As a corporation, it’s important to stay on top of payroll tax filing deadlines. Besides carrying major penalties, your company’s delayed payments and tax mistakes can impact employee engagement and satisfaction levels. To protect your company’s long-term success and brand reputation, you need to be in 100% compliance with major payroll tax filing deadlines.

Major Payroll Tax Deposit and Filing Dates in 2025

What is the deadline for employers to send tax documents? The answer depends on the tax document in question. To ensure your business follows payroll-related laws, you need to keep track of your important filing and deposit due deadlines. Missed deadlines can result in major fines and penalties, so it pays to be proactive. 

The following due dates are some of the most important federal deadlines for payroll tax forms and deposits. Depending on your state and local payroll tax regulations, there may be additional requirements and due dates that you have to meet as well.

  • January 31: FUTA tax deposits, Form 940, Form 943, Form 944, Form 945, Form 1099-NEC
  • April 30: FUTA tax deposits, Form 941, Form W-2,
  • July 31: FUTA tax deposits
  • October 31: FUTA tax deposits

However, it’s important to note that there may be extension options for some of these forms. For instance, Form 940, 943, 944, 945 can be turned in as late as February 10 if you have already deposited your entire FUTA tax liability.

Key Payroll Tax Forms

As an employer, you have a lot of different due dates to juggle. To determine when your documents are due, you should first figure out which documents your business needs to file each year. The following list includes some of the most important federal payroll tax forms you’ll need to file. You may also have specific requirements for state and local payroll taxes.

  • Form 940 – Employer’s Annual Federal Unemployment (FUTA) Tax Return: FUTA is paid by the employer. It is typically paid on a quarterly basis.
  • Form 941 – Employer’s Quarterly Federal Tax Return: This form is filed quarterly on April 30, July 31, October 31, and January 31. If you deposit the taxes due on time, you have an extra 10 days to file the form.
  • Form 943 – Employer’s Annual Federal Tax Return for Agricultural Employees: Form 943 is only used if you paid wages to farmworkers that weren’t already reported on Form 941 or Form 944. The tax filing deadline is January 31, but you have 10 extra days to file if your deposits are up to date.
  • Form 944 – Employer’s Annual Federal Tax Return: Form 944 is designed for companies that have less than $1,000 in payroll tax liabilities. Because of how small the company would have to be to meet this standard, it is seldom used. Companies that are eligible to use this form only have to file and pay their payroll taxes once per year.
  • Form 945 – Annual Return of Withheld Federal Income Tax: This form is used for federal income taxes withheld from your nonpayroll payments. Outside of situations involving pension, gambling winnings, and military retirement, it is rarely used. If you do need to file Form 945, it must be filed before January 31 of each year.
  • Form 1099-NEC – Non-Employee Compensation: If you pay an independent contractor more than $600 during a single year, then you need to complete Form 1099-NEC by January 31 of the following year.
  • Form 1096 – Annual Summary and Transmittal of U.S. Information Returns: If you file a 1099, you’ll also need to submit Form 1096. This form basically summarizes all of the information from the 1099s, like the total number of 1099s. However, Form 1096 is only necessary if you are filing a paper return. Its due date varies depending on what type of information is accompanying it. When you use Form 1096 to summarize Form 1099-NEC, Form 1096 is due on January 31.
  • Form I-9 – Employment Eligibility Verification: Section 1 of Form I-9 must be submitted before the employee’s first day of work. Section 2 must be submitted during the employee’s first three days of work to verify their eligibility to legally work in the United States.
  • Form W-2 – Wage and Tax Statement: You must give all of your employees a W-2 every year. This form reports all of the employee’s wages and tax information. It must be filed by January 31 of each year.
  • Form W-3 – Transmittal of Wage and Tax Statements: Form W-3 is sent to the IRS by January 31 with a copy of all of your employees’ W-2s as well as the total number of W-2s that you are submitting.
  • Form W-4 – Employee Withholding Certificate: You must get a Form W-4 filled out by each employee on the day they were hired to determine how much tax to withhold from their paychecks. Afterward, you should keep this form on file for four years.
  • Form W-9 – Request for Taxpayer Identification Number and Certification: Before you hire a contractor, you should get a W-9 from them so that you have all of the information you need to fill out a 1099 at the end of the year.

Tips for Auditing Your Payroll

Payroll audits are integral for making sure your payroll taxes are in order. Use the following tips to audit your practices internally so that you don’t end up facing penalties or fines.

  • You should ideally be reconciling your payroll each time you process it.
  • Get a third party to do the auditing. Often, a fresh pair of eyes can spot mistakes that would otherwise have been missed.
  • To prevent fraud, divide your payroll and HR roles between different people. For example, you can assign one person to manage timesheets and another person to process payroll.
  • Create consistent processes to decrease the likelihood of mistakes or fraud.
  • Store records for the correct amount of time in a safe, accessible format. 
  • Set up a calendar to track important due dates and payroll tax filings.
  • For protection against cybersecurity risks, limit information access to people who genuinely need that information to do their jobs.
  • Conduct audits on a frequent basis.
  • Adopt the best payroll software to ensure all deadlines and payroll compliance rules are met.

Learn More About Mastering Your Payroll Tax Filing Deadlines

Managing payroll tax deadlines and deposits can be challenging. By taking advantage of payroll tax management services, you can make sure your company doesn’t end up missing an important deadline. At Asure Software, you can access multistate functionality, top customer support, and accurate tax filing services.

If you’re ready to learn more about payroll tax management, reach out to our team of payroll tax experts today.

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