Problem with Employer's Payroll Total Report

[ddd0712]

I am trying to complete quarterly reports. I have used the Employer's P/R Total Report figures to make our monthly tax deposits and was double checking the 941 report when I discovered that the sum of the individual periods on the Employer's P/R Total Report does not always add up to what is reported under MTD and QTD columns. The variance has only been $.01 in each instance, and always been in the FICA and total figures, but it does result in our payments being higher than what they should have been and some confusion when checking the Employer's P/R Total Report. As I understand it, the employer's portion of FICA is calculated on the fly and is not stored, and is probably the cause of this, but is there some way to correct it?

Thanks!

[Paul Mayer]

If you had checked our FAQ's, you have seen this one:

http://zpay.com/vbulletin/showthread.php?3198-Rounding-of-Employee-FICA-and-Medicare-is-Expected

The IRS expects rounding as you can see from that FAQ as it is a normal occurrence when working with individual transactions vs. a total.

[ddd0712]

Yes, I did see that post, but that is not the problem I am referring to. On the actual Employer's Payroll Total Report the individual period entries do not always add up to the MTD and/or QTD figures. For example, on my 4/29/11 report the QTD Employer Federal Liability is $1,737.73 and Employee and Employer FICA is $426.16. On my 5/6/11 report (next payroll), period Employer Federal Liability is $79.30, Employee and Employer FICA is $38.29. The QTD figures on 5/6 report Show $1,817.02 (off by $.01) and $464.44 (also off by $.01). Should these not add up?

[Paul Mayer]

The figures are from the individual transactions (added together) for the column periods. That's where the penny or even more than a penny may show just like in the example of that FAQ. It's just a product of adding up the individual transactions which is expected since were are actually reporting what was taken out of the individual payroll transactions and not performing some math to give an untrue result.

[ddd0712]

What I am trying to say is that the individual transactions added together do NOT always add up to the column periods on the Employers Payroll Total Report, and are NOT always showing what was taken out of the individual payroll transactions. I understand the rounding issue differences on the 941, and that is not the problem. In the example I gave you we had only 1 employee paid on the 5/6 payroll and still the figures did not add up. Is there perhaps a precision problem which is causing the difference? Thanks.

[Paul Mayer]

No it is not a precision rounding problem, it is the exact same data that is added up for the 941 and the totals of those individual transactions for the FICA being added is what causes that to occur on that report as well as the 941. It is expected to have that variance that you see.