How do you post an federal tax payment?

[santoheath]

We file quarterly federal taxes. We have payroll set up properly and are able to print quarterly reports. However, when it comes to actually printing a check to make the payment, I'm not sure how to post. Where do I take the funds from?

[JohnDMeyers]

Usually, the Federal Withholding in Payroll makes this entry:
DB 01-1110-000 checking
CR 01-2130-000 Fed W/H

When you pay the money from Accounts Payable, it would look like this:
CR 01-1110-000 checking
DB 01-2130-000 Fed W/H

[JohnDMeyers]

The Fed W/H debits the checking the account for the following reason:

In Payroll, the total employee paycheck amount is a credit to the checking account.
Some of that money, which is paid to the employee, doesn't go to the employee.

So, the Fed W/H pay item puts money back into the checking account (debit) to be paid later to a different Vendor.

But, that money is a subset of the total money paid to the employee. (Notice the math lingo. I was a high school math teacher, not an accountant).

[santoheath]

So how do I make the payment to the IRS without showing a double entry if it's already taken out when payroll is run?

[JohnDMeyers]

It's the mirror image in payroll.

Notice the DB and CR are switched when you enter the information in Accounts Payable.

The net result is zero, not 2x.