QuickBooks 2013 For Dummies

Paying Payroll Liabilities

Make no mistake: Big Brother wants the money that you withhold from an employee’s payroll check for federal income taxes, Social Security, and Medicare. Big Brother also wants the payroll taxes you owe: the matching Social Security and Medicare taxes, federal unemployment taxes, and so on. So every so often, you need to pay Big Brother the amounts that you owe.

If you withhold money from employees’ checks for other reasons (perhaps for health insurance or retirement savings), these amounts are payroll liabilities that need to be paid to the appropriate parties.

Paying tax liabilities if you use the full-meal-deal Payroll service

Fortunately, if you’re using the QuickBooks full-meal-deal Payroll service — this is the most expensive payroll option QuickBooks provides — your federal tax liabilities and most (perhaps all) of your state tax liabilities are paid as part of the service. In other words, Intuit withdraws money from your bank account and uses this money to pay the appropriate federal or state government agency.

Be sure to check which state payroll taxes QuickBooks calculates and pays. In Washington state, where my business is located, QuickBooks won’t calculate a couple of state payroll taxes, so I have to calculate these myself (on the state payroll tax form) and pay them with a check.

Paying tax liabilities if you don’t use the full-meal-deal ...