topic S-Corp Payroll taxes - employer vs. employee in Business & farm

S-Corp Payroll taxes - employer vs. employee

taxesaresofun — Mon, 23 Feb 2026 11:00:44 GMT

For my S-Corp payroll taxes, I have 'Payroll Taxes - Employer' and 'Payroll Taxes - Employee'.

Do I include both in my Payroll taxes deduction, or just deduct the employer Payroll Taxes?

Re: S-Corp Payroll taxes - employer vs. employee

Anonymous_ — Sun, 08 Jan 2023 21:49:02 GMT

For the deduction, the figure is whatever the corporation pays.

Re: S-Corp Payroll taxes - employer vs. employee

taxesaresofun — Sun, 08 Jan 2023 22:03:42 GMT

So 'Payroll Taxes - Employer', even though 'Payroll Taxes - Employee' appears on my balance sheet?

Re: S-Corp Payroll taxes - employer vs. employee

Mike9241 — Mon, 09 Jan 2023 01:33:20 GMT

for simplicity, the following ignores state payroll taxes. we can't see your payroll documents so I don't know what makes up the "employee payroll taxes". if these are the Fica and Medicare taxes - the portion that comes out of employee paychecks - along with any withholding taxes they would be a balance sheet if they weren't paid over to the IRS before year-end. ######################

Cash basis employers are supposed to take the deduction for their share of the FICA and Medicare taxes when paid, However, many use a hybrid system where they accrue their portion of payroll taxes, and deduct them in the year accrued. If you use the hybrid system then the balance sheet item should include both the employee and employer share + any withholding taxes that were not paid over to the IRS by year-end.

Re: S-Corp Payroll taxes - employer vs. employee

Critter-3 — Mon, 09 Jan 2023 01:40:23 GMT

You have the employee's wages to deduct (which includes the employee's FICA taxes that were withheld) + the employer's FICA taxes that were paid + fed unemployment + state unemployment. You don't get to deduct the employee FICA taxes as well since they were already part of the total wages paid. Depending on your bookkeeping system and/or the timing of the payments to the fed/state they may not line up with your balance sheet or P&L.