Updated October 19, 2026. Quick answer: Form 943 is the Employer’s Annual Federal Tax Return for Agricultural Employees. For 2025 the instructions say to file by February 2, 2026, or by February 10, 2026 if deposits were made on time in full payment of the taxes due. Wages to farmworkers are covered when either the $150 test or the $2,500 test is met.
Quick reference
| Item | As the IRS form or instructions state it |
|---|---|
| Form and year read | Form 943 for 2025, Employer’s Annual Federal Tax Return for Agricultural Employees |
| Individual wage test | “You pay an employee cash wages of $150 or more in a year for farmwork” |
| Group wage test | “The total (cash and noncash) wages that you pay to all farmworkers is $2,500 or more.” |
| Due date for 2025 | “For 2025, file Form 943 by February 2, 2026.” |
| Later date if deposits were on time | “if you made deposits on time in full payment of the taxes due for the year, you may file the return by February 10, 2026.” |
| Social security rate on the form | “Social security tax (multiply line 2 by 12.4% (0.124))” |
| Medicare rate on the form | “Medicare tax (multiply line 4 by 2.9% (0.029))” |
| Deposit threshold | “If your total taxes after adjustments and nonrefundable credits (line 13) are $2,500 or more for the year.” |
What Form 943 is for and who files it
The form title is “Employer’s Annual Federal Tax Return for Agricultural Employees”. The instructions state the rule for filing: “File Form 943 if you paid wages to one or more farmworkers and the wages were subject to federal income tax withholding or social security and Medicare taxes under the tests discussed next.”
Once started, the duty continues: “After you file your first Form 943, you must file a return for each year, even if you have no taxes to report, until you file a final return.”
The tests are headed “The $150 Test or the $2,500 Test”. The first says “You pay an employee cash wages of $150 or more in a year for farmwork”, and the instructions add that “The $150 test applies separately to each farmworker that you employ.” The second counts the group: “The total (cash and noncash) wages that you pay to all farmworkers is $2,500 or more.”
Household and other workers are handled separately. Household employees in a private home on a farm run for profit are not treated as farm employees, and the employer may either “File Schedule H (Form 1040) with your income tax return” or “Include the wages with your farm employees’ wages on Form 943.”
When Form 943 is due and where it is filed
The instructions give the dates for 2025: “For 2025, file Form 943 by February 2, 2026.” “However, if you made deposits on time in full payment of the taxes due for the year, you may file the return by February 10, 2026.”
They also say “File Form 943 only once for each calendar year.” “If you filed Form 943 electronically, don’t file a paper Form 943.”
On method, “You’re encouraged to file Form 943 electronically.” For paper returns, “where you file depends on whether you include a payment with Form 943.”
The lines of Form 943
Line 1 asks for the “Number of agricultural employees employed in the pay period that includes March 12, 2025”. Lines 2 through 8 then build the tax: “Wages subject to social security tax” on line 2, “Wages subject to Medicare tax” on line 4, “Wages subject to Additional Medicare Tax withholding” on line 6 and “Federal income tax withheld” on line 8.
The rates printed on the form are “multiply line 2 by 12.4% (0.124)”, “multiply line 4 by 2.9% (0.029)” and “multiply line 6 by 0.9% (0.009)”.
Line 13 is “Total taxes after adjustments and nonrefundable credits.” Line 14 lists deposits for 2025. Line 17 is the “Monthly Summary of Federal Tax Liability.” The form says “All filers: If line 13 is less than $2,500, don’t complete line 17 or Form 943-A.” Semiweekly schedule depositors complete Form 943-A, and monthly schedule depositors complete line 17.
Deposits and the figures that matter
The deposit rule turns on line 13. “If your total taxes after adjustments and nonrefundable credits (line 13) are less than $2,500 for the year, you can pay the tax due with your return if you file on time.” At the other level, “You must make deposits by EFT throughout the year in accordance with your deposit schedule.”
The instructions add that “There are two deposit schedules” and that a monthly depositor who accumulates a “$100,000 tax liability on any day during the deposit period” becomes a semiweekly depositor on the next day.
Wages to H-2A visa workers have their own treatment. The instructions say to report “compensation of $600 or more paid to foreign agricultural workers who entered the country on H-2A visas in box 1 of Form W-2.”
Where to go next
Nonfarm workers are reported elsewhere. The instructions say taxes on their wages go on Form 941 or Form 944; see the Form 941 instructions page. Federal unemployment tax for farm employers is a separate return, and a new employer can start with the Form SS-4 page. Year-end wage reporting appears on the Form W-3 page.
Where this comes from
The editions read for this page are Form 943 (2025) and the Instructions for Form 943 (2025), which are the revisions irs.gov served when they were read on 2026-10-19. Check the revision printed on the form you file, because a later revision can change the lines, the tax rates and the due dates. This page describes Form 943 (2025), Employer’s Annual Federal Tax Return for Agricultural Employees; Instructions for Form 943 (2025), as served on irs.gov on October 19, 2026. The IRS can revise a form after we read it, and the form you file and its own instructions control. General information, not tax or legal advice.
Common mistakes
- Treating the two tests as one. The instructions say “The $150 test applies separately to each farmworker that you employ.”
- Assuming no return is needed in a quiet year. The instructions say “you must file a return for each year, even if you have no taxes to report, until you file a final return.”
- Assuming a farm household employee is a farm employee. The instructions say household employees in a private home on a farm run for profit “aren’t considered to be farm employees.”
- Filing both ways. The instructions say “If you filed Form 943 electronically, don’t file a paper Form 943.”
Related: Form 941 instructions, Form SS-4, Form W-3, and Form W-4.
Sources
- Form 943 (2025), Employer’s Annual Federal Tax Return for Agricultural Employees: https://www.irs.gov/pub/irs-pdf/f943.pdf
- Instructions for Form 943 (2025): https://www.irs.gov/pub/irs-pdf/i943.pdf
Read from the IRS pages linked above on October 19, 2026. General information, not tax or legal advice. The IRS form and the instructions for your own form control, and your own facts decide the outcome.