Discrepancy in Fed 941 versus numbers pulled from Payroll History Report

[GBrown]

I recently received a notification from the IRS that Federal Tax Deposits were incorrect and I've gone back and am trying to figure out what is wrong. For many years I've use the payroll History Report at the end of each month to calculate the payment due (2x FICA + 2x Medicare + Federal Tax = amount deposited.) Then at the end of each quarter I print the Form 941 and sign and mail it. For some reason, 3rd quarter 2020 the amount on the 941 calculated by the software was about $1500 more than the amount I calculated using the Payroll History Report. I've gone over the numbers and don't see any errors so am at a loss as to what is going on and where the numbers should be different. Is it possible there was a glitch in the software during that quarter that caused a calculation error on the 941?

Thanks for any help,
Gordon

[Paul Mayer]

Hi Gordon, The 941 Form actually audits the stored payroll transactions. The FAQ at this link shows all of the things that users have done in the past to cause line 7 "Current quarter’s adjustment for fractions of cents" to be more than a few cents to tell you that you have a problem.

https://zpay.com/vbulletin/showthread.php?3274-941-Form-Numbers-Do-Not-Match-Employer-Totals-Report

You need to see which quarter the problem happened and then start looking at each payroll report for that quarter to see where the mistake was made.