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August 26, 2020
2020-2131

Revised Form 941-X expected in late September, here's what to do now

In its August 25, 2020, News for Payroll Professionals, the IRS announced that the revised Form 941-X to allow corrections for new lines added to the Form 941 effective in the second quarter 2020 is expected in late September.

The revised Form 941-X, like the revised Form 941, will include the lines necessary for correcting information in connection with federal COVID-19 tax benefits, such as the employer deferral of Social Security, paid sick and family medical leave tax credits and the employee retention credit.

The IRS has released a draft version of the revised Form 941-X and instructions.

Making corrections to Form 941-X in advance of the revised form

While awaiting the final revision to the Form 941-X, the IRS provides the following instructions.

  • If adjusting Quarter 1 or earlier, the employer may use the existing Form 941-X.
  • If adjusting Quarter 2 (or later) and not making any increase or decrease to the employer share of social security tax or to any of the new COVID-related lines that were added to the Quarter 2 Form 941, the IRS strongly recommends not using the existing Form 941-X, but rather waiting for the new Form 941-X revision to be released.
  • If adjusting Quarter 2 (or later) and making any increase or decrease to the employer share of social security tax, or to any of the new COVID-related lines, do not use the existing Form 941-X; instead, wait for the new Form 941-X revision.
  • Do not send a Form 941 with "Amended" (or similar notation) written on the form.

If the employer has used the current Form 941-X when instructed not to, the IRS requests that the employer wait for correspondence to find out if it was able to process the Form 941 or if it had to reject it. Given the backlog of paper forms and correspondence due to COVID-19, the IRS is unable to estimate when correspondence will go out.

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Contact Information
For additional information concerning this Alert, please contact:
 
Workforce Tax Services - Employment Tax Advisory Services
   • Kenneth Hausser (kenneth.hausser@ey.com)
   • Debera Salam (debera.salam@ey.com)
   • Kristie Lowery (kristie.lowery@ey.com)
   • Peter Berard (peter.berard@ey.com)

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