Quarterly due dates
The Instructions for Form 941 (Rev. March 2026) set the due dates for the Employer's Quarterly Federal Tax Return:
- First quarter (January to March): April 30
- Second quarter: July 31
- Third quarter: October 31
- Fourth quarter: January 31
Traps: April 15 is the monthly deposit deadline, not a Form 941 date, and March 31 is only the quarter's last day.
The 10-day extension for timely depositors
An employer that deposited all of the quarter's taxes on time and in full may file by the 10th day of the second month after the quarter ends. For the first quarter that is May 10; for the third quarter (ending September 30) it is November 10.
Traps:
- May 10 is the extended date, not the normal due date. Giving it as the normal first-quarter date is a listed common error.
- October 31 is the normal third-quarter date, which applies when deposits were not all timely.
- November 15 uses the 15th instead of the 10th.
The $2,500 pay-with-return rule
Under Form 941 (Rev. March 2026), line 16, a contractor may pay the quarter's tax with a timely filed return instead of depositing it if both of these hold:
- Line 12 (total tax liability) is less than $2,500 for the current quarter or the prior quarter, and
- No $100,000 next-day deposit obligation arose during the current quarter.
A remodeler with $2,300 on line 12 and no next-day obligation may pay with the return. Requiring both quarters under $2,500 misreads the test: either one is enough.
The $100,000 condition knocks it out
The second condition is the trap. A contractor whose prior quarter was $1,800 but who accumulated $110,000 on a single day after a bonus payroll cannot pay with the return; that tax had to be deposited by the close of the next day. Relying on the $1,800 prior quarter alone is the listed common error, and filing by the normal due date does not cure a missed deposit.