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PrintIRS Releases 2023 Form 941, Schedules, and Instructions
The IRS has released:
- The 2023 Form 941, Employer’s Quarterly Federal Tax Return, and its instructions
- The instructions for Schedule B, Report of Tax Liability for Semiweekly Schedule Depositors
- Schedule R, Allocation Schedule for Aggregate Form 941 Filers, and its instructions
The Form 941 for 2023 contains no major changes. Updates to the instructions include the removal of information related to the COBRA Premium Assistance Tax Credit (the lines to claim the credit were already removed from Form 941 in June 2022), and information on the increase in the payroll tax credit qualified small business may claim for increasing researching activities. The IRS expects that this version of the form (rev. March 2023) will be used for all four quarters in 2023.
The instructions for Schedule B have been updated to reflect the increase in the payroll tax credit qualified small business may claim for increasing research activities. The instructions are to be used with the January 2017 revision of Schedule B (Form 941).
Schedule R has been updated so that calendar year “2023” is prepopulated on the form and the checkboxes for all four quarters may be checked (previously the checkbox for the first quarter was greyed out).
U.S. Territory Forms 941 Discontinued After 2023
Form 941-SS, Employer’s Quarterly Federal Tax Return – American Samoa, Guam, the Commonwealth of the Northern Mariana Islands, and the U.S. Virgin Islands, and Form 941-PR, Planilla para la Declaración Federal Trimestral del Patrono, will no longer be available after the fourth quarter of 2023. Instead, employers in the U.S. territories will file Form 941, or, the new Spanish version of the form, Form 941 (sp), Declaración del Impuesto Federal Trimestral del Empleador.
To learn more about federal and state laws, regulations, and information to keep your company's payroll operations in compliance, check out Payroll Source Plus!
Curtis E. Tatum, Esq., is In-House Counsel and Director of Federal Payroll Compliance for the APA.