When Are 940 Payments Due? Quarterly Deposits and Annual Filing

Form 940 payments follow a quarterly deposit schedule tied to a $500 threshold, with an annual return filed at year-end. Deposit any accumulated FUTA liability by April 30, July 31, October 31, and January 31 once your running total tops $500, and file Form 940 itself by January 31 of the following year. When any of those dates falls on a weekend or legal holiday, the deadline shifts to the next business day.

The Quarterly Deposit Deadlines

FUTA is an annual tax, but you don’t wait until January to pay it. At the end of every calendar quarter, add up your undeposited FUTA liability. If it’s more than $500, deposit the full amount by the last day of the following month.¹

First quarter (January–March): due April 30
Second quarter (April–June): due July 31
Third quarter (July–September): due October 31
Fourth quarter (October–December): due January 31 of the following year

How the $500 Threshold Rolls Forward

If your liability at the end of a quarter is $500 or less, no deposit is due that quarter. The unpaid amount carries into the next quarter and combines with the new liability. Once the cumulative total crosses $500, you deposit the full running balance by that quarter’s deadline.¹

A quick example. Say your first-quarter liability is $400. Nothing is due yet. In the second quarter you accrue another $400, bringing the cumulative total to $800. Because $800 is over the threshold, you deposit the full $800 by July 31. If the third quarter adds only $300, that $300 rolls into the fourth quarter, and you deposit whatever the combined amount is by January 31, assuming it exceeds $500.

If your entire annual FUTA liability comes in at $500 or less, you never have to make a quarterly deposit at all. You can pay the whole thing with your Form 940 at year-end.¹

Weekend and Holiday Shifts

Any time a deposit deadline falls on a Saturday, Sunday, or legal holiday, the due date moves to the next business day.¹ For the 2025 tax year, January 31, 2026, is a Saturday, so the fourth-quarter deposit deadline moves to February 2, 2026.² Check a calendar before assuming a standard date; a one-day slip triggers penalties just as surely as a one-month slip.

The Form 940 Annual Filing Deadline

The return itself is due January 31 of the year after the tax year it covers. The same weekend-and-holiday rule applies, so for the 2025 tax year the filing deadline is February 2, 2026.²

There’s a built-in extension worth knowing about. If you deposited all your FUTA tax on time throughout the year, you automatically get until February 10 to file Form 940. Nothing to apply for; the extension is triggered by timely deposits alone.²

Important limit: the February 10 extension covers the return only, not any tax still owed. If you file and discover a remaining balance, the original January 31 date (or its weekend-adjusted equivalent) controls when the payment had to be in.

How to Make the Payment

Federal tax deposits have to be electronic. FUTA payments go through the Electronic Federal Tax Payment System (EFTPS), IRS Direct Pay for businesses, or your online IRS business tax account.³ Enroll in EFTPS through the system’s website or by calling 800-555-4477. Enrollment isn’t instant, so if you know a deposit is coming up, don’t wait until the deadline to sign up.⁴

The one exception to the electronic-only rule: if your annual FUTA liability is $500 or less, you can pay by check or money order when you file Form 940. Include Form 940-V, the payment voucher, with the return.¹

Payroll providers and reporting agents can schedule EFTPS payments on your behalf.⁵ The mechanics can be outsourced; the liability cannot. The IRS holds you responsible for timely deposits even when a third party fails to make them.⁶ Save every EFTPS confirmation. Those receipts are your proof of timely payment if the IRS ever questions the record.

What Happens If You’re Late

The failure-to-deposit penalty scales with how late the payment arrives:⁷

1–5 days late: 2% of the unpaid deposit
6–15 days late: 5% of the unpaid deposit
More than 15 days late: 10% of the unpaid deposit
More than 10 days after the IRS’s first notice: 15% of the unpaid deposit

The tiers don’t stack. A deposit 20 days late costs 10%, not the sum of the earlier brackets. The 15% tier kicks in only after the IRS has sent a notice and 10 more days have passed without payment.⁷

Filing Form 940 late is a separate penalty: 5% of the unpaid tax for each month or partial month the return is overdue, capped at 25%.⁸ Interest also runs on any unpaid balance at the IRS underpayment rate, which is 7% for the first quarter of 2026, and it compounds on the tax plus assessed penalties.⁹

Reasonable-cause relief exists but is narrow. Forgetting the deadline or being short on funds does not qualify. One argument that has worked in practice: employers unable to obtain the banking services needed to make electronic deposits.¹⁰

1
Internal Revenue Service. 2025 Instructions for Form 940
2
Internal Revenue Service. Instructions for Form 940 (2025)
3
Internal Revenue Service. Depositing and Reporting Employment Taxes
4
Internal Revenue Service. EFTPS: The Electronic Federal Tax Payment System
5
Internal Revenue Service. Reporting Agents File (RAF)
6
Internal Revenue Service. Third Party Payer Arrangements – Payroll Service Providers and Reporting Agents
7
Internal Revenue Service. Failure to Deposit Penalty
8
Internal Revenue Service. Failure to File Penalty
9
Internal Revenue Service. Quarterly Interest Rates
10
Internal Revenue Service. 20.1.4 Failure to Deposit Penalty