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.
Alex is the Global Product Management Lead for iManage RAVN. He has over 20 years of experience in product management and service design, including new and emerging technologies such as artificial intelligence, semantic search and linked data, as well as content management. Prior to iManage, Alex has held positions at Reed Smith LLP and LexisNexis UK.
Daniel Gremmell is the chief data officer at Zinnia, where he oversees the implementation of data science to optimize the insurance experience at every touchpoint. Daniel led the data team at Policygenius for more than three years and previously served as vice president of data science at Plated, and head of data science at John Wiley and Sons before that. Daniel began his career in operational analytics at companies across the consumer goods, aerospace, healthcare and automotive industries, including Crane Aerospace and Volkswagen. He holds a master's degree in statistics from Rochester Institute of Technology, a master's degree in manufacturing engineering from Kettering University, and a bachelor's degree in operations management from Rutgers.
William Sweetnam is the Legislative And Technical Director at ECFC, a non-profit organization dedicated to maintaining and expanding employee benefit programs on a tax-advantaged basis.
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.
