Unremittable Tax Refunds
Identify and refund unremittable tax funds, providing detailed reports and employer notifications.
What are Unremittable Tax Refunds?
When payroll is processed, Check collects the associated tax amounts from the employer and remits them to the appropriate tax agencies. Occasionally, Check collects funds for a tax but can’t remit them because remittance requires an employer action that hasn’t been completed—for example, providing an agency tax account number or resolving an issue that’s blocking a related filing. We call these collected-but-unremittable amounts “unremittable tax funds.” These cases represent a small share of overall tax activity: less than 0.2% of all transmitted tax funds in Q1 were considered unremittable.
After the filing period closes, Check provides an additional window for employers to resolve the issue blocking the tax payment. If the blocker is resolved during this window, Check remits the funds and completes any related filing as normal, without the employer needing to work with the agency directly. If the blocker remains unresolved at the end of the window, the funds are considered “unremittable” and are returned to the employer, along with the responsibility for paying the agency. Returning the funds at this defined point gives the employer an opportunity to address the outstanding obligation directly, rather than having funds held while the tax remains unpaid.
Which funds does Check refund?
Through this process, Check refunds tax funds for the quarter that we collected but were not able to remit to the agency, when the employer controls the action needed to unblock the payment.
Check does not refund—and instead continues working toward remittance—when the blocker is within Check's control. These cases are rare and transient, but important to be aware of.
Exceptions (where refunds are not returned) are:
- In-flight refiles. If Check is in the process of refiling a filing that is preventing tax funds from being remitted, we hold the funds so they can be remitted as soon as the refile completes.
- Funds blocked only by another in-progress collection. If a payment can't be remitted only because a related tax liability in the same period is still being funded—and that funding is actively in progress of being collected—we keep resolving rather than refund.
- Federal (EFTPS) failures with updates in the last 30 days. If a federal payment failed because the company's EFTPS enrollment is still in motion, Check retries the payment once enrollment completes. However, if enrollment has shown no movement in 30+ days, the funds are no longer considered retryable and are returned as part of the quarterly process.
In short: if the next step is Check's to take at the time Unremittable Tax Refunds runs, we keep working it. If the next step is the employer's—or there is no longer a path for Check to remit—the funds are returned.
What's new in the Unremittable Tax Refunds process
Starting in August 2026, we're making Unremittable Tax Refunds more visible before they happen and more explainable when they do, for both partners and employers:
- NEW! Pending Unremittable Tax Funds Detail Report. A new report you can download from the Reports page in Console that shows every pending unremittable tax for the quarter, broken down by company, tax, collected amount, and blocker reason. It reflects the exact refund logic, so if nothing changes, the amounts in the report are what will be refunded when the process completes. We publish it once per quarter during the refund process as a “last chance” view to help partners and employers unblock items before funds are returned. It complements (and does not replace) the existing company-level Unremittables Report in Console.
- NEW! Employer Unremittable Tax Refund receipts. Each refund now generates a PDF receipt that breaks the refund down by tax, including the reason each tax's funds were blocked and are being returned. Receipts can be downloaded from the Payments tab in Console via the three-dot menu on the refund transaction once it is scheduled.
- NEW! "Unremittable Tax Refunds" Communication object. When the refund process runs, employers with an unremittable tax refund can automatically receive a white-labeled Communication object summarizing the total amount being returned, with the receipt attached. This notification topic is off by default. You can subscribe in Console if you'd like Check to notify your employers directly when refunds are scheduled.
The report and the receipt use the same set of blocker reasons and plain-language descriptions, so the explanation an employer sees on their receipt matches what you saw in the report beforehand. These features will roll out as part of the Q1 Unremittable Tax Refunds process and will not be available for past quarters, beyond any remaining refunds from Q4 2025.
How the quarterly process works (general timeline)
In general, the Unremittable Tax Refunds process starts running in the second month after the quarter closes. (For example, Q3 closes September 30, so the Q3 process runs in November.)
Within that process:
- First week of the process - The Pending Unremittable Tax Funds Detail Report is published in Console, showing every collected tax amount we cannot remit and the reason it's blocked.
- Second week of the process - Action cutoff. Last day for actions that prevent a refund: unblocking a filing, submitting a refile request, entering an issued tax ID, or completing EFTPS enrollment. Anything resolved by the cutoff is remitted normally.
- Third week of the process - The refund list is finalized. Still-blocked funds are scheduled for refund and the final Unremittable Tax Refunds Report is available in Console, showing employer refund totals and giving partners the chance to notify employers. If subscribed to the notification topic, employers are automatically sent a white-labeled email communication with the proactive receipt on this day.
- Fourth week of the process - Refunds land in employer bank accounts.
Q1 2026 schedule + partner actions required
Unremittable Tax Refunds related to Q1 2026 tax liabilities (and any remaining Q4 unremittable liabilities) will run on an accelerated schedule in August, 2026.
Note: the Q1 2026 cycle will also include any remaining Q4 2025 refunds. In some cases, a Q4 2025 unremittable tax refund was intentionally held rather than processed in the prior cycle - most commonly because the funds were part of a refile that was in motion at the time, because a related collection or correction was still in progress, or because the underlying issue appeared resolved but later recurred (for example, an incorrect tax ID account number that returned incorrect on a refile). Where those funds still cannot be remitted today, they are included in this cycle alongside any Q1 2026 refunds, following the same schedule below. The Pending Unremittable Tax Funds Detail Report includes both, with a Quarter column identifying the period each row relates to, and refund receipts will include combined refunds and identify the quarter each refunded tax covers.
- August 24th - The “Pending Unremittable Tax Funds Detail Report” for Q1 2026 (and any remaining unremittable tax refunds from Q4 2025) is available in Console. Review it and take an final action on anything your employers can resolve if you’d like us to attempt these payments before they are refunded.
- Action needed:
- Review the report and take action on anything your employers can resolve if you’d like us to attempt these payments before they are refunded. Refiles submitted to Support are subject to our standard SLA to process before refunds are finalized.
- Subscribe to the new "Unremittable Tax Refunds" Communication object if you’d like employers receiving refunds to automatically be sent a white-labeled email with a receipt.
- Week of August 31st: The refund list is finalized and the process runs. The final Unremittable Tax Refunds Report and employer refund receipts become available in Console, refund transactions are scheduled, and notifications are sent automatically for partners subscribed to the Unremittable Tax Refunds notification topic.
- Action needed:
- Download the Unremittable Tax Refunds Report in Console to see a list of employers receiving refunds and their total refund amounts. If you are not subscribed to the notification topic, reach out to these employers to notify them of the upcoming refund and its reason.
- Week of September 7th: Refunds land in employer bank accounts.
- Action needed:
- Download the employer tax refund receipts from the Payments tab in Console to help answer any reactive employer questions about refunds.
- Work with employers receiving refunds to unblock the issues causing their funds to be unremittable and prevent the process from repeating moving forward.
FAQs
Why did my employer receive an unremittable tax refund from Check?
Check collected funds for a tax that later could not be remitted to the agency due to an outstanding action being required from the employer (commonly an account ID needing to be provided, or correct TPA access being issued). The refund receipt available in the Payments tab in Console breaks down which taxes were returned and why.
What happens if the issue is resolved before the action cutoff?
The funds are remitted to the agency normally and no refund occurs. The report reflects the state of each tax at the time it's generated, so resolved items drop off.
Does a refund mean Check filed the related return?
Not necessarily. A refund returns the collected funds for taxes we could not remit. If the tax payment is is blocking a related filing, that filing may still be outstanding, and the employer may need to both file and pay the agency directly. Review the blocker reason on the report or receipt, and reach out to Support with questions about a specific filing.
Will employers be notified automatically?
Only if you've subscribed to the "Unremittable Tax Refunds" notification topic, which is set by partners and “off” by default. If subscribed, employers with a refund receive a communication summarizing the total returned, with the receipt attached, when the process runs.
Why doesn't the report show every blocked tax payment?
The report shows collected amounts, for the historical period, only - funds Check is actually holding that would be refunded. Blocked payments with no collected funds are excluded, since there is nothing to return.
I thought Q4 unremittable tax refunds had already gone out? Why am I seeing them in the Q1 2026 process?
Most Q4 2025 unremittable refunds were processed in the prior cycle. In some cases, though, pending unremittable funds were held rather than refunded - for example, because a refile was in motion at the time, a related collection or correction was still in progress, or the underlying issue appeared resolved but later recurred. Rather than continue returning these one-off, we're including any remaining Q4 unremittable funds in this cycle, so they're resolved through the same process, with the same visibility: they'll appear in the new Detail Report ahead of the refund, employers can still take action before the cutoff, and any refund will come with a combined receipt identifying the quarter and reason for each tax.