Excite Tax coordinates payroll and the books for Utah employers; federal Form 941 is due the last day of the month after each quarter ends.
Excite Tax keeps the two in step: every pay run from the payroll provider lands in the books, and the payroll accounts are matched to what was actually deposited and filed. The test is simple: the quarter's Form 941 and the ledger show the same wages and the same taxes. What that involves is below.
Not the processing itself. Running the paychecks, depositing the taxes and filing the returns stays with a payroll provider or with you; Excite Tax coordinates the books with what the provider ran, so a missed deposit or a wrong total shows up in the month it happens.
Four layers. Social security and Medicare: 6.2% and 1.45% from the employer, matched by the same amounts withheld from pay. Federal unemployment: 6.0% on the first $7,000 of each employee's wages, 0.6% after the state credit. Utah unemployment: a rate the Department of Workforce Services assigns, on the first $50,700 of each employee's 2026 wages. Then the federal and Utah income tax withheld from each paycheck, which is the employee's money held in trust.
April 30, July 31, October 31 and January 31, for the quarters ending March, June, September and December. If every deposit for the quarter went in on time, the return may be filed by the 10th of the second month instead.
Two agencies and two accounts. The Tax Commission takes income-tax withholding on TC-941E, due April 30, July 31, October 31 and January 31. The Department of Workforce Services takes unemployment insurance on quarterly wage reports due the same four dates. The details are below.
Tips are wages, so a restaurant's payroll runs on tip records. Employees report cash tips by the 10th of the following month, and a large food or beverage establishment reports allocated tips on Form 8027. More is below and in the restaurant bookkeeping guide.
Payroll touches the books every pay run, and the two drift apart fast when nobody compares them. Coordination is the comparison, done on a schedule:
Excite Tax does not file payroll returns or run paychecks. Excite Tax coordinates with your payroll provider: the provider files and deposits, and Excite Tax makes sure the books agree with what was filed and flags it when they do not.
The payroll providers Excite Tax coordinates with, and the payroll reports delivered each month are pending confirmation and will appear here, with a reviewed date, once confirmed.
Federal payroll deadlines for an employer that files Form 941
A very small payroll can skip deposits: with under $2,500 of tax for the current or prior quarter, the tax is paid with a timely return instead. Most employers pass that line within a couple of hires, and the deposit schedule then matters more than the return date.
Utah splits payroll between two agencies, with two registrations and two quarterly filings, the withholding return and the unemployment wage report, that share due dates.
Utah payroll obligations: the Tax Commission and the Department of Workforce Services, due dates per the Tax Commission and DWS
| What | Agency | When |
|---|---|---|
| Withholding account | Utah State Tax Commission | Before the first payroll, through Taxpayer Access Point (TC-69) |
| Withholding return | Utah State Tax Commission | TC-941E: April 30, July 31, October 31, January 31; the January return is also the annual return |
| W-2s | Utah State Tax Commission | Electronically by January 31 |
| Unemployment insurance account | Department of Workforce Services | Online, through Business Registration |
| New-hire report | Department of Workforce Services | Within 20 days of the first day of work |
| Unemployment wage report | Department of Workforce Services | April 30, July 31, October 31, January 31; even in a quarter with no wages |
A candid correction to a lot of older advice: Utah's quarterly withholding return is TC-941E, and TC-941 and TC-941R are only for 2017 and earlier periods. A Utah due date that lands on a weekend or holiday moves to the next business day.
The unemployment rate is set per employer. A new employer's rate comes from the average benefit ratio of its industry, and the overall rate runs from 0.1% to 7.1% for 2026. The registration steps are on the Utah withholding registration page.
An illustration, not a client: a new café in Salt Lake City pays 12 employees $2,500 a month each, $30,000 in all, and owes 6.2% social security and 1.45% Medicare on every dollar of it. The café also withholds an assumed $2,400 a month of federal income tax, reported with the rest on Form 941; that is the only number in the table not taken from a source.
One month of payroll tax on $30,000 of wages, at 6.2% plus 1.45% each side
| Item | Amount | Reported on |
|---|---|---|
| Social security and Medicare, employer share | 6.2% + 1.45% = 7.65% of $30,000 = $2,295 | Form 941 |
| Social security and Medicare, withheld from pay | 6.2% + 1.45% = 7.65% of $30,000 = $2,295 | Form 941 |
| Federal income tax withheld (assumed) | $2,400 | Form 941 |
| Federal deposit for the month | $6,990, by the 15th of the next month | Form 941 |
| Federal unemployment for the year | 12 × $7,000 × 0.6% = $504, all of it in January to March | Form 940 |
| Utah unemployment for the year | $360,000 of wages, all under the $50,700 wage base per person, × 0.1% to 7.1% = $360 to $25,560 | DWS quarterly wage report |
What the numbers mean. The café is a monthly depositor in its first calendar year, so $6,990 goes in by the 15th of each following month.
Each quarter's Form 941 then reports $20,970, and a full year is $83,880, over the $50,000 lookback threshold.
Once a year like that falls inside the lookback period, the café switches to semiweekly deposits, and a payroll provider still set to monthly will deposit late every pay run.
Federal unemployment catches people out the other way: each employee reaches $7,000 in March, so the whole $504 falls in the first quarter, which is more than $500, so it is deposited by the last day of the month after the quarter: April 30, rather than with the annual return.
The Utah unemployment line is the widest because the rate is the café's own; the rate notice from the Department of Workforce Services, between 0.1% and 7.1%, is the number to book, not an estimate.
A restaurant's payroll is only as good as its tip records. Employees report cash tips, card tips included, by the 10th of the month after they receive them, and those tips are wages for withholding.
A place where tipping is customary and more than 10 employees normally work on a typical business day is a large food or beverage establishment and reports allocated tips on Form 8027. The books need tips recorded by employee, not as one lump, or neither the payroll provider nor the return has what it needs. The restaurant bookkeeping guide covers the tip credit side.
Withheld tax is the employees' money, and the IRS treats it that way: an unpaid amount can bring the trust fund recovery penalty of 100% of the unpaid tax, assessed against the people responsible for paying it over, not only against the business.
Most payroll errors are smaller than that: a quarter reported short, a bonus missed, a deposit on the wrong schedule. How a filed quarter is corrected is in the guide to fixing payroll tax mistakes. Keep payroll records for at least 4 years, which is longer than the general rule for other tax records.
Hand the books over when keeping them costs more hours than the business can spare, or when they stop agreeing with the bank.
Forms W-2 and the Utah withholding returns are filed by your payroll provider or by you; payroll filing is not a service Excite Tax offers.
Excite Tax keeps these books; the return they feed is reviewed and signed by a licensed CPA at TBD CPA LLC.
Ranked and explained on the sources page.