone with authority over which creditors get paid, which typically includes owners, corporate officers, and anyone controlling company finances. The IRS does not have to show bad intent. Knowing the taxes were owed and paying other bills first is enough, as is reckless indifference to whether deposits were being made. The penalty equals 100 percent of the unpaid trust fund taxes, and in most cases it survives bankruptcy.⁸

1
Internal Revenue Service. Employment Tax Due Dates
2
Office of Personnel Management. Federal Holidays
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eCFR. 26 CFR 31.6302-1 – Deposit Rules for Taxes Under the Federal Insurance Contributions Act (FICA) and Withheld Income Taxes
4
Internal Revenue Service. Instructions for Form 941
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Internal Revenue Service. Topic No. 757, Forms 941 and 944 – Deposit Requirements
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Internal Revenue Service. Same-Day Wire Federal Tax Payments
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Electronic Federal Tax Payment System. Welcome to EFTPS Online
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Internal Revenue Service. Employment Taxes and the Trust Fund Recovery Penalty (TFRP)
9
Internal Revenue Service. About Form 941, Employer’s Quarterly Federal Tax Return
10
Internal Revenue Service. Instructions for Schedule B (Form 941)
11
Internal Revenue Service. 20.1.4 Failure to Deposit Penalty
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Internal Revenue Service. Failure to Deposit Penalty
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Office of the Law Revision Counsel. 26 USC 6672 – Failure to Collect and Pay Over Tax, or Attempt to Evade or Defeat Tax