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.
Anila Lahiri is the chief operating officer at EIN Search, a provider of compliance data and solutions. She has extensive expertise in navigating the complex landscape of compliance and her keen insights into data-driven strategies.
Alex Bouaziz is the co-founder and CEO of Deel, the all-in-one HR platform for global teams. Founded in 2019, Deel's technology helps companies simplify every aspect of managing an international workforce, from culture and onboarding, to local payroll and compliance. In just under four years, the company has grown to 3000 team members worldwide in over 100 different countries and raised over $600 million in funding. It has 18,000-plus customers, including Shopify, Nike, and Cloudflare.
Linda Jeng is a visiting scholar on financial technology at Georgetown University Law Center's Institute of International Economic Law.
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.
