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.
Mike Sha is CEO and Co-founder, SigFig. Previously, he held senior roles at Amazon where he launched and built the Amazon Visa Card into one of the fastest growing consumer loyalty
cards in history. He was also one of the original inventors of Amazon's Prime program.
Brian has over twenty years of experience in direct-to-consumer and affinity sales of financial products. Receiving his degree from The University of Michigan in 2000, Brian began his career as a mortgage banker at Quicken Loans (now Rocket Mortgage). Brian worked his way to an executive leadership position at the company, as well as National General Insurance, where he has always driven both company, community, and personal growth. In addition to being an insurance industry expert and dedicated pet enthusiast, he is passionate about company culture and the creation of inspiring workplace environments. Brian lives in the Cleveland-area with his wife, two daughters, and their chocolate Lab, JoJo.
Michael C. Macchiarola is CEO of Olden Lane Inc., and its subsidiary, Olden Lane Securities LLC, in Bridgewater, New Jersey.
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.
