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.
Richard Wickliffe, CPCU, ARM, CLU has been in leadership in the insurance industry for over 20 years. He has been a keynote speaker about unique fraud and insurance crimes at venues including a CPCU conferment and the FBI's InfraGard Counterterrorism conferences, where he received the FBI's Exceptional Service in the Public Interest Award. He's also the author of award-winning crime fiction, as well an upcoming non-fiction about insurance crimes. He can be reached at RLWickliffe@yahoo.com.
Caroline Savello is Color's President, leading the company's work with over 1500 private and public health organizations including employers, funds, plans, and government institutions. Prior to joining Color in 2018, she worked at Bloomberg LP in their global media business, and began her career at the Boston Consulting Group where she focused on global and public health. She is a graduate of Yale University with a joint B.A./M.A. in political science.
Jack Zhang is co-founder and CEO of Airwallex.
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.
