Question on 941 tax calculations

[NeilZ]

OK ... I've got an interesting conundrum. We didn't think it was an issue on the first quarter as we were just setting up the payroll, and figured we may have set something up wrong in the beginning, but this quarter, we're just puzzled as to why we have an amount due on the quarterly 941 report.

We do deposit taxes quarterly. Here's page 1 of the assistant:

941_1.jpg

we do not do any adjustments on page 3, so here's the final page:

941_2.jpg

And the quarterly 941 Deposit Report

941_report.jpg

The issue seems to be in the Social Security and Medicare withholding calculations. The percentages are setup correctly in the tax tables, yet we always seem to have a balance due even though we've paid the deposits as calculated by the system.

Any thoughts ??

[Justine Loker]

You might check and see if one of your employees are marked as tax exempt under the Mainain Item Descriptions. Does any of the employees receive housing that has been marked as taxable? We had trouble a few years ago with our payroll and it had to do with this. Hope this helps.

[NeilZ]

You might check and see if one of your employees are marked as tax exempt under the Mainain Item Descriptions. Does any of the employees receive housing that has been marked as taxable? We had trouble a few years ago with our payroll and it had to do with this. Hope this helps.

Verified the setup, non are tax exempt, the housing allowance is really not one, as we have a manse (parsonage), thus we have to list the value of the housing as taxable for SS & Medicare on the W2.

[Justine Loker]

You might try and look for the amount of the difference of Social Security and Medicare if you haven't already done so. Your 941 is showing $323.76 more being taxed by SS and Med than what your report is showing. If you have about 13 weeks in the quarter, then it would be close to $25 a week that is not being taxed by Powerchurch but is being taxed on the 941. I really don't know of any other way to help you. Prayer helps!! : )

[NeilZ]

You might try and look for the amount of the difference of Social Security and Medicare if you haven't already done so. Your 941 is showing $323.76 more being taxed by SS and Med than what your report is showing. If you have about 13 weeks in the quarter, then it would be close to $25 a week that is not being taxed by Powerchurch but is being taxed on the 941. I really don't know of any other way to help you. Prayer helps!! : )

Well, that's the point. The calculations should be the same, based on the wages being paid. Payroll is run on the 15th and the end of the month, we have 3 salaried, and 2 part-time hourly employees. The only variable is the part-time employee hours, and those SS & Medicare wages are taxed at the proper rate.

[NeilZ]

Any comments from the Powerchurch gang ?? Jeff, Zorak ??

[wms7328]

I'm assuming the Pastor salary is why the difference between Line 2 for total wages and Line 5a,c where lower amount is used for calculating SS and Medicare. Also just noticed that based on your total wages, the amount of Federal Tax being withheld seems rather high. It may be that some employees are having extra taxes withheld. Is it possible that some of the tax deductions are using the wrong tax tables?

[Jeff]

Have you recently made any changes to your item setup? Such as changing an income item to make it taxable by Social Security & Medicare? If so was this change made after some payroll checks been processed?

[NeilZ]

Have you recently made any changes to your item setup? Such as changing an income item to make it taxable by Social Security & Medicare? If so was this change made after some payroll checks been processed?

Don't think so, I can check.

[Jeff]

If you can also run a selected payroll report for your social security and medicare items. Does this item show on all of your payroll runs?

[NeilZ]

If you can also run a selected payroll report for your social security and medicare items. Does this item show on all of your payroll runs?

Yes they all do.

So, I take it that the amounts in the monthly deposits for the quarter should equal what the 941 shows for the quarter ??

[Jeff]

The difference is the 941 is calculating the Social Security & Medicare by looking at the total wages for the quarter and applying the tax. This is what is being done in lines 5a - 5d. When you run the 941 tax deposit report it is looking at what has actually been withheld from the paychecks.

My thought is one of the following has happened:
During the first part of the quarter some income items were not marked as taxable for Social Security & Medicare but were changed to being taxable by SS and Medicare before the 941 was run.

Someone is not having SS and Medicare withheld, but their income is marked as taxable for SS and Medicare. This will happen if the clergy income items are marked as taxable, and no SS or Medicare taxes are withheld for them.