The Internal Revenue Service released information on how employees now have until the end of the year to repay any payroll taxes they deferred from last year.
Former President Trump issued a presidential memorandum last August allowing Social Security taxes to be deferred for the rest of 2020, but under the order they had to be repaid by April 30, 2021. The coronavirus relief package that Congress passed last month extended the repayment period until the end of this year.
Relatively few companies actually implemented the payroll deferral for their employees because there was no guarantee that the deferred payroll taxes would ultimately be forgiven by Congress. However, federal employees and military service members were still required to accept the payroll tax deferral, meaning those taxpayers will be facing smaller paychecks later this year.
Plewes, CLU, ChFC, AIF, is the principal of Advisors Financial Group in Germantown, Md., where he specializes in income and distribution planning for corporate executives, widows, and retirees. He is a 29-year member of MDRT and has received 11 Court of the Table and 8 Top of the Table qualifications.
Stephen Riley, CFA, CFP, CPWA, is a co-founder of Clearview Wealth Solutions, a firm designed to manage custom-tailored portfolios in a tax-aware manner.
Gene Marks, CPA, is a columnist, author, and small-business owner. A past columnist for both The New York Times and The Washington Post, he now writes regularly for The Hill, The Philadelphia Inquirer, Forbes Inc. Magazine, Entrepreneur Magazine and Fox Business.
He has written five books on business management, specifically geared towards small and midsized companies. His most recent is "The Manufacturer’s Book of Lists." Nationally, he appears regularly on MSNBC and Fox News as well as The John Batchelor Show and SiriusXM’s Wharton Business Channel, where he talks about the financial, economic and technology issues that affect business leaders today.
Through his keynotes and breakout sessions, Marks helps business owners, executives and managers understand the political, economic and technological trends that will affect their companies and — most importantly — the actions they can take to continue to grow and profit.
He owns and operates the Marks Group PC, a 10-person firm that provides technology and consulting services to small and midsized businesses. Prior to starting the Marks Group, he spent nine years in the entrepreneurial services arm of the international consulting firm KPMG in Philadelphia where he was a senior manager.
In Notice 2021-11, the IRS on Tuesday explained how employers who deferred payroll taxes on behalf of their employees can withhold and pay the deferred taxes throughout 2021 instead of just within the first four months of the year.
The deferral applied to employees who were paid less than $4,000 every two weeks, or an equivalent amount for other pay periods, with each pay period considered separately. The taxes, which are technically called Old Age, Survivors and Disability Insurance, or OASDI, are calculated at 6.2 percent of employees’ wages.
Notice 2021-11 makes changes to last year’s Notice 2020-65 to reflect the extended payment period. Payments made by Jan. 3, 2022, will be considered to be timely because Dec. 31, 2021, is a legal holiday. However, any penalties, interest and additions to tax will now start to apply on Jan. 1, 2022, for any unpaid balances
The IRS cautioned that employees could see their deferred taxes being collected immediately, so employees should check with their organization’s payroll point of contact on what their collection schedule will be.
