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.
Acacia Parks, Ph.D., is chief scientist at Happify, a digital wellness company. Park’s research focuses on self-help methods for increasing happiness via books and digital technology, with an emphasis on objective and observable outcomes such as physical health indicators. She received her Ph.D. in psychology from the University of Pennsylvania, where her graduate research helped build the foundation for research on bringing happiness interventions to the general public. She regularly publishes articles in scientific journals, has edited three books and is also associate editor at the Journal of Positive Psychology. When she isn't doing research with Happify, she is an associate professor of psychology at Hiram College.
Deepen Desai is the vice president of security research and operations at Zscaler. He has more than 15 years of experience in security research and the analysis of advanced threats.
Amit Unde, CTO, Insurance, LTI, leads LTI’s Insurance Solutions Office and Enterprise Architecture Practice in North America. He has almost 20 years of experience working with insurance companies across the globe. He has a blend of technology and insurance domain expertise, and has helped leading carriers, brokers and reinsurance firms in defining their Enterprise Architecture and IT Strategy Roadmap. Amit specializes in Commercial Underwriting and Risk Management Solutions, and has been at forefront of leveraging modern technologies such as Location Intelligence and Big Data Analytics, for better risk selection and pricing.
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.
