Payroll Tax Filing Deadlines for 941, 940, and W-2 Run on Three Separate Clocks
Payroll tax deadlines run on three separate clocks, which are payday deposits, quarterly returns, and annual filings, and the fourth-quarter Form 941, Form 940, and Forms W-2 all fall due Monday, February 1, 2027. The failure-to-deposit penalty alone runs from 2% to 15% depending on days late and IRS notices. As of October 2026, the third-quarter Form 941 is due Monday, November 2, 2026, or Tuesday, November 10 if every tax was deposited on time and in full.
This post covers federal payroll tax for employers that file Form 941, including those in professional services, healthcare, construction, manufacturing, hospitality, and restaurants. State unemployment tax and other state payroll tax rules vary by state, so check with your state agencies, starting with the Department of Labor state unemployment tax contacts page.
Your deposit schedule sets the first clock, and penalties follow the days late
The deposit clock starts with your schedule. It comes from the total taxes on Form 941 line 12 over a four-quarter lookback period that runs July 1 to June 30. A total of $50,000 or less makes you a monthly depositor, who deposits by the 15th of the next month. More than $50,000 makes you a semiweekly depositor, who deposits Wednesday, Thursday, and Friday paydays by the following Wednesday and Saturday through Tuesday paydays by the following Friday, per Publication 15. How often you pay employees does not set the schedule. As of October 2026, the lookback for 2027 (July 1, 2025 through June 30, 2026) has closed, so your 2027 schedule is already knowable.
The $100,000 rule can reclassify you mid-year. A monthly depositor that accumulates $100,000 on any day of a deposit period becomes semiweekly the next day and stays semiweekly for at least the rest of that calendar year and the next, per Publication 15. An employer whose Form 941 line 12 total is under $2,500 for the current or the prior quarter, with no $100,000 next-day obligation in the current quarter, may pay with a timely filed return instead of depositing, per Publication 15.
Monthly depositors deposit taxes on October payments by Monday, November 16, because November 15 is a Sunday, and taxes on November and December payments by Tuesday, December 15, 2026 and Friday, January 15, 2027. For a semiweekly depositor, taxes on a Wednesday, November 25, 2026 payday are due Wednesday, December 2, 2026. Besides weekends, only District of Columbia legal holidays move a federal deposit date, and the remaining 2026 ones are November 11, November 26, and December 25, per Publication 15. November 26 falls inside that Wednesday through Friday deposit period rather than in the three weekdays after it closes, so the Wednesday date holds.
The IRS failure-to-deposit page lists 2% for deposits one to five calendar days late, 5% for six to 15 days late, 10% for more than 15 days late, and 15% when the amount is still unpaid more than 10 days after the first IRS notice or on the day a notice demanding immediate payment arrives. The same IRS page says the tiers do not add up, so a higher tier replaces a lower one. In a hypothetical example, a $25,000 deposit made eight days late draws 5%, or $1,250, and the same deposit made 20 days late draws 10%, or $2,500.
The IRS may grant relief such as First-Time Abatement or reasonable-cause relief, but it decides each request, and relief is not guaranteed.
The return clock closes each quarter, and the 10 extra days depend on your deposits
Form 941 is a separate act from depositing. The IRS employment tax due dates page says depositing the taxes alone does not report them or relieve you of the requirement to file a return, and Publication 15 adds that paying with the return what should have been deposited draws 10% unless a payment-with-return exception applies.
As of October 2026, the third-quarter Form 941 is due Monday, November 2, 2026 (October 31 is a Saturday), or Tuesday, November 10 if every tax was deposited on time and in full. The fourth-quarter return is due Monday, February 1, 2027 (January 31 is a Sunday), or Wednesday, February 10, 2027 under the same condition, per the Form 941 instructions. The condition applies to every quarter and to the return only, so deposit due dates stay the same, and one late deposit in the quarter moves the return back to the earlier date.
A semiweekly deposit period can cross a quarter end, so the deposit clock and the return clock can disagree in the same week. Publication 15’s own example has pay dates of Wednesday, September 30, 2026 (third quarter) and Friday, October 2, 2026 (fourth quarter) in one semiweekly period. They need two separate deposits, both due Wednesday, October 7, 2026. Keep deposit dates and return dates on separate lines of your calendar, since those two deposits fall due on one date but belong to two different returns.
The failure-to-file penalty is 5% of the unpaid tax for each whole or part month, generally up to 25%, and the failure-to-pay penalty is 0.5% per month, according to Publication 15.
Form 940 has its own deposit trigger at $500 of FUTA tax
Form 940 is filed once a year, but the federal unemployment tax (FUTA) must be deposited each quarter in which the liability, including any amount carried forward, is over $500, according to Publication 15. For 2026, Publication 15 sets FUTA at 6.0% on the first $7,000 paid to each employee. A credit of up to 5.4% applies when state unemployment tax was paid in full, on time, and on the same wages in a state that is not a credit reduction state, which leaves 0.6%, a maximum of $42 per employee per year where no credit reduction applies. Only the employer pays FUTA.
A quarterly liability of $500 or less in the first three quarters carries into the next quarter and is added to it. Over $500, you deposit by electronic funds transfer by the last day of the month after the quarter ends. Because October 31 is a Saturday and January 31 is a Sunday, the deposits are due Monday, November 2, 2026 for the third quarter and Monday, February 1, 2027 for the fourth. A fourth-quarter amount of $500 or less may be paid with the Form 940 itself.
In a hypothetical, 12 employees who each reach the $7,000 base inside one quarter produce $504 of liability at the $42 maximum (12 × $42), which is over $500, while 11 produce $462, which carries forward in the first three quarters.
The FUTA test is separate from the Form 941 schedule, so a monthly Form 941 depositor can still owe a FUTA deposit in a quarter. Track the two separately.
Form 940 for 2026 is due Monday, February 1, 2027, or Wednesday, February 10, 2027 if all FUTA tax was deposited when due, per the Form 940 instructions.
For 2025, the Department of Labor lists California at 1.2% and the U.S. Virgin Islands at 4.5%, which makes the effective FUTA rate 1.8% in California (up to $126 per employee) and 5.1% in the Virgin Islands (up to $357). As of October 2026, the 2026 list is not final until November 10, 2026, and Publication 15 puts credit reduction liability into the fourth-quarter deposit.
February 1, 2027 is where the clocks converge
For 2026 payroll, five deadlines land on Monday, February 1, 2027, because January 31 is a Sunday. They are the fourth-quarter Form 941, Form 940, Forms W-2 to employees, Forms W-2 and W-3 to the Social Security Administration (SSA) under the W-2 and W-3 instructions, and Form 1099-NEC for contractor payments of $2,000 or more made in 2026. A fourth-quarter FUTA deposit joins them when the liability is over $500. The 10 additional days, to Wednesday, February 10, 2027, cover Forms 941 and 940 when deposits were on time, and they do not reach W-2 or 1099-NEC. Each clock has its own trigger and its own penalties, so a calendar should keep them on separate lines.
Employee copies are timely if properly addressed and mailed by February 1, 2027, and filing with the SSA is a separate act. Extensions are not automatic. The IRS may grant one 30-day extension to file with the SSA on Form 8809, requested before the due date and available only for extraordinary circumstances or catastrophe. It does not move the date to furnish employee copies, according to the W-2 and W-3 instructions.
As of October 2026, W-2 penalties for filings due after December 31, 2026 are $60 per form if filed within 30 days of the due date, $130 if more than 30 days late but filed by August 1, $340 after August 1 or if not filed, and at least $690 per form for intentional disregard.
Because February 10 depends on on-time deposits, check the deposit history first. Then close out the fourth-quarter Form 941 and Form 940, and let W-2 amounts follow the wages paid during the calendar year, as the W-2 and W-3 instructions describe.
Using a reporting agent or other third-party payroll provider does not relieve an employer of responsibility for furnishing Forms W-2 and filing W-2 and W-3 correctly and on time, per the W-2 and W-3 instructions.
AsureCentral covers payroll tax filing for growing employers. AsureWorks runs on AsureCentral, with Asure specialists doing the work, including payroll tax filing and reporting, and your business stays responsible to the IRS, including for any notice or penalty. Who does the work can change, and the platform does not.
Frequently asked questions
When is Form 941 due each quarter?
Form 941 is due the last day of the month after the quarter ends, which gives April 30, July 31, October 31, and January 31. A date that falls on a Saturday, Sunday, or legal holiday moves to the next business day, according to the Form 941 instructions.
Do you file Form 940 every quarter?
Form 940 is an annual return, but FUTA tax may have to be deposited each quarter. A deposit is due by the last day of the month after the quarter ends whenever the liability is over $500, according to Publication 15. The 2026 return is due Monday, February 1, 2027.
What is the deadline for employers to issue Forms W-2?
As of October 2026, Forms W-2 for 2026 wages are due to employees and to the SSA on Monday, February 1, 2027, because January 31 is a Sunday. Extensions to file are not automatic, and per-form penalties apply to late filings, according to the W-2 and W-3 instructions.
Is there extra time to file Form 941?
Yes, the return gets 10 additional days, but only when every tax was deposited on time and in full. The extra days apply to the return, and deposit due dates stay the same, per the Form 941 instructions.
What is the next-day deposit rule for Form 941?
Taxes of $100,000 or more accumulated on any day of a monthly or semiweekly deposit period must be deposited by the next business day, on either schedule. The test applies before nonrefundable credits, and the rule overrides the schedule for that deposit, according to Publication 15.
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