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.
Jeff Bales is the Senior Director of Business Development at Notion, empowering home and property owners to be proactive in monitoring their spaces and most valued possessions. Through partner programs, Notion helps insurance carriers, agents and service providers provide value to their customers with Notion's DIY smart monitoring technology.
Debbie Ivie, CPCU, AIM, NcIA, is learning experiences director of the Network of Vertafore Users (NetVU). She can be reached at debbie@netvu.org or 972.409.6209.
Steven Schwartz is VP of Insurance Strategy and Underwriting at Safe Security. Previously, he was CRO at Periculus, and prior, was VP Strategy and Insurance Practice at Cytegic. Steven serves on the Advisory Board at PACE University's Seidenberg School for Computer Science and Information Security, and is a co-founder of both The Data Union and Personal Data Week, introducing the topic of "personal data" and its implications for society, industry, and regulation such as GDPR, CCPA, NYDFS and more to more than 30k global members. He was nominated to NYC's 2017 "33 Under 33" and currently holds his Investment Advisor License (Series 65) and Property, Casualty, Health and Life Insurance licenses.
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.
