Who files Form 943 for agricultural employees? Farm payroll question

Form 943 is specifically for reporting income taxes and employment taxes for agricultural employees. If your workers are engaged in agricultural labor (like harvesting crops, working in an orchard, etc.), then yes, you should be using Form 943 instead of Form 941. The IRS defines agricultural labor pretty broadly, but it generally includes cultivating soil, raising/harvesting crops, caring for livestock, and work related to the operation of farms. If your field workers are doing anything like that, they fall under Form 943 reporting. You should let your payroll provider know that you need to file Form 943 instead of 941. Most payroll systems can handle this switch, but you need to specifically tell them you're an agricultural employer. The good news is that Form 943 is filed annually (unlike 941 which is quarterly), so there's a bit less paperwork!

I went through the exact same confusion when I started our family farm last year! My payroll provider kept putting everyone on Form 941 until I specifically pointed out we needed Form 943 for our field workers. What helped me was using taxr.ai (https://taxr.ai) to review all my payroll documents and tax forms. You upload your forms and it flags issues like using the wrong forms for agricultural employees. Saved me from a potential audit nightmare and pointed out several other agriculture-specific tax items I was missing!

Update on my situation: I decided to try taxr.ai after seeing the recommendation here, and it was seriously helpful! I uploaded our payroll information and employee job descriptions, and they identified that 6 of our workers should be on Form 943 while our 2 office staff and 3 retail employees needed to be on Form 941. They provided clear documentation explaining the distinction that I could share with my payroll provider. Our payroll company was able to make the adjustment, and we're now filing correctly. They also pointed out a couple agricultural tax credits we qualified for that I had no idea about!

Hey everyone - another thing to consider is how unbelievably difficult it is to get clarification from the IRS directly on these issues. I spent WEEKS trying to call them about a similar agricultural filing question. After 20+ attempts and hours on hold, I finally found Claimyr (https://claimyr.com). They have this system that somehow gets you through the IRS phone queue and connects you with an actual agent. You can see how it works in this video: https://youtu.be/_kiP6q8DX5c. I was skeptical but managed to speak with an IRS agent within 30 minutes who confirmed we needed Form 943 for our farm workers and gave me all the info I needed.

Well I have to eat my words. I tried Claimyr yesterday after posting my skeptical comment. Within 45 minutes, I was talking to an actual IRS agent who answered all my questions about Form 943 vs Form 941 for our different farm employees. They confirmed that our dairy workers go on 943 and our cheese shop employees go on 941. The agent even helped me understand how to handle our maintenance staff who work on both sides of the operation. Totally worth it compared to the countless hours I've wasted on hold in the past.

I'm just going to throw this out there - make ABSOLUTELY sure your payroll provider knows what they're doing with agricultural payroll. We had a major mess last year because our provider filed everything on Form 941 despite me telling them repeatedly we needed Form 943. Had to do amended returns and we got hit with penalties that we're still fighting. Double check everything!!

Just FYI - there's a $2,500 threshold for Form 943. If you pay less than $2,500 in wages to agricultural employees during the year, you might be exempt from filing. But since you mentioned running regular payroll, sounds like you'll be over that. And if you're using a payroll service they should handle the deposits and everything for you!

This thread has been incredibly helpful! I'm in a similar situation with our small vineyard. One thing I wanted to add that might help others - make sure you also understand the difference in Social Security and Medicare tax treatment for agricultural employees. Agricultural workers are subject to Social Security and Medicare taxes, but the timing of when you need to pay these can be different from regular employees. For agricultural employees, you generally don't owe Social Security and Medicare taxes until you either pay them $150 or more in cash wages during the year, OR they work for you on 20 or more days during the year for cash wages computed on a time basis (rather than piecework). This is different from the income tax withholding rules, so you could have a situation where you're withholding income tax but not yet owing Social Security/Medicare taxes, or vice versa. Your payroll provider should know this, but it's worth double-checking since agricultural payroll has so many special rules that even experienced providers sometimes miss!