Do you have employees? Did you pay them during April, May or June? If yes, then you have payroll reports due for the 2nd quarter of this calendar year. sssss What if you didn’t pay any employees during April, May or June? If you have been filing these quarterly reports and did not tell the Internal Revenue Service that you stopped having employees, you have to file these reports for the second quarter, too. You will just report zero wages and zero withholdings. sssss There is nothing simple about the IRS. There is a little wrinkle here for some employers. If you have been given permission to file an annual 944 instead of the quarterly 941, you may just have quarterly state reports to file. sssss But for most of us, you now know July 31st is the due date for Q2 (second quarter) payroll reports. Not just the reports, but the payments due with them, also. sssss It is easier for some people to work with numbers. I am a number cruncher. I prepare reports for my own company and I prepare reports for several business clients. All my payroll clients have to do is tell me the details. sssss The details are not difficult. they give me a list of employees with their names, addresses and social security numbers. MAJOR TIP: Never write anyone any paycheck until you have this information AND you have their completed form I-9. sssss For every paydate, I need the following information. 1) the name of the employee, 2) the amount of the check, 3) the amounts withheld and for what. sssss The amount you wrote the check for is called the “net” check. “Net” take-home pay is AFTER deductions. The amount of the paycheck BEFORE deductions is called “gross” paycheck. I need to know how much you withheld for each of the taxes your employee may be subject to. sssss Taxes must be withheld from each employee’s paycheck. These taxes start with the employee’s one-half of social security and medicare taxes. Based on the employees gross check they may also have federal income taxes withheld. And if you pay workers who live in a state that has stare income tax, you may also be withholding state income taxes. sssss You may have other employee benefits that the employee pays for out of his check. An example of this could be the tools a mechanic buys for his job that he pays for out of his paycheck. This deduction does not change what he makes, but it does change what he takes home. sssss When it comes to social security and medicare taxes, the employee is only responsible to pay half. YOU, the employer, pay the other half of these two taxes. If you fail to withhold these taxes from your employee’s pay, you are responsible to pay the WHOLE amount. You can wind up paying both halves when you don’t withhold from the employee. sssss You, the employer, are also responsible for paying federal unemployment taxes. You may send a payment every quarter, but this report is not due until the end of the year. Your state, however, may have a report and payment due each quarter. sssss What’s next? File your reports and pay the taxes due for Q2 before July 31st to avoid penalties and interest for late filing and/or late payment.