State code.
If you made your deposits by FTD coupon (Form 8109) or by using an EFTPS bank account in a state other than that shown
in your address on Form 943, enter the state code for the state where you made deposits or initiated EFTPS transfers in the
box provided in the upper-left corner of Form 943. Use the two-letter United States Postal Service state abbreviation as the
state code. Enter the code “
MU” in the state code box if you deposit in more than one state. If you deposit in the same state as shown in your address,
do not make an entry in this box.
Line 1—Number of agricultural employees.
Enter the number of agricultural employees on your payroll during the pay period that included March 12, 2008. Do
not include household employees, persons who received no pay during the pay period, pensioners, or members of the Armed Forces.
An entry of 250 or more on line 1 indicates that you must file Forms W-2 electronically. Call the SSA at 1-800-772-6270
or visit the SSA's Employer W-2 Filing Instructions and Information website at
www.socialsecurity.gov/employer for more information on electronic filing requirements. SSA no longer accepts magnetic media submissions of wage information.
Line 2—Total wages subject to social security tax.
Enter the total cash wages subject to social security tax that you paid to your employees for farmwork during the
calendar year. Enter the amount before deductions. Cash wages include checks, money orders, etc. Do not include (a) the value
of noncash items such as food or lodging, or (b) pay for services other than farmwork. See
Purpose of form on page 1 for household employee information. See section 3 of Pub. 51 (Circular A) for information on taxable wages. Do
not report an employee's social security wages over $102,000 for 2008. If you, as a qualifying employer, receive an approved
Form 4029, Application for Exemption From Social Security and Medicare Taxes and Waiver of Benefits, from one or more of your
employees, write “
Form 4029” to the right of the entry space.
Line 4—Total wages subject to Medicare tax.
Enter the total cash wages subject to Medicare tax that you paid to your employees for farmwork during the calendar
year. Enter the amount before deductions. Do not include (a) the value of noncash items such as food or lodging, or (b) pay
for services other than farmwork. There is no limit on the amount of wages subject to Medicare tax. If you, as a qualifying
employer, receive an approved Form 4029 from one or more of your employees, write “
Form 4029” to the right of the entry space.
Line 6—Federal income tax withheld.
Enter federal income tax withheld on wages paid to your employees. Generally, you must withhold federal income tax
from employees from whom you withhold social security and Medicare taxes. See sections 5 and 13 of Pub. 51(Circular A) for
more information on withholding rules.
Line 8—Adjustment to taxes.
Use line 8 to:
-
Adjust for rounding of fractions of cents.
-
Adjust for the uncollected employee share of social security and Medicare taxes on (a) third-party sick pay or (b) group-term
life insurance premiums paid for former employees. See
section 9 in Pub. 51 (Circular A).
-
Correct errors in social security and Medicare taxes reported on a prior year return.
-
Correct an administrative error in reporting federal income tax withholding on a prior year return. See section 9 in
Pub. 51 (Circular A).
Use a minus sign (if possible) to show a decrease to the amounts reported on lines 3 or 5. Otherwise, use parentheses.
Current year adjustment, fractions of cents.
If there is a small difference between net taxes (line 11) and total deposits (line 12), it may be caused by rounding to the
nearest cent each time you computed payroll. This rounding occurs when you figure the amount of social security and Medicare
tax to be withheld from each employee's wages. If the fractions of cents adjustment is the only entry on line 8, write “Fractions Only” on the dotted line to the left of the entry space for line 8.
Prior year adjustments include errors in social security and Medicare taxes reported on a previously filed return. If you
report both an underpayment and an overpayment, show only the difference.
For errors discovered after 2008, make corrections to a previously filed Form 943 on Form 943-X.
Because any amount shown on line 8 increases or decreases your tax liability, the adjustment must also be included on your
Monthly Summary of Federal Tax Liability on Form 943 (line 15) or Form 943-A, Agricultural Employer's Record of Federal Tax
Liability. For details on how to report adjustments on the Monthly Summary of Federal Tax Liability, see the instructions
for line 15 below. For details on how to report adjustments on Form 943-A (for use by semiweekly depositors only), see the
instructions for Form 943-A.
Explain any prior year adjustments on Form 941c, Supporting Statement To Correct Information, or attach a statement that shows
the same information. Enter on
Form 941c or include in the statement the total wages for all of your employees as previously reported and as corrected. Do not file Form 941c (or statement) separately from
Form 943.
If you are adjusting an employee's social security or Medicare wages for a prior year, you must also file Form W-2c, Corrected
Wage and Tax Statement, and Form W-3c, Transmittal of Corrected Wage and Tax Statements, with the Social Security Administration.
You can get these from the IRS by calling 1-800-829-3676.
Federal income tax adjustments.
Generally, you cannot adjust amounts reported as federal income tax withheld in a prior calendar year unless it is to correct
an administrative error. An administrative error occurs if the amount that you entered on the return is not the amount that
you actually withheld. See section 9 of Pub. 51 (Circular A) for details.
Line 9—Total taxes.
Combine lines 7 and 8; enter the result on line 9.
Line 10—Advance earned income credit (EIC) payments made to employees.
Employees who are eligible can receive advance earned income credit (EIC) payments with their wages by giving you
Form W-5, Earned Income Credit Advance Payment Certificate, annually. For more information, see sections 6 and 14 of Pub.
51 (Circular A).
Line 12—Total deposits.
Enter the total amount deposited for the year, including any overpayment from 2007, as shown in your records.
Line 13—Balance due.
You do not have to pay if line 13 is under $1. Generally, you should show a balance due on line 13 only if your net
tax liability for the year (line 11) is less than $2,500. However, see section 7 of Pub. 51 (Circular A) regarding payments
made under the accuracy of deposits rule.
You may pay the amount shown on line 13 using EFTPS, a credit card, or a check or money order.
Do not use a credit card to pay taxes that were required to be deposited. For more information on paying your taxes with a credit
card, visit the IRS website at
www.irs.gov and click on the
electronic IRS link.
If you pay by EFTPS or credit card, file your return using the
Without a payment address on page 2 under
Where to file and
do not file Form 943-V, Payment Voucher.
If you pay by check or money order, make it payable to the
United States Treasury. Enter your EIN, Form 943, and the tax period on your check or money order. Complete Form 943-V and enclose with Form 943.
If you fail to make deposits as required and instead pay the taxes with Form 943, you may be subject to a penalty.
Line 14—Overpayment.
If you deposited more than the correct amount for the year, you can have the overpayment refunded or applied to your
next return.
If line 14 is under $1, we will send you a refund or apply it to your next return only on written request.
Line 15—Monthly Summary of Federal Tax Liability.
This is a summary of your yearly tax liability, not a summary of deposits made. If line 11 is less than $2,500,
do not complete line 15 or Form 943-A.
Complete line 15 only if you were a
monthly schedule depositor for the entire year and line 11 is $2,500 or more. The amount entered on line 15M must equal the amount reported on line
11. See section 7 of Pub. 51 (Circular A) for details on the deposit rules. You are a monthly schedule depositor for the calendar
year if the amount of your Form 943 taxes (line 9) reported for the lookback period is not more than $50,000. The lookback
period is the second calendar year preceding the current calendar year. For example, the lookback period for 2009 is 2007.
If you were a semiweekly schedule depositor during any part of the year, do not complete line 15. Instead, complete Form 943-A.
Reporting adjustments on line 15.
If your net adjustment during a month is negative (for example, correcting an overreported liability in a prior period)
and it exceeds your total liability for the month, do not enter a negative amount for the month. Instead, enter “
-0-” for the month and carry over the unused portion of the adjustment to the next month.
For example, Pine Tree Farm discovered on February 6, 2008, that it overreported social security tax on its 2007 Form
943 by $2,500. Its Form 943 taxes for the first 3 months of 2008 were: January—$2,000; February—$2,000; and March— $2,000.
Pine Tree Farm should complete line 15 by entering “
2,000” on line A, “
-0-” on line B, and “
1,500” on line C.
The prior period adjustment ($2,500) offsets the $2,000 liability for February and the excess $500 must be used to
offset the March liabilities. Since the error was not discovered until February, it does not affect January liabilities reported
on line A.
For errors discovered after 2008, adjustments made on new Form 943-X are not reported on line 15.
Additional information.
Pub. 51 (Circular A) has information that you may need about social security, Medicare, federal unemployment (FUTA),
withheld federal income taxes, and the advance earned income credit. It includes tables showing the federal income tax to
withhold from an employee's wages.
Third-Party Designee.
If you want to allow any individual, corporation, firm, organization, or partnership to discuss your 2008 Form 943
with the IRS, check the “
Yes” box in the Third-Party Designee section of the return. Also, enter the name, phone number, and any five numbers that the
designee chooses as his or her personal identification number (PIN). The authorization applies only to the tax form upon which
it appears.
By checking the “
Yes” box, you are authorizing the IRS to speak with the designee to answer any questions relating to the information reported
on your tax return. You are also authorizing the designee to:
-
Exchange information concerning your tax return with the IRS and
-
Request and receive written tax return information relating to your tax return including copies of specific notices, correspondence,
and account transcripts.
You are not authorizing the designee to receive any refund check, bind you to anything (including additional tax liability),
or otherwise represent you before the IRS. If you want to expand the designee's authorization or desire automatic issuances
of copies of notices, see Pub. 947, Practice Before the IRS and Power of Attorney.
The Third-Party Designee authorization is substantially equivalent to Form 8821, Tax Information Authorization, but
automatically expires one year from the due date (without regard to extensions) for filing your 2008 Form 943. If you or your
designee desire to terminate the authorization, a written statement conveying your wish to revoke the authorization should
be submitted to the IRS service center where the return was processed. Use the address for
Where to file (without a payment) on page 2.
Who must sign.
Form 943 must be signed as follows:
-
Sole proprietorship—The individual who owns the business.
-
Corporation (including a limited liability company (LLC) treated as a corporation)— The president, vice president, or other principal officer duly authorized to act.
-
Partnership (including an LLC treated as a partnership) or unincorporated organization— A responsible and duly authorized member or officer having knowledge of its affairs.
-
Single member LLC treated as a disregarded entity— The owner of the LLC.
-
Trust or estate—The fiduciary.
Form 943 may also be signed by a duly authorized agent of the taxpayer if a valid power of attorney has been filed.
Alternative signature method.
Corporate officers or duly authorized agents may sign Form 945 by rubber stamp, mechanical device, or computer software
program. For details and required documentation, see Rev. Proc. 2005-39. You can find Rev. Proc. 2005-39 on page 82 of Internal
Revenue Bulletin 2005-28 at
www.irs.gov/pub/irs-irbs/irb05-28.pdf.
Paid preparers.
A paid preparer must sign Form 943 and enter the information requested in the Paid Preparer's Use Only section if
the preparer was paid to prepare Form 943 and is not an employee of the filing entity. Paid preparers must sign paper returns
with a manual signature. The preparer must give you a copy of the return in addition to the copy to be filed with the IRS.
If you are a paid preparer, write your SSN or your Preparer Tax Identification Number (PTIN) in the space provided.
Include your complete address. If you work for a firm, write the firm's name and the EIN of the firm. You can apply for a
PTIN using Form W-7P, Application for Preparer Tax Identification Number. You cannot use your PTIN in place of the EIN of
the tax preparation firm.
Generally, do not complete the paid preparers section if you are filing Form 943 as a reporting agent and have a valid
Form 8655, Reporting Agent Authorization, on file with the IRS. However, a reporting agent must complete this section if the
reporting agent offered legal advice, for example, advising the client on determining whether its workers are employees or
independent contractors for federal tax purposes.
