How to Complete and File Georgia Form G-7: Withholding Quarterly Return

Georgia Form G-7 is the quarterly withholding return every Georgia employer files to report state income tax withheld from employee wages and reconcile it against deposits already made. It comes in two versions: the G-7Q for quarterly payers and the G-7M for monthly payers. Both are filed with the Georgia Department of Revenue through the Georgia Tax Center at gtc.dor.ga.gov or by mail, and both are due by the last day of the month after the quarter closes.

Which Version of the G-7 You File

Your filing frequency is set by how much you withhold, under thresholds in O.C.G.A. § 48-7-103.¹ If you withhold $200 or less per month, you are a quarterly payer and file the G-7Q with payment once per quarter. If your aggregate withholding for the lookback period is above $200 a month but $50,000 or less, you deposit monthly by the 15th and file the G-7M quarterly to reconcile those deposits. Above $50,000, you remit on an accelerated schedule, and any payday over $100,000 must be remitted the next banking day.

The lookback period is the 12 months ending the preceding June 30. For calendar year 2026, that means July 1, 2024 through June 30, 2025. Your assigned frequency shows on your Georgia Tax Center account, and the department notifies you when it changes.

Once you have a withholding account, you file for every quarter it stays open, even when you withheld nothing. A zero return keeps the account clean and stops penalty notices for missing filings.

What to Have in Front of You

Pull these together before you open the form:

Your Georgia withholding account number, which appears on all correspondence from the department.
Your Federal Employer Identification Number.²
Total Georgia income tax withheld for the quarter, taken from your payroll register.
All deposits you already submitted for the quarter, cross-checked against your bank statements so no payment is missed.

Completing the Form

The G-7 itself is short. Enter the total tax withheld for the quarter, subtract what you already deposited, and the difference is either a balance due or zero. Quarterly payers usually owe the full amount with the return, since no interim deposits were required. Monthly payers have already deposited most or all of the tax during the quarter, so the G-7M typically shows little or nothing remaining.

Identify the quarter by its period-ending date: March 31, June 30, September 30, or December 31. Miscoding the period is a common source of trouble. The department applies the payment to whatever period you named, and a wrong period creates apparent underpayments in one quarter and overpayments in another that take real time to unwind. The G-7Q and a G-7 worksheet for monthly payers are both posted on the department’s website.³

Reconcile your payroll totals against the state withholding shown on each employee’s pay stubs before you submit. A mismatch between the G-7 total and the sum of individual employee withholdings will surface at year-end when you file the G-1003, and fixing it then is harder than catching it now.

Filing and Paying

Online Through the Georgia Tax Center

The Georgia Tax Center is the department’s online portal for withholding tax.⁴ Log in, open your withholding account, pick the filing period, and enter the withheld amount and prior payments. The system calculates any balance and lets you pay by ACH debit. The confirmation number the portal returns is your receipt; save it.

If you remit withholding by electronic funds transfer, whether by requirement or by choice, you must also file the annual G-1003 reconciliation and all associated wage statements electronically.⁵

By Mail

Paper filers use one of two addresses, depending on payer type:⁶

G-7 Quarterly (quarterly payers and G-7NRW): Georgia Dept. of Revenue, PO Box 105544, Atlanta, GA 30348-5544.
G-7 Monthly (monthly payers): Georgia Dept. of Revenue, PO Box 105482, Atlanta, GA 30348-5482.

Make checks payable to the Georgia Department of Revenue and write your withholding account number on the check. Paper processing is slower than electronic, so give yourself margin near the deadline.

Deadlines

Quarterly G-7 returns are due by the last day of the month following the close of the quarter:¹

Q1 (January through March): April 30.
Q2 (April through June): July 31.
Q3 (July through September): October 31.
Q4 (October through December): January 31.

Monthly payers still deposit by the 15th of the month after each pay period, then file the G-7M by the quarterly deadline above. When a due date falls on a weekend or state holiday, it shifts to the next business day.

If You File or Pay Late

A late G-7 carries a penalty of $25 plus 5 percent of the total tax withheld on the return for each month or partial month the return is late, capped at $25 plus 25 percent of the total tax withheld.⁷ The first month’s penalty attaches the day after the deadline, so even a few days late triggers it.

Unpaid balances also accrue interest. For calendar year 2026, Georgia’s annual interest rate on delinquent tax is 9.75 percent, calculated monthly.⁸ Interest compounds on the outstanding balance.

Withheld tax is trust-fund money. It belongs to the state from the moment it comes out of an employee’s check.⁹ Using it for anything else is treated more seriously than an ordinary late payment.

Requesting a Penalty Waiver

The department reviews waiver requests case by case and may waive some or all of a penalty on a finding of reasonable cause, meaning the failure was not the result of purposeful disregard of tax requirements.⁹ Two ways to submit:

Online: log into the Georgia Tax Center, choose Request a Waiver of Penalty under Tasks, and provide the Letter ID from your assessment along with a detailed explanation.
By mail: complete Form TSD-3 from the department’s website and mail it in.

Fires, natural disasters, serious illness, and system failures that blocked timely filing are the kinds of facts that support a waiver. Forgetfulness, or a third-party payroll provider missing a filing, generally does not, though the department weighs your compliance history in the decision.

Year-End Reconciliation With the G-1003

The G-7 is not the last filing of the year. Employers also file the annual G-1003 reconciliation, which transmits W-2s, 1099s, and G2-A forms and ties your four quarterly G-7 totals to what appears on each employee’s statement.¹⁰ Mismatches generate notices.

Employers required by the Social Security Administration or IRS to file electronically must also submit the G-1003 and its statements electronically.⁵ Annual-statement penalties under O.C.G.A. § 48-7-106 run separately from G-7 penalties: $10 per statement up to 30 days late, $20 per statement 31 to 210 days late, and $50 per statement beyond, with tiered caps ranging from $50,000 to $200,000.¹¹

Closing the Account When You Stop Paying Wages

If you sell the business, lay off your last employee, or shut down, file a final G-7 for the last quarter you paid wages and a final G-1003 for the year, then close the account through the Georgia Tax Center.¹¹ An open account with no filings will generate penalty notices for missing returns even when no tax is owed.

1
Justia. Georgia Code 48-7-103 – Quarterly, Monthly, and Jeopardy Returns; Tax Payments; Forms
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Georgia Department of Revenue. G7-B Instructions
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Georgia Department of Revenue. Withholding G-7 Return for Quarterly Payers
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Georgia Department of Revenue. Sign Up for Online Access with GTC
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Georgia Secretary of State. Subject 560-7-8 Returns and Collections
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Georgia Department of Revenue. Mailing Address – Withholding Tax
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Georgia Department of Revenue. G-7 Quarterly Return for Monthly Payer
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Georgia Department of Revenue. ADMIN-2026-01 – Annual Notice of Interest Rate Adjustment
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Georgia Department of Revenue. TSD-3 Request for Penalty Waiver
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Georgia Department of Revenue. Withholding Tax (for Employers)
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Justia. Georgia Code 48-7-106 – Annual and Final Returns; Time; Return to Be Filed Upon Sale of Business; Withholding Unpaid Withholding Taxes From Purchase Prices; Penalties for Violations