Tax Deadlines for Berks County Small Businesses
Every federal, Pennsylvania and Berks County filing date a small business owes in one calendar: W-2s and 1099s, Form 941 and the deposit schedule, sales tax, and the Berks Earned Income Tax Bureau.
Small business tax deadlines in Berks County mostly follow one rule: the return is due on the last day of the month after the quarter ends, except sales tax, due on the 20th. For 2026 wages, the federal forms are due February 1, 2027, and so is the return to the Berks Earned Income Tax Bureau, the local collector. Pennsylvania's W-2s and year-end reconciliation are due January 31, 2027, and its fourth-quarter withholding return February 1. To hand it off, start with the accountants and tax preparers in Berks County.
The whole year of small business tax deadlines on one calendar.
You answer to the IRS, the Pennsylvania Department of Revenue (and the state's Department of Labor and Industry for unemployment reports) and the Bureau. When a date lands on a weekend or holiday, the IRS, Labor and Industry, the sales tax schedule, the Bureau and Revenue's withholding calendar move it to the next business day; Revenue's date for the W-2s and year-end reconciliation stays January 31, and the City of Reading's Local Services Tax dates are printed as fixed dates.
The UC-2 in the table is the state's quarterly unemployment compensation report. The Local Services Tax is a flat local tax, $52 a year in most of the county, levied by the municipality where the worksite is. No employee pays more than $52 in a year, however many municipalities they work in.
| 2027 date | What is due, and to whom |
|---|---|
| The 20th of the month after each period (monthly filers: the 20th of every month; quarterly filers: January 20, April 20, July 20 and October 20; twice-a-year filers: February 22 and August 20) | Sales tax return and payment, to Revenue |
| January 31 (a Sunday) | Revenue: the annual reconciliation (REV-1667) with every W-2 and 1099. Keystone: the City of Reading's fourth-quarter Local Services Tax |
| February 1 | Revenue: the fourth-quarter W-3 and December's payment for monthly remitters; IRS: Forms 940 and 941 (or 944) and Form 1099-NEC, with a copy to each contractor paid $2,000 or more; Social Security: W-2s, with copies to employees; Labor and Industry: the UC-2; the Bureau: the employer return for the period ending December 31 |
| March 1 | IRS: paper copies of 1099-MISC and other 1099s (not the 1099-NEC, which went in February 1) with Form 1096, their cover sheet; the Bureau: the annual reconciliation for 2026 |
| March 15 | IRS: Form 1065 (partnerships) and Form 1120-S (S corporations) with the owners' K-1s; Form 2553 to elect S corporation status for 2027 |
| April 15 | IRS: Form 1040 (a sole proprietor's Schedule C rides on it) and Form 1120; Revenue: the PA-40 and the PA-20S/PA-65; the Bureau: each resident's own local earned income tax return |
| April 15, June 15 and July 16 | Keystone: the City of Reading's business privilege tax, with a discount through April 15, the full amount by June 15, and a penalty from July 16 |
| April 30 | IRS: Form 941 for the first quarter (May 10 if deposits were on time); Revenue: the W-3; Labor and Industry: the UC-2; the Bureau: the first-quarter return; Keystone: Reading's Local Services Tax |
| May 17 | Revenue: the corporate net income tax report (RCT-101) for a calendar-year C corporation; May 15 is a Saturday |
| July 31 (a Saturday) and August 2 | July 31: Reading's Local Services Tax to Keystone. August 2: Form 941 (August 10 if deposits were on time), Revenue's second-quarter W-3, the UC-2, and the Bureau's second-quarter return |
| October 31 (a Sunday) and November 1 | October 31: Reading's Local Services Tax to Keystone. November 1: Form 941 (November 10 if deposits were on time), Revenue's third-quarter W-3, the UC-2, and the Bureau's third-quarter return |
The 2027 dates for a calendar-year business with employees, as of October 2026.
Which rows are yours depends on whether you have employees, pay contractors, collect sales tax, and how the business is taxed. Your own quarterly estimated payments aren't on it; our post on quarterly taxes for the self-employed in Berks covers those. Neither is registering as an employer, which our guide to hiring a first employee in Berks walks through.
When are W-2s and 1099s due?
Every employer files a W-2 for each employee, and Copy A goes to the Social Security Administration with the W-3 cover sheet (not Pennsylvania's quarterly W-3), by February 1, 2027 for 2026 wages. A 1099-NEC goes to each person who isn't your employee and you paid at least $2,000 for services, with copies to the IRS and that person by February 1, 2027. The $2,000 line is new as of 2026 (it was $600 through 2025). Pennsylvania's annual reconciliation, the REV-1667 that totals the year's withholding, goes in with every W-2 and 1099-NEC, 1099-MISC or 1099-R by January 31, 2027, a Sunday, and that date is printed as is.
When are partnership and S corporation returns due?
That depends on how your business is taxed: sole proprietor, partnership, S corporation or C corporation. An LLC is taxed as one of those four, and a one-owner LLC that hasn't elected otherwise is taxed as a sole proprietor; our guide to starting a business in Berks County covers the choice. Partnerships file Form 1065 and S corporations file Form 1120-S by March 15, 2027. A C corporation's Form 1120 and a sole proprietor's Schedule C are due April 15. Pennsylvania's return for partnerships and S corporations, the PA-20S/PA-65, is due April 15, a month behind.
When are the quarterly payroll returns due, federal and state?
Form 941, the quarterly federal payroll return, is due the last day of the month after each quarter. It stretches to the 10th of the following month if every deposit for the quarter was on time and in full. The smallest employers, with yearly payroll tax of $1,000 or less, file one annual Form 944 instead, but only if the IRS has told them in writing to; an employer who expects to stay under $1,000 can ask for that during the first quarter. Without the notice, you file the 941 four times a year. Form 940, the annual federal unemployment return, is due January 31 (February 1 in 2027).
A deposit is the payroll tax sent in through EFTPS, the federal online payment system, ahead of the return that reports it. You work out your own schedule each year from a lookback period: for 2027 it's July 1, 2025 through June 30, 2026, and for any year it's the July-to-June stretch that ended the June before that year starts. Add up line 12 of those four Forms 941. At $50,000 or less you deposit monthly, by the 15th of the next month. Above $50,000 you deposit semiweekly: tax on Wednesday-through-Friday paydays is due the next Wednesday, and tax on Saturday-through-Tuesday paydays the next Friday.
A new employer deposits monthly for its first calendar year, because the quarters before it existed count as zero. And $100,000 of tax on any one day goes in by the next business day, whatever your schedule. A quarter's total under $2,500 can be paid with the return instead.
Pennsylvania's quarterly withholding return, which Revenue calls a W-3, is filed on myPATH, Revenue's online filing site, by the last day of April, July, October and January. The UC-2 is filed through UCMS, the state's unemployment system, by the same dates.
How often you send Revenue the 3.07 percent you withhold depends on the quarter's total. Under $300 in a quarter, it goes with the quarterly return. From $300 to $999 in a quarter, you send it monthly, by the 15th of the next month, except December's, which is due January 31 (February 1 in 2027). From $1,000 to $4,999.99 in a quarter, you send it within three banking days after the 15th and after the end of each month. At $5,000 or more in a quarter, you send it the Wednesday after a Wednesday-through-Friday payday, or the Friday after a Saturday-through-Tuesday payday.
When are Pennsylvania sales tax returns due?
Returns are due the 20th of the month after the period. If you collect more than $600 in sales tax in a quarter, you file monthly. If you collect $600 or less in a quarter but more than $300 over the year, you file quarterly. If you collect $300 a year or less, you file twice a year, by August 20 and February 20, or the next business day when that's a weekend: February 22 in 2027.
What do Berks employers file with the local collector?
The Bureau in Wyomissing (610-372-8439) collects the local earned income tax you withhold and the Local Services Tax. You report and pay through its eReporting system by the last day of the month after each quarter; the Local Services Tax return is due on the same dates. Employees file their own local return by April 15; see our post on the Berks County earned income tax. If your business is in the City of Reading, the earned income tax you withhold still goes to the Bureau, but the Local Services Tax goes to Keystone Collections Group instead.
If your business sits in Reading, Wyomissing, West Reading, Shillington, Mount Penn, Muhlenberg Township or the Exeter Township School District, there's also a local business privilege or mercantile tax. Reading's goes to Keystone, with a discount if paid by April 15, the full amount due by June 15 and a penalty from July 16.
Questions Berks employers ask about filing dates.
Do I have to e-file my W-2s and 1099s?
Ten or more information returns in a year, all types together, must be e-filed: 1099s through IRIS, the IRS's free portal, and W-2s through Social Security's Business Services Online. Fewer than ten may go on paper.
Does the state's annual report count as a filing date?
Most registered Pennsylvania entities file a $7 annual report at file.dos.pa.gov, and the date goes by the kind of entity on file with the Department of State. Corporations file by June 30 and LLCs by September 30. Whether you owe one turns on the Department's records: if your business shows as active in its search at file.dos.pa.gov, the report is required.
Put every row of the table on your calendar. If you use a payroll service, ask which of these it files and pays for you; the rest are yours. This is general information about filing dates, not advice; a question about your own business's returns goes to a CPA or an enrolled agent (a preparer licensed by the IRS), and the accountants and tax preparers in Berks County are where to find one.
Sources
- Internal Revenue Service, Publication 509, "Tax Calendars for use in 2027" (early-release draft dated August 24, 2026): the 2027 dates for Forms 940, 941, 944, 1065, 1120-S, 1120, 1040, 2553 and the 1099 series and the weekend and holiday rule.
- Internal Revenue Service, "2026 General Instructions for Forms W-2 and W-3": W-2s to employees and to the Social Security Administration by February 1, 2027.
- Internal Revenue Service, "Instructions for Forms 1099-MISC and 1099-NEC" (Rev. December 2026): the $2,000 threshold for tax years beginning after 2025, the January 31 and February 28 filing dates and the next-business-day rule.
- Internal Revenue Service, "General Instructions for Certain Information Returns" (2025 edition; read October 17, 2026): the ten-or-more e-file rule counted across every type of information return.
- Internal Revenue Service, "E-file information returns with IRIS" (updated October 12, 2026) and "E-file information returns" (read October 17, 2026): the free IRIS portal, W-2s e-filed through the Social Security Administration's Business Services Online, the ten-return rule including W-2s.
- Internal Revenue Service, Publication 15, "(Circular E), Employer's Tax Guide" (2026): the monthly and semiweekly deposit schedules, the lookback period and $50,000 line, new employers as monthly depositors, the $100,000 next-day rule, paying with the return under $2,500, Form 944 by IRS notice. "About Form 944" (updated September 17, 2026): the annual return for employers whose yearly liability is $1,000 or less.
- Internal Revenue Service, Publication 334, "Tax Guide for Small Business" (2025) and "Limited liability company (LLC)" (updated October 10, 2026): a sole proprietor files Schedule C with Form 1040; a one-member LLC is disregarded as separate from its owner for income tax unless it elects corporate treatment.
- Internal Revenue Service, "Understanding tax return preparer credentials and qualifications" (updated January 29, 2026): enrolled agents are licensed by the IRS.
- Pennsylvania Department of Revenue, "Employer Withholding" (read October 18, 2026), REV-415, "Employer Withholding Information Guide" and REV-1667 instructions: the 3.07 percent rate, the four remittance tiers and the December rule, the quarterly W-3 due the last day of April, July, October and January, and the W-2s, 1099s and REV-1667 due January 31.
- Pennsylvania Department of Revenue, REV-1716, "2026 Employer Withholding Tax Due Date Reminder Card": the fourth-quarter 2026 return and the December 2026 monthly payment due February 1, 2027, and the REV-1667 and W-2s by January 31, 2027.
- Pennsylvania Department of Revenue, REV-717, "Retailer's Information Guide" (February 2026) and REV-819, "2026 Sales, Use and Hotel Occupancy Tax Returns, Tax Periods and Administrative Due Dates": the monthly, quarterly and semi-annual filing tiers and their 20th-of-the-month dates, the weekend rule, and the January 20 and February 22, 2027 dates.
- Pennsylvania Department of Revenue, REV-276, "Application for Extension of Time to File" (2025): the PA-20S/PA-65 due date, usually April 15 for calendar-year filers.
- Pennsylvania Department of Revenue, REV-1200, "CT-1 PA Corporation Tax Instructions" (2025): the RCT-101 due the 15th day of the month after the federal due date and the next-business-day rule.
- Pennsylvania Department of Labor and Industry, "File Unemployment Compensation Quarterly Wage/Tax Reports" (read October 17, 2026) and UC-2INS: the UC-2 due April 30, July 31, October 31 and January 31, the next-business-day rule, electronic filing through UCMS.
- Pennsylvania Department of State, "Annual Reports in Pennsylvania" (read October 17, 2026): the $7 annual report, the June 30 and September 30 deadlines, and the "Active" status test for who must file.
- Berks Earned Income Tax Bureau, "Due Dates" (read October 18, 2026), "Employers", "Business Privilege / Mercantile Tax and License" and "2026 LST rates": employer returns due the last day of the month after the quarter, the next-business-day rule, the Local Services Tax on the same dates, the February 1, 2027 and March 1, 2027 dates, eReporting, the municipalities whose business privilege taxes the Bureau collects, and the $52 rate in most municipalities.
- City of Reading, "Tax Rates 2026": the Local Services Tax quarters and the business privilege tax dates, collected by Keystone Collections Group, and the Bureau's address and phone.
- Pennsylvania Department of Community and Economic Development, "Local Services Tax" (read October 17, 2026): the tax is levied by the municipality of the worksite and capped at $52 a year regardless of the number of municipalities an employee works in.