9. Reporting Adjustments on Form 943(p18)

There are two types of adjustments: current year adjustments and prior year adjustments to correct errors. See the Instructions for Form 943 and the Instructions for Form 943-X for more information on how to report these adjustments.

In certain cases, amounts reported as social security and Medicare taxes on lines 3 and 5 of Form 943 must be adjusted to arrive at your correct tax liability. The most common situation involves differences in cents totals due to rounding. Other situations when current year adjustments may be necessary include third-party sick pay, group-term life insurance for former employees, and the uncollected employee share of social security and Medicare taxes on tips. Current year adjustments are reported on line 8 of Form 943. See Publication 15 (Circular E) for more information on these adjustments.

If you withhold an incorrect amount of federal income tax from an employee, you may adjust the amount withheld in later pay periods during the same year to compensate for the error.

If you discover an error on a previously filed Form 943 make the correction using Form 943-X. File a separate Form 943-X for each prior year you are correcting. File Form 943-X separately. Do not attach Form 943-X to your current period Form 943. You must explain your error on Form 943-X, indicate when the error was discovered, and provide the applicable certifications.

When you discover that you underreported tax on a previously filed return, you must file Form 943-X no later than the due date of the return for the period during which you discovered the error. Pay the amount you owe when you file. For example, you discover on June 15, 2011, that you underreported $10,000 of social security and Medicare wages on your 2010 Form 943. You owe $1,530 on the 2010 Form 943. To qualify for an interest-free adjustment, you must file Form 943-X by January 31, 2012, and pay $1,530 when you file. For more information, see the Instructions for Form 943-X or visit IRS.gov and enter the keywords Correcting Employment Taxes.

Do not use Form 843, Claim for Refund and Request for Abatement, to request a refund or abatement of overreported social security or Medicare taxes. Instead, request your refund or abatement of taxes on Form 943-X. However, use Form 843 when requesting a refund or abatement of assessed interest or penalties.

You cannot adjust the amount reported as federal income tax withheld for a prior year return, even if you withheld the wrong amount. However, you may adjust prior year federal income tax withholding to correct an administrative error. An administrative error occurs if the amount you entered on Form 943 is not the amount that you actually withheld. Examples include mathematical or transposition errors. In these cases, you should adjust the return to show the amount actually withheld.

The administrative error adjustment corrects only the amount reported on Form 943 to agree with the actual amount withheld from wages in that year.

You may also need to correct Forms W-2 for the prior year (if they do not show the actual withholding) by filing Form W-2c and Form W-3c. Forms W-2c may be created and submitted to SSA over the Internet. For more information, visit SSA's Employer W-2 Filing Instructions & Information webpage at www.socialsecurity.gov/employer.

Correct prior year social security and Medicare tax errors by making an adjustment on Form 943-X.

If you withheld no tax or less than the correct amount, you may correct the mistake by withholding the tax from a later payment to the same employee.

If you withheld employee tax when no tax is due or if you withheld more than the correct amount, you must repay or reimburse the employee.

If you withheld no federal income, social security, or Medicare taxes or less than the correct amount from an employee's wages, you can make it up from future pay to that employee. But you are the one who owes the underpayment. Reimbursement is a matter for settlement between you and the employee. Underwithheld federal income tax must be recovered from the employee on or before the last day of the calendar year.

If you withheld more than the correct amount of federal income, social security, or Medicare taxes from wages paid, give the employee any excess. The excess federal income tax withholding must be reimbursed to the employee before the end of the calendar year. Keep in your records the employee's written receipt showing the date and amount of the repayment. If you do not have a receipt, you must report and pay each excess amount when you file Form 943 for the year in which you withheld too much tax.

When adjustments are made to correct social security and Medicare taxes because of a change in the wage totals reported for a previous year, you also may need to file Forms W-2c and Form W-3c. Forms W-2c may be created and submitted to SSA over the Internet. For more information, visit SSA's Employer W-2 Filing Instructions & Information webpage at www.socialsecurity.gov/employer.

For additional information about the procedure for adjusting employment taxes, get the Instructions for Form 943-X or visit IRS.gov and enter the keywords Correcting Employment Taxes. Also see Treasury Decision 9405, 2008-32 I.R.B. 293, available at  
http://www.irs.gov/irb/2008-32_IRB/ar13.html.

Note. Continue to make current period adjustments for fractions of cents, sick pay, tips, and group-term life insurance on your Form 943.