Introduction

This publication explains your tax responsibilities as an employer, including agricultural employers and employers whose principal place of business is in American Samoa, Guam, the CNMI, the USVI, or Puerto Rico. It explains the requirements for withholding, depositing, reporting, paying, and correcting employment taxes. It explains the forms you must give to your employees, those your employees must give to you, and those you must send to the IRS and the SSA. References to “income tax” in this guide apply only to federal income tax. Contact your state or local tax department to determine their rules. Whenever the term “United States” is used in this publication, it includes American Samoa, Guam, the CNMI, the USVI, and Puerto Rico, unless otherwise noted.

When you pay your employees, you don’t pay them all the money they earned. As their employer, you have the added responsibility of withholding taxes from their paychecks. The federal income tax and employees’ share of social security and Medicare taxes that you withhold from your employees’ paychecks are part of their wages that you pay to the U.S. Treasury instead of to your employees. Your employees trust that you pay the withheld taxes to the U.S. Treasury by making federal tax deposits. This is the reason that these withheld taxes are called trust fund taxes. If federal income, social security, or Medicare tax that must be withheld isn’t withheld or isn’t deposited or paid to the U.S. Treasury, the trust fund recovery penalty may apply. See section 11 for more information.

This publication also provides employers, including employers in the USVI and Puerto Rico, with a summary of their responsibilities in connection with the tax under the Federal Unemployment Tax Act, known as FUTA tax. See section 14 for more information.

Additional employment tax information is available in Pubs. 15-A, 15-B, and 15-T. Pub. 15-A includes specialized information supplementing the basic employment tax information provided in this publication. Pub. 15-B, Employer’s Tax Guide to Fringe Benefits, contains information about the employment tax treatment and valuation of various types of noncash compensation. Pub. 15-T includes the federal income tax withholding tables and instructions on how to use the tables.

Most employers must withhold (except FUTA), deposit, report, and pay the following employment taxes.

Income tax.

Social security tax.

Medicare tax.

FUTA tax.

There are exceptions to these requirements. See section 15 for guidance. Railroad retirement taxes are explained in the Instructions for Form CT-1.

Comments and suggestions.

We welcome your comments about this publication and suggestions for future editions.

You can send us comments through IRS.gov/FormComments .

Or, you can write to:

Although we can’t respond individually to each comment received, we do appreciate your feedback and will consider your comments and suggestions as we revise our tax forms, instructions, and publications. Don’t send tax questions, tax returns, or payments to the above address.

Getting answers to your tax questions.

If you have a tax question not answered by this publication, check IRS.gov and How To Get Tax Help at the end of this publication.

Getting tax forms, instructions, and publications.

Go to IRS.gov/Forms to download current and prior-year forms, instructions, and publications.

Ordering tax forms, instructions, and publications.

Go to IRS.gov/OrderForms to order current forms, instructions, and publications; call 800-829-3676 to order prior-year forms and instructions. The IRS will process your order for forms and publications as soon as possible. Don’t resubmit requests you’ve already sent us. You can get forms and publications faster online.

Federal government employers.

The information in this publication, including the rules for making federal tax deposits, applies to federal agencies.

State and local government employers.

Payments to employees for services in the employ of state and local government employers are generally subject to federal income tax withholding but not FUTA tax. Most elected and appointed public officials of state or local governments are employees under common-law rules. See chapter 3 of Pub. 963, Federal-State Reference Guide. In addition, wages, with certain exceptions, are subject to social security and Medicare taxes. See section 15 for more information on the exceptions.

If an election worker is employed in another capacity with the same government entity, see Revenue Ruling 2000-6 on page 512 of Internal Revenue Bulletin 2000-6 at IRS.gov/pub/irs-irbs/irb00-06.pdf .

You can get information on reporting and social security coverage from your local IRS office. If you have any questions about coverage under a section 218 (Social Security Act) agreement, contact the appropriate state official. To find your State Social Security Administrator, go to the National Conference of State Social Security Administrators website at NCSSSA.org .

Indian tribal governments.

See Pub. 4268 for employment tax information for Indian tribal governments.

Disregarded entities and qualified subchapter S subsidiaries (QSubs).

Eligible single-owner disregarded entities and QSubs are treated as separate entities for employment tax purposes. Eligible single-member entities must report and pay employment taxes on wages paid to their employees using the entities’ own names and EINs. See Regulations sections 1.1361-4(a)(7) and 301.7701-2(c)(2)(iv).