If you have employees, you owe 7.65% of their wages in employer FICA (6.2% Social Security up to the annual wage base, 1.45% Medicare with no cap), plus a small flat amount of federal unemployment tax, plus Florida reemployment tax. You withhold a separate set of taxes from the employee's paycheck and send both halves to the IRS on a fixed deposit schedule. Almost every payroll penalty comes from missing a deposit deadline or misclassifying a worker, not from getting the math wrong.
Florida makes one part of this easier: there is no state personal income tax, so there is no state income tax withholding to run. Everything else still applies.
What you actually owe
Payroll taxes split into three buckets: what you withhold from the employee, what you match, and what you pay alone.
| Tax | Employee pays | Employer pays | Applies to |
|---|---|---|---|
| Federal income tax withholding | Per Form W-4 | Nothing | All wages |
| Social Security (OASDI) | 6.2% | 6.2% | Wages up to the annual wage base |
| Medicare (HI) | 1.45% | 1.45% | All wages, no cap |
| Additional Medicare | 0.9% | Nothing | Wages over $200,000 (withholding trigger) |
| FUTA | Nothing | 0.6% effective in Florida | First $7,000 per employee per year |
| Florida reemployment tax | Nothing | Your assigned rate | First $7,000 per employee per year |
The Social Security wage base is indexed every year. For 2026 it is $184,500, but confirm the current figure before you run your first January payroll — it changes annually and old blog posts do not.
What an employee actually costs you in federal tax. The honest number is 7.65% of wages (the Social Security piece stopping once the employee crosses the wage base) plus roughly $42 per employee per year in FUTA. That $42 is 0.6% of the $7,000 FUTA base, and it does not grow. So an employee earning $50,000 costs you $3,825 + $42 = $3,867, or 7.73%. At $100,000 it is 7.69%. You will see "8.25%" quoted a lot. That figure is only true for someone earning $7,000 or less, and it is the ceiling, not the floor.
The Additional Medicare Tax trap
$200,000 is the threshold at which you must start withholding the extra 0.9%. It is not the threshold at which the employee owes it. The employee's actual liability depends on filing status: $250,000 married filing jointly, $125,000 married filing separately, $200,000 single, head of household, or qualifying surviving spouse.
That gap produces two common outcomes. A married couple each earning $150,000 has nothing withheld but owes the tax on $50,000 of combined wages. A single earner at $210,000 whose spouse has no income has tax withheld that may come back as a refund. Either way the employee reconciles it on Form 8959 with their 1040. Your job is only to apply the flat $200,000 withholding rule per employee. Do not apply a filing-status threshold, and do not match the 0.9%.
The 2026 Form W-4 change
Use the current-year Form W-4. The One Big Beautiful Bill Act, signed July 4, 2025, created deductions for qualified tips (up to $25,000, limited to occupations that customarily received tips before December 31, 2024) and for qualified overtime compensation (up to $12,500, or $25,000 married filing jointly). Both phase out at higher incomes. Employees can account for them in withholding using the updated W-4, and the 2026 form also replaces the old handwritten "Exempt" with a dedicated checkbox between Step 4 and Step 5.
If you have tipped staff in Orlando or Miami hospitality, expect W-4 questions this year. You do not decide whether an employee qualifies. You process the form they give you.
Deposit schedule: monthly or semiweekly
Your schedule is set by your lookback period — the four quarters ending June 30 of the prior year — not by your current payroll size.
| Situation | Rule |
|---|---|
| Reported $50,000 or less in the lookback period | Monthly depositor: deposit by the 15th of the following month |
| Reported more than $50,000 | Semiweekly: Wed–Fri paydays deposit by the following Wednesday; Sat–Tue paydays by the following Friday |
| Accumulate $100,000 of liability on any single day | Deposit by the next business day, and you become semiweekly for the rest of this year and all of next year |
| Under $2,500 total for the quarter | No deposits required — pay with the return |
Exactly $50,000 is monthly. Read that boundary carefully; plenty of guides get it backwards.
Deposits must be electronic. Since 2011, federal tax deposits must be made by electronic funds transfer. Paper deposit coupons no longer exist and there is no general small-employer exemption. Enroll at eftps.gov well before your first deposit is due — enrollment takes several business days because a PIN is mailed to you. The only real carve-out is the de minimis rule above: if your quarterly liability is under $2,500 you may pay with the return instead of depositing. Mailing a check when a deposit was required triggers a 10% penalty.
Which form, when
- Form 941 — quarterly, due April 30, July 31, October 31, and January 31. It is primarily a reconciliation form, but tax can be paid with it: Form 941-V is an official payment voucher, and de minimis employers pay this way. If every deposit for the quarter was made on time and in full, the filing deadline moves to the 10th day of the second month after quarter end (pushed to the next business day if that falls on a weekend or holiday). For Q1 2026 that is May 11.
- Form 940 — annual FUTA return, due January 31, extended to February 10 if all FUTA tax was deposited when due. You only have to deposit FUTA once accumulated liability passes $500 in a quarter; below that it carries forward.
- Forms W-2 and W-3 — due January 31, both to employees and to the Social Security Administration. There is no automatic extension. This is the deadline small employers miss most.
- Florida Form RT-6 — quarterly reemployment tax return, due April 30, July 31, October 31, and January 31.
April 30 is one date and two filings. Put both on the calendar.
Florida specifics
Register first. Before any RT-6 comes due, complete the Florida Business Tax Application (Form DR-1) with the Department of Revenue. Florida requires electronic filing and payment above a specified employee count and encourages it for everyone — check which side of the threshold you fall on when you register.
Your rate will change. New Florida employers typically start at 2.7% on the first $7,000 of each employee's wages. That is a starting rate, not a permanent one. After roughly ten quarters of reporting history your rate becomes experience-rated and can land anywhere from 0.10% to 5.4%. Florida issues your annual rate on Form RT-20. Read it; do not budget 2.7% forever.
The 0.6% FUTA rate is re-determined annually. It reflects a full 5.4% state credit. States with outstanding federal unemployment loans lose part of that credit, and the credit reduction list is republished each November on Schedule A (Form 940). Florida has been clear, but check the list before you file Form 940 rather than assuming.
New hire reporting. Report every new hire to the Florida Department of Revenue within 20 days of the hire date.
Workers' compensation is separate. It is not a payroll tax, but it is payroll-driven and Florida enforces it hard. Coverage is generally required at one or more employees in construction, four or more in most non-construction businesses, and six regular or twelve seasonal workers in agriculture.
Hurricane season. If a federally declared disaster hits Orlando, Jacksonville, or Miami, the IRS often postpones filing deadlines and abates deposit penalties for a defined window — but the relief is specific and time-limited. Do not assume it applies. Before June, make sure payroll records and prior returns are in cloud storage, not only in an office filing cabinet.
Florida's county discretionary sales surtax comes up constantly for local businesses. It applies to sales tax, not payroll. Ignore it here.
Worker classification and S corp wages
Misclassification is the most expensive payroll mistake there is, because a wrong answer compounds across every quarter you got it wrong. The IRS applies a common-law control test across three dimensions: behavioral control, financial control, and the type of relationship. A signed contract calling someone a contractor does not settle it. If you genuinely cannot tell, you can file Form SS-8 and ask the IRS to determine the status. If you have treated a class of workers consistently as contractors, had a reasonable basis for doing so, and filed all required 1099s, Section 530 relief may protect you from reclassification — but all three conditions have to hold.
If you run an S corporation, you as owner-employee must take reasonable compensation as W-2 wages subject to every FICA rate above. Paying yourself entirely in distributions to avoid FICA is a well-known audit trigger.
Penalties and personal liability
Late deposit penalties escalate with the delay: 2% for 1–5 days, 5% for 6–15 days, 10% beyond 15 days, and 15% if still unpaid after an IRS notice. Keep payroll tax records for at least four years after the date the tax was due or paid, whichever is later.
The bigger risk is the Trust Fund Recovery Penalty. Withheld income tax and the employee share of FICA are trust fund money. If a business fails to remit it, the IRS can assess 100% of the unpaid amount personally against any responsible person who willfully failed to pay. An LLC or corporation does not stop that.
Non-resident founders with U.S. companies
If you formed a U.S. company from abroad and hired your first U.S. employee, every obligation above applies to you the same as to a Florida-born business. You need an EIN before you can deposit anything, and getting one takes longer when the responsible party has no U.S. taxpayer ID number — start early. If you are a non-resident owner performing services entirely outside the United States, your own compensation is generally outside U.S. wage withholding and FICA, but that turns on where the work is done and your specific status, so get it confirmed rather than assumed.
What to do next
- Look up your lookback period liability and confirm whether you are monthly or semiweekly. Do this in January, not in April.
- Verify your EFTPS enrollment works before you need it.
- Pull your current-year Form RT-20 and update your reemployment tax rate in your payroll system.
- Confirm the current Social Security wage base and check that your payroll software stopped withholding at the right point last year.
- Put five dates on the calendar: April 30, July 31, October 31, January 31 (941, RT-6, 940, W-2 and W-3 all cluster here), and your own monthly deposit day.
- Review anyone you pay as a contractor against the common-law control test.
If you are already behind on deposits, deal with it now rather than at quarter end. Penalties compound, and the trust fund portion follows you personally. Accounting BOSS works with employers in Orlando, Jacksonville, and Miami — and with non-resident founders running U.S. payroll from abroad — to set the right deposit schedule, file on time, and keep classification defensible. Get in touch and we will look at where you stand.
This is general information, not tax advice for your situation, and reading it does not make you a client. Rules and figures change — verify anything time-sensitive before you act on it. We'll talk it through with you free.
Common questions
No. Florida has no state personal income tax, so there is no state income tax withholding. You still withhold federal income tax and the employee share of Social Security and Medicare, and you still owe Florida reemployment tax as an employer-paid cost.
$200,000 is purely your withholding trigger. You withhold an extra 0.9% on wages above $200,000 for any employee, regardless of their filing status, and you do not match it. The employee's real liability threshold is $250,000 married filing jointly, $125,000 married filing separately, or $200,000 for single and head of household filers. They reconcile the difference on Form 8959 with their tax return, which can mean owing more or getting a refund.
Generally no. Federal tax deposits must be made electronically, and the paper deposit coupon system was eliminated in 2011. There is no small-employer exemption. The one exception is the de minimis rule: if your total tax liability for the quarter is under $2,500, you can pay with Form 941 rather than making deposits. Otherwise, paying by check when a deposit was required triggers a 10% penalty.
Monthly. The rule is $50,000 or less for monthly, more than $50,000 for semiweekly. Exactly $50,000 puts you in the monthly schedule. Separately, if you ever accumulate $100,000 of liability on a single day, you must deposit by the next business day and you become a semiweekly depositor for the rest of that year and the following year.
No. 2.7% is the standard new employer rate on the first $7,000 of each employee's wages. After roughly ten quarters of reporting history your rate becomes experience-rated based on your own claims record and can range from 0.10% to 5.4%. Florida sends your rate each year on Form RT-20. Budget from that notice, not from the new employer rate.
Yes, in full, from the moment you have a U.S. employee. You need an EIN before you can make any deposit, and obtaining one takes longer when the responsible party has no U.S. taxpayer ID number, so start well before your first payday. Your own compensation as a non-resident owner performing services entirely outside the United States is generally outside U.S. wage withholding and FICA, but that depends on your specific facts and should be confirmed, not assumed.