Printing and Mailing Payroll Tax Forms and Liability Payments in QuickBooks

QuickBooks Desktop’s Payroll Center handles both the payment and the filing of payroll taxes, but the workflow assumes you’ve already told the software how you intend to submit each one. When the plan is paper — print the check, print the form, and mail both to the agency — the payment method and the filing method for each liability must be set to Print and Mail before anything else. That setting is what routes the liability check to the print queue and the tax form to the print dialog rather than to an e-file or e-pay submission.

This comes up most often when a business hasn’t finished agency enrollment for electronic filing or e-payment, or when an electronic deadline has already passed and paper is the fallback. In either situation the steps below produce a physical check and a printed tax form that can be mailed together.

Setting Up the Payment and Filing Methods

Before creating anything, confirm that the liability in question is configured for print and mail. Open the Payroll Center from the Employees menu (in Simple Start, go to the Home page, click the Payroll icon, then Go to the Payroll Center). In the Pay Scheduled Liabilities section, the scheduled payment should reflect a print-and-mail payment method. Likewise, in the File Tax Forms section, the form’s filing method should be set to print rather than e-file. If either is still set to an electronic method, the workflow below will try to submit electronically instead of printing.

Creating and Printing the Liability Check

With the methods set correctly, start with the payment:

1. In the Pay Scheduled Liabilities section of the Payroll Center, click inside the leftmost column next to the scheduled payment you want to make.
2. Click View/Pay.
3. In the Liability Payment window, review the payment details and confirm that the Check option is selected.
4. Click Save & Next to save this check and move to the next scheduled payment, or Save & Close if this is the only check you need.
5. In the Payment Summary window, click Print Checks.
6. In the Select Checks to Print window, verify the check number range and the bank account, then click OK.
7. In the Print Checks window, choose the correct check style — voucher, standard, or wallet — and set any partial-page options if you’re printing on a sheet that’s already partially used. Click Print.

Creating and Printing the Payroll Tax Form

After the check is printed, move to the form itself:

1. In the File Tax Forms section of the Payroll Center, click Process Payroll Forms.
2. In the Select Form Type window, choose the form type and click OK.
3. In the Select Payroll Form window, select the specific form and the filing period, then click OK.
4. In the Payroll Tax Form window, review the form data line by line. Make corrections where needed and watch for any error messages flagged by QuickBooks.
5. Click Submit Form.
6. Click Print.
7. In the Printing window, specify what to print — typically the tax form itself along with the filing instructions, or just the tax form if you prefer.
8. Click Print.

Mailing the Payment and Form

The filing instructions that print alongside the form include the agency’s mailing address and any payment-voucher requirements. Mail the liability check and the tax form together to the address listed in those instructions. Sending them separately risks the agency applying the payment without matching it to the return, or vice versa.

When the Window Won’t Cooperate

If the Submit Form button is missing or the Print option doesn’t appear, the most common cause is a mismatch between the liability’s payment method and its filing method — one set to print, the other still pointing to e-pay or e-file. Closing any open message windows and returning to the Payroll Center to verify both settings usually clears the obstruction. For broader QuickBooks payroll troubleshooting, the Payroll Center is also where scheduled liabilities can be edited, rescheduled, or removed if a prior setup is blocking the current filing period.