# Payroll liabilities

> Payroll liabilities — What an employer owes on wages it has already paid — the income tax and the employees' share of Social Security and Medicare withheld from their pay, plus the employer's own payroll taxes — until it is deposited with the government. The withheld part was never the employer's money: IRS Pub. 15 calls it trust fund taxes.

Source: https://lopifi.com/glossary/payroll-liabilities
Part of: Lopifi — US GAAP books on autopilot, checked by a CPA (https://lopifi.com)

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**What is payroll liabilities?** In accounting, payroll liabilities means what an employer owes on wages it has already paid — the income tax and the employees' share of Social Security and Medicare withheld from their pay, plus the employer's own payroll taxes — until it is deposited with the government. The withheld part was never the employer's money: IRS Pub. 15 calls it trust fund taxes.

## Words this system refuses for it

- payroll expense (the gross wage)
- accrued wages (wages earned and not yet paid)

- **Category:** Payables
- **Specified in:** [Lexicon](https://lopifi.com/md/docs/domain/11-lexicon)