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.
Jacob Passy is a reporter with National Mortgage News, covering breaking news in the residential mortgage industry. Passy has been with SourceMedia since 2015 and previously served as a breaking news reporter for American Banker. His work has appeared in numerous publications including CNBC, NBC News and the Wall Street Journal's Speakeasy blog. He is a graduate of the CUNY Graduate School of Journalism and Tufts University.
Doug Parr has more than 25 years of experience as an international financial services technology executive. As senior vice president of Entersekt, a pioneer in transaction authentication, he is responsible for providing vision and leadership in developing and implementing product and market strategies for the company�s software and solutions.
Oxman brings two decades of technology and policy experience to ETA, the global trade association representing more than 500 financial and technology companies in the electronic payments industry. He joined ETA from the Consumer Electronics Association, owner of the International CES�, where he served as senior vice president of industry affairs. Previously, Oxman served as general counsel of a technology industry trade association and as vice president of a Silicon Valley-based technology company. Oxman also worked at the Federal Communications Commission to develop and implement technology and broadband policies. He began his legal career as a law clerk for the Maine Supreme Court, and he is also a former broadcast journalist. Oxman received his B.A. cum laude from Amherst College, and his M.S. and J.D. from Boston University.
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.
