Printing and Mailing Payroll Tax Forms and Payments in QuickBooks
How to set QuickBooks to print and mail payroll tax liability checks and forms when e-filing isn't available or deadlines were missed.
QuickBooks users who have not completed agency enrollment for electronic filing — or who have missed an e-filing deadline — often need a reliable fallback: printing and mailing payroll tax payments and forms directly to the taxing authority. The accepted community guidance walks through the full process, and the key prerequisite is making sure the payment and filing methods inside QuickBooks are configured to Print and Mail rather than electronic submission.
Starting From the Payroll Center
Before doing anything else, close any open message window that may be blocking access to other screens. Then navigate to the Employees menu and select Payroll Center to open the central hub where liability payments and tax forms are managed.
From there, the process splits into two parallel tracks: creating and printing the liability check, and creating and printing the tax form itself. Both need to be completed and mailed together to the appropriate agency.
Creating and Printing the Liability Check
In QuickBooks 2014 and later, select the Pay Liabilities tab inside the Payroll Center. In the section listing outstanding tax payments, check the first column next to each scheduled payment you intend to make. Then click View/Pay to open the Liability Payment window.
Review the payment details on screen and confirm that the Check option is selected rather than any electronic payment method. Click Save & Next if you have additional payments to process, or Save & Close if this is the only check being created at the moment.
When the Payment Summary window appears, click Print Checks. This opens the Select Checks to Print window, where you should verify the check number range and the bank account being used. After confirming those details, click OK to proceed to the Print Checks dialog.
In the Print Checks window, select the appropriate check style — voucher, standard, or wallet — and adjust any partial-page printing options if your check stock requires it. Click Print to send the check to your printer.
Creating and Printing the Tax Form
With the payment check handled, the next step is generating the actual payroll tax form. The workflow differs depending on the QuickBooks version in use.
QuickBooks 2014 and later: Select the File Forms tab in the Payroll Center, highlight the form you need to file, and click Create Form. A Select Payroll Form window will prompt you to choose the filing period. Select the correct period and click OK.
QuickBooks 2013 and earlier: In the File Forms section, click Process Payroll Forms. A multi-step selection process follows — first choose the form type and click OK, then select the specific form and filing period in the next window and click OK again.
Once the Payroll Tax Form window opens, review all form data carefully. Check for errors and make any necessary corrections before proceeding. This is the point where accuracy matters most, since what prints here is what gets mailed to the agency.
Submitting and Printing the Form
After reviewing the form, click Submit Form. Then click Print, which opens a Printing window where you specify exactly what to send to the printer. You can choose to print the tax form alone, or include the filing instructions along with it. We recommend printing both, since the filing instructions contain the mailing address and any agency-specific requirements.
Click Print a final time to produce the documents.
Mailing Everything Together
The final step is assembling the package. Use the filing instructions to determine the correct mailing address for the payment and form, and mail both together in the same envelope. Sending them separately risks the agency processing one without the other, which can lead to penalty notices or misapplied payments.
A Note on Filing Methods
This entire workflow assumes that QuickBooks is already set to use Print and Mail as the filing and payment method for the liabilities in question. If those methods are configured for electronic submission instead, the on-screen prompts will route toward e-payment or e-filing rather than producing printable checks and forms. Users who find themselves unable to print should verify that the payment and filing method settings have been switched to Print and Mail before starting the process.
For users dealing with broader payroll tax compliance questions — including alternative filing and payment options — the Payroll Center remains the central place to review what is owed, what has been paid, and what forms are due.