Tax Liabilities Report (S247)

The Tax Liabilities Report provides a detailed breakdown of all payroll tax liabilities for a particular payroll run. The report can also be run across multiple pay runs if desired or even an entire calendar year. Some CPAs may prefer to see this report instead of a W-3 since it provides even further insight into the numbers.

The information is grouped by tax types giving a breakdown by Federal 941 taxes (Federal withholding, employee & employer Social Security and Medicare), Federal 940 Unemployment (FUTA/FUI), State withholding, and State Unemployment (SUTA/SUI).

The employer's tax ID, tax frequency, and rate are listed for each tax type as well as the taxable wages for the payroll run by tax type.

The report provides the tax liabilities by tax type. The taxes are summed by Employee Taxes & Employer Taxes and then totaled. The Total amount is the amount which is impounded from your bank account after each run.  Worth noting the report lists out what appears to be duplicate information "Total Tax Liability without COBRA and with COBRA". This essentially can be ignored today, but it was relevant in 2010-2013 as it related to the now expired COBRA premium assistance credit program.

The report also summarizes your total net payroll detailing the live/regular checks, manual checks, void checks, and direct deposit checks

Next it will list the totals for any agency checks, agency direct deposits (child support payments, garnishment payments, IRA checks), ASAP's billing charge, and any WC collected with payroll.

The items are then further summed to give you Total Tax + Net Pay + third-party items = Total Payroll Liability.

Net vs. Gross Payroll - Keep in mind, it is key to understand the difference between gross and net payroll. Gross payroll is the total amount you pay your employees BEFORE taxes & deductions. Net payroll is what you pay your employees AFTER taxes & deductions. Frequently we will field calls with people concerned about an increase in their tax liabilities after an employee has increased their withholding. An employee's withholding does not impact your tax expense even though it may increase the tax liability amount to be paid.
Taxes on Tips: Restaurants are required to pay Social Security & Medicare taxes on the tips their employees receive as they occur during the year. However, your CPA will be able to offset a good portion if not all of the employer's portion of the taxes associated with tip income by filing an Excess Tip Credit on your company's tax return. We can supply you this report each year end to share with your CPA.
Did you know OASDI stands for Old-Age Survivors Disability Insurance? This is a technical name for what we know of as Social Security. Also,  FICA stands for the Federal Insurance Contributions Act. In the 1930's New Deal era Social Security was first introduced and later  Medicare was added by the LBJ administration in the 1960's. Many still refer to FICA as nickname for the original Social Security tax.

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