United States / Tools / Payroll deposit schedule — monthly or semiweekly?
Payroll deposit schedule — monthly or semiweekly?
One lookback figure decides whether you deposit monthly or semiweekly. Get it wrong in the late direction and penalties start at 2% and climb to 15%.
| You enter | the Form 941 taxes you reported in the lookback period, off your filed returns. |
|---|---|
| It applies | the $50,000 lookback rule — and the $100,000 next-day rule, which overrides it and reclassifies you for two years. |
| You get | your schedule and the deposit dates it carries. Depositing on the wrong schedule is how payroll penalties usually start. |
A worked example
Report $50,000 or less in the lookback period and you are a monthly depositor; a dollar more and you are semiweekly. Exactly $50,000 is monthly — the rule is “more than”, and that boundary is where people get it wrong.
Deposit schedule
- Lookback total
- $35,000
- $50,000 threshold
- At or under → monthly
- Deposit timing
- Deposit by the 15th of the following month.
An estimate, not a quote. The IRS produces the figure that actually applies to you — check there before you rely on a number. This does not compute your lookback total — that comes off your filed 941s, not this tool.
What this deliberately leaves out
A new employer with no lookback history is a monthly depositor by default until a full lookback period exists. State income-tax and unemployment-insurance deposit schedules are separate rules and are not modelled here. Figures verified 2026-08-17.
What to do with this number: Get this wrong in the direction of depositing late and the penalty runs from 2% to 15% of the deposit. If the $100,000 next-day rule ever fires, you are semiweekly for the rest of the year and all of the next one — that is the part that surprises people.
The figures behind this tool, with their sources and verification dates: the companion guide. When the statute or schedule changes, the guide and the tool move together.