Every business that gets its own taxpayer ID number from the federal government must identify a "responsible party" in its application. Being a responsible party, however, does not necessarily make an individual personally liable for the company's tax obligations. The payroll taxes that a company pays are tax deductible, but only under certain circumstances would they be considered deductible to the responsible party.

Responsible Parties

An employer identification number, or EIN, is a unique number that identifies a business in its dealings with the Internal Revenue Service, such as the collection and payment of income and payroll taxes. Under IRS rules, a company applying for an EIN must provide the name and taxpayer ID (such as a Social Security number) of a "responsible party." Typical responsible parties include business owners, company officers and general partners.

Payroll Taxes

Businesses pay a number of payroll taxes for their employees, including Social Security taxes, Medicare taxes, federal and state unemployment insurance taxes, and, in some states, disability insurance taxes. These taxes are deductible as a business expense -- not as a personal expense for the responsible party. A sole proprietorship would deduct payroll taxes on Line 23 of Schedule C; a partnership would deduct them on Line 14 of Form 1065, and a corporation would deduct them on Line 17 of Form 1120 or Line 12 of Form 1120S.

Sole Proprietors

There is one instance in which payroll taxes are essentially deductible to the responsible party: a sole proprietorship for which the owner of the business served as the responsible party. In a sole proprietorship, all profits flow directly to the business' single owner as pre-tax income. Business expenses reduce the amount of profit going to the owner, so they reduce the owner's taxable income. Therefore, the payroll taxes paid by a sole proprietor who acted as the business's responsible party are, in effect, a tax deduction for the responsible party.

Other Businesses

Partnerships and corporations also deduct payroll taxes as business expenses, which reduce profit. Partnerships and the small-business corporations known as subchapter S corporations do not pay corporate income taxes; instead, they allocate their profits to their partners or shareholders, and those people pay personal income taxes on their share of the profit. Thus, the benefit of the deductible expense is spread out over all the partners or shareholders. (One of those people could be the responsible party; or it could be someone else.) A traditional corporation, meanwhile, pays corporate income taxes, so the benefit of the deductible expense goes to the company itself, not whoever served as the responsible party.