Form 944 (2026): The Annual Employment Tax Return for Employers Owing Under $1,000, and How to Switch From Form 941

Form 944, the Employer's ANNUAL Federal Tax Return, replaces the four quarterly Forms 941 for the smallest employers: those whose annual liability for Social Security tax, Medicare tax, and withheld federal income tax is $1,000 or less, which the IRS says generally means $5,000 or less in wages for the year. You file Form 944 only if the IRS has notified you in writing to do so. Form 944 for 2026 is due February 1, 2027 (January 31 is a Sunday), or February 10, 2027 if you deposited every dollar on time. The line map below was checked against the 2025 revision of Form 944, the current form; the IRS posts each year's form late in that year, and the 2026 form is expected to keep the same lines.

Key numbers for Form 944:

Save this cheat sheet — key numbers in one image.

Who Files Form 944?

Form 944 is filed by employers the IRS has designated, in writing, as annual filers because their expected employment tax liability is $1,000 or less for the calendar year. The instructions are blunt about the mechanics: if the IRS did not notify you to file Form 944, do not file it, and if the IRS did notify you, you must file Form 944 and not Forms 941 for that year even if your liability ends up above $1,000. Treasury Regulation §31.6011(a)-4(a)(4) sets the $1,000 test and provides that the IRS notifies qualifying employers on request.

The $1,000 works out to roughly $5,000 of wages because the combined Social Security and Medicare rate is 15.3% (both halves): $5,000 × 15.3% is $765, which leaves $235 of room for income tax withholding before the cap. A single part-time employee, a seasonal helper, or a one-person S corporation paying its owner a small salary are the typical cases.

Three groups cannot use Form 944 at all:

• Employers with only household employees (Schedule H on Form 1040).
• Employers with only agricultural employees (Form 943).
• Employers the IRS has told to file Form 941, including those who asked to switch back.

If you are unsure which return the IRS expects from you, the instructions say to call 800-829-4933 (267-941-1000 from outside the United States).

How Do You Request Form 944 Instead of Form 941?

There are two doors, and both end with a written IRS notice; nothing you do on your own changes your filing requirement.

New employers check the box on line 14 of Form SS-4 when applying for an EIN. The SS-4 instructions (Rev. December 2025) say to check it if you expect your employment tax liability to be $1,000 or less in a full calendar year, and that once you check it, you keep filing Form 944 until the IRS instructs you to file Form 941. Leave the box unchecked and you must file Form 941 every quarter. The Form SS-4 guide covers the rest of the application.

Existing Form 941 filers contact the IRS in the first quarter of the year they want to switch. For 2026 the windows were January 1 to April 1 by phone at 800-829-4933, or a written request postmarked by March 16, 2026 (March 15 was a Sunday), sent to Ogden, UT 84201-0038 or Cincinnati, OH 45999-0038 depending on where your returns go, under Rev. Proc. 2009-51. Expect the same windows for 2027 (call by April 1, postmark by March 15) and confirm them in the 2026 Instructions for Form 944. The IRS then mails a notice that your filing requirement changed; until it arrives, keep filing Form 941.

Switching back to Form 941

The reverse request uses the same phone number, same addresses, and same first-quarter windows. Form 944 filers who want quarterly filing (for example, because payroll grew, or because their payroll software only supports Form 941) ask between January 1 and April 1, and file Form 941 only after the written notice arrives. Without the notice, you file Form 944 for that year.

Check the $1,000 and $2,500 Tests for Your Payroll

Form 944 Deposit Rules: When Do You Pay With the Return?

The $1,000 eligibility test and the $2,500 deposit test are different numbers, and the instructions warn that a Form 944 filer whose payroll grows can owe deposits during the year while still filing Form 944 for that year.

Your deposit schedule comes from a lookback period, and for Form 944 filers it is the second calendar year before the current one, 2024 for 2026, under Treasury Regulation §31.6302-1(b)(4); the Instructions for Form 941 say the same from the other side. Semiweekly Form 944 filers skip the month boxes on line 13 and attach Form 945-A, Annual Record of Federal Tax Liability. Every deposit goes through EFTPS or your IRS business tax account; the payroll tax due dates guide has the 2026 deposit calendar.

Form 944 Line by Line (2025 Revision)

Form 944 is two pages and reads like a compressed Form 941: one set of wage and tax lines for the whole year, a twelve-month liability grid instead of a three-month one, and a single line for adjustments. Enter dollars and cents, leave zero fields blank except line 9, and show negatives with a minus sign.

Worked Example: A Studio With One Part-Time Assistant

Brigid runs a pottery studio in Asheville and hired her first employee in 2026, a part-time assistant. She checked line 14 on Form SS-4 and received the IRS notice designating her a Form 944 filer. For 2026 she paid the assistant $4,200 in wages, all taxable, and withheld $180 of federal income tax based on the assistant's Form W-4.

Her own cost is half of line 4e, $321.30; the other $321.30 plus the $180.00 of withholding came out of the assistant's pay. Because $822.60 is under $2,500, she made no deposits during 2026 and pays the full $822.60 electronically or with Form 944-V when she files by February 1, 2027. If she had paid $7,000 instead, with $420 withheld, line 9 would read $1,491.00: above the $1,000 designation test, so the IRS would not have designated her, but if she had already been designated she would still file Form 944 for 2026 and, being under $2,500, still pay with the return.

Form 944 vs Form 941: What Actually Differs

Both forms report the same taxes at the same rates. The differences are cadence and thresholds.

Line numbering is the trap when moving between the two: Form 941's line 12 is Form 944's line 9, line 13 (deposits) is line 10, and the Social Security and Medicare block is 5a to 5e versus 4a to 4e. The Form 941 instructions guide walks the quarterly form line by line.

What Happens If You Were Told to File Form 944 but Your Liability Grew?

You still file Form 944 for that year. The instructions say a designated Form 944 filer files Form 944 even if the liability for the year exceeds $1,000, and that a filer whose business grows during the year may have to start making deposits (once liability reaches $2,500) but still files Form 944. The IRS reviews filers and may move you to Form 941 by notice for the following year; you can also request the move yourself in the January to April 1 window.

Two consequences follow. Once liability for a quarter reaches $2,500, you are on the Form 941 deposit rules, so a mid-year hire can turn a pay-with-the-return year into a monthly-deposit year. And the failure-to-deposit penalty under IRC §6656 (2% to 15% of the late amount) applies to Form 944 filers exactly as to quarterly filers.

At Anna Money, where we served 60,000+ UK small businesses, the first-hire moment was where owners most often mistook a small payroll for a simple one; the paperwork is lighter on Form 944, but the deposit clock is identical once you cross $2,500.

How Do You Correct a Filed Form 944? Form 944-X

Mistakes on a filed Form 944 are corrected on Form 944-X, Adjusted Employer's ANNUAL Federal Tax Return or Claim for Refund, filed separately from Form 944 and never by writing changes on next year's return. Like Form 941-X, it offers an adjustment process (for underreported tax, or a mix of under- and overreported amounts) and a claim process (overreported tax only, refunded). An underreported amount is penalty- and interest-free when you file Form 944-X by the due date of the return for the year in which you found the error and pay when you file. Do not adjust a prior year's amounts on line 6 of the current Form 944; line 6 is for current-year adjustments only.

What Form 944 Does NOT Cover

Form 944 is annual, but it does not make every employer obligation annual:

• Federal unemployment tax is still reported on Form 940, with its own $500 deposit rule and its own February 1, 2027 due date.
• State unemployment tax and state income tax withholding follow each state's returns, usually quarterly, regardless of your federal filing frequency.
• Forms W-2 and W-3 are still due to the SSA and to employees by February 1, 2027; the IRS reconciles line 1, line 2, and lines 4a to 4c against your Form W-3 totals.
• Farm wages (Form 943), household wages (Schedule H), and nonpayroll withholding such as backup withholding (Form 945) never go on Form 944.
• Deposits. Filing Form 944 is not a payment; once line 9 reaches $2,500 the money moves through EFTPS on the deposit schedule.
• Your own choice of form. Nothing you check on Form 944 changes your filing requirement; only the IRS notice does.

Common Form 944 Mistakes

1. Filing Form 944 without the IRS notice. Checking line 14 on Form SS-4 is a request, not a designation; until the notice arrives, Forms 941 are due each quarter.
2. Reading the $1,000 test as a deposit threshold. Deposits start at $2,500 of annual liability (line 9), not $1,000.
3. Filling in the month boxes on line 13 as a semiweekly depositor. Semiweekly Form 944 filers attach Form 945-A and leave 13a to 13m blank.
4. Line 13m that does not equal line 9. The twelve month boxes must sum to line 9, by the month wages were paid.
5. Carrying Form 941 line numbers onto Form 944. Deposits are line 10 here, not line 13; total tax is line 9, not line 12.
6. Fixing last year on line 6. Prior-year corrections belong on Form 944-X.
7. Assuming the lookback period is last year. For a 2026 Form 944 filer it is calendar year 2024.

Knowing Whether You Have Crossed $2,500 Before February: How Jupid Helps

The Form 944 year ends with one question: did payroll tax for the year stay under $2,500, or did it quietly cross the line in October when you added hours? Jupid connects to your business bank account and categorizes every transaction automatically at 95.9% accuracy, so wages, withholding remittances, and EFTPS deposits show up as their own running totals instead of hiding among supply purchases. Ask the AI accountant in WhatsApp or iMessage "how much payroll have we paid this year?" and you get an answer from your real transactions in seconds. Jupid does not prepare or file Form 944; it keeps the year-to-date numbers you need for it in reach. Try Jupid.

Before You File Form 944 for 2026

• Find the IRS notice that designated you a Form 944 filer; without it, file Forms 941.
• Total 2026 wages, withholding, and taxable Social Security and Medicare wages from your payroll records and match them to your Forms W-2.
• Compute lines 4a to 4e, 5, and 9, and check whether line 9 is under $2,500.
• If line 9 is $2,500 or more, list monthly liabilities on lines 13a to 13l (or attach Form 945-A) and confirm every required deposit was made.
• Enter deposits on line 10 and pay any line 11 balance electronically by February 1, 2027.
• Sign Part 5, complete both pages, and keep a copy with the W-3 you file with the SSA.

Sources

• IRS: Instructions for Form 944 (2025)
• IRS: Form 944 for 2025
• IRS: Instructions for Form 941 (03/2026), requesting to file Form 944 or Form 941
• IRS: Instructions for Form SS-4 (Rev. December 2025), line 14
• IRS Publication 15 (Circular E), Employer's Tax Guide (2026)
• IRC §3101: Employee Social Security and Medicare tax rates
• IRC §3111: Employer Social Security and Medicare tax rates
• IRC §6302: Mode or time of collection, including the $100,000 one-day deposit rule
• IRC §6656: Failure to make deposit of taxes
• Treasury Regulation §31.6011(a)-4: Returns of income tax withheld, Form 944 program
• Treasury Regulation §31.6302-1: Federal tax deposit rules, lookback period for Form 944 filers

Reviewed September 23, 2026 against the 2025 revision of Form 944 and the March 2026 revision of Form 941. This article is general education, not personalized tax, legal, or accounting advice. Filing requirements are set by IRS notice, and deposit schedules depend on your own lookback period. Consult a qualified payroll tax professional for your situation.