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.
Sean Vanatta is a lecturer in economic history at the University of Glasgow and a senior fellow at the Wharton Initiative on Financial Policy and Regulation. His book, Plastic Capitalism: Banks, Credit Cards, and the End of Financial Control, was published by Yale University Press in 2024.
Patricia L. Harman is the editor-in-chief of Digital Insurance, covering the intersection between technology and insurance for the industry. She chairs Digital Insurance's annual Women in Insurance Leadership forum and hosts Digital Insurance's DigIn Podcast. Previously, she served as editor-in-chief of the PC360 group, chaired the Complex Claims & Litigation Forum and hosted the Insurance Speak podcast. Patti covers auto, property & casualty, workers' compensation, fraud, emerging risks, and is a frequent speaker at insurance industry events. She has more than 25 years of experience covering the property restoration and insurance industries, is a member of the National Press Club, and has been honored with over three dozen journalism awards.
Ousmène Jacques Mandeng is a senior advisor at Accenture and a visiting fellow at the London School of Economics and Political Science.
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.
