On August 28, 2020, the IRS issued Notice 2020-65 that provides some needed guidance for employers wondering whether and how to comply with the employee payroll tax deferral described in the August 8, 2020 Presidential memorandum (often referred to as an “executive order.”). Even though the Notice leaves many questions unanswered, it addresses some key items.

Insight:

Although the IRS Notice does not specifically state whether the employee payroll tax deferral is mandatory, the deferral appears to be voluntary, which lines up with Treasury Secretary Mnuchin’s widely reported comments.

Internal Revenue Code Section 7508A (which is the basis for the memorandum and the Notice) allows the President to postpone certain tax deadlines due to a disaster, such as COVID-19. However, Section 7508A does not give the President authority to require taxpayers to use the extended deadline. In other words, even if a deadline is postponed, a taxpayer could continue to adhere to the normal deadlines. As a result, employers can continue to withhold employee Social Security tax or Railroad Retirement tax from September 1 to December 31, 2020 if they do not wish to avail themselves of the deadline extension.

The Notice clearly places responsibility on employers for withholding and depositing the deferred taxes and states that penalties generally would apply for any failure to comply (although the Notice states that employers can “make arrangements to otherwise collect the total Applicable Taxes from the employee”). Neither the memorandum nor the Notice eliminates the tax liability.

It appears that the employee payroll tax deferral does not apply to self-employed individuals, since it only applies to Social Security tax and Railroad Retirement tax and does not include Self-Employment Contributions Act (SECA) taxes.

Background 

In an August 8, 2020 memorandum to the Secretary of the Treasury entitled, “Deferring Payroll Tax Obligations in Light of the Ongoing COVID-19 Disaster,” President Trump directed Treasury Secretary Mnuchin to use his authority to defer the withholding, deposit and payment of employee Social Security tax on wages (i.e., 6.2% of employee wages) or Railroad Retirement tax on compensation paid to certain employees during the period September 1 through December 31, 2020. The memorandum instructed the Treasury Department to issue guidance explaining how to implement the deferral and to explore avenues, including legislation, to eliminate the obligation to pay the deferred taxes. Secretary Mnuchin made comments in an August 10 interview that employers would not be required to offer the deferral.

Insight:

Since the guidance was released so close to the first available deferral date (i.e., September 1), employers have very little time to modify payroll procedures and payroll system to allow employees the deferral on the first pay cycle in September. Under the current IRS rules, it is not possible to “recover” the tax that already was withheld and remitted, but was eligible for the deferral, without causing issues with the employer tax filings and the imposition of penalties. Retroactive changes generally are not allowed simply because a taxpayer failed to use an available extension. This is consistent with the IRS’s position on employers that failed to timely defer the employer’s share of Social Security taxes (6.2%) as permitted under the CARES Act.

IRS Guidance

The two-and-a-half-page IRS guidance leaves unanswered many concerns surrounding the employee payroll tax deferral, but it does clarify several important points as they pertain to an employer’s payroll process.  Below is a summary of the guidance.

 

Insight:

Employees who are paid hourly or whose wages vary from pay period to pay period may not benefit from the payroll tax deferral in every pay period depending on whether the amount of wages exceeds the biweekly threshold of $4,000, or the equivalent. Employers should review with their IT departments or payroll service providers to ensure that the payroll system is configured correctly to determine who is eligible to participate in the employee payroll tax deferral on a pay period-by-pay period basis.

 

Insight:

The very short-term deferral and repayment period results in a modest benefit.

An employee who earns the Federal minimum wage would have an increased biweekly paycheck of $36 (or $324 for nine pay periods, from September 1 to December 31, 2020).

For employees that earn the maximum $3,999 every two weeks for nine pay periods, the benefit is $2,231. ($3,999 x 6.2% x 9 pay periods).

Unless something happens to dramatically improve the employee’s household income before January 1, 2021, the repayment of taxes ratably over the first four months of 2021 may create a greater hardship than their current cash flow shortage.

Employer Dilemma

Many questions remain in terms of how the employee payroll tax deferral will impact employees and employers, how the deferred payroll taxes are to be reported and what changes must be made to an employer’s payroll system. Until the IRS provides further guidance regarding these outstanding questions and concerns, employers that consider implementing the employee payroll tax deferral should exercise care by putting safeguards in place to ensure that they do not fall victim to the IRS penalties.

Since the employee payroll tax deferral takes effect as early as September 1, 2020, employers that consider implementing the tax deferral likely will face a dilemma due to some of the unanswered questions unless the IRS issues additional guidance soon. For example:

WASHINGTON – The Internal Revenue Service, state tax agencies and the tax industry on Jan. 25 renewed their warning about an email scam that uses a corporate officer’s name to request employee Forms W-2 from company payroll or human resources departments.

This week, the IRS already has received new notifications that the email scam is making its way across the nation for a second time. The IRS urges company payroll officials to double check any executive-level or unusual requests for lists of Forms W-2 or Social Security number.

The W-2 scam first appeared last year. Cybercriminals tricked payroll and human resource officials into disclosing employee names, SSNs and income information. The thieves then attempted to file fraudulent tax returns for tax refunds.

This phishing variation is known as a “spoofing” e-mail. It will contain, for example, the actual name of the company chief executive officer. In this variation, the “CEO” sends an email to a company payroll office or human resource employee and requests a list of employees and information including SSNs.

The following are some of the details that may be contained in the emails:

Working together in the Security Summit, the IRS, states and tax industry have made progress in their fight against tax-related identity theft, but cybercriminals are using more sophisticated tactics to try to steal even more data that will allow them to impersonate taxpayers.The Security Summit supports a national taxpayer awareness campaign called “Taxes. Security. Together.” This campaign offers simple tips that can help make data more secure.

The U.S. Department of Labor (DOL) has released a final rule that makes significant changes to the determination of which executive, administrative and professional employees — otherwise known as “white-collar workers” — are entitled to overtime pay under the Fair Labor Standards Act (FLSA). The rule will make it more difficult for employers to classify employees as exempt from overtime requirements. In fact, the DOL estimates that 4.1 million salaried workers will become eligible for overtime when they work more than 40 hours in a week.
 
The changes will have a tax impact as well: Employers’ payroll tax liability will increase as they pay overtime to more employees who work in excess of 40 hours a week or pay higher salaries to maintain overtime exemptions. 

Current requirements for white-collar exemptions

To qualify for a white-collar exemption from the overtime requirements under current federal law, an employee generally must satisfy three tests:
  1. Salary basis test. The employee is salaried, meaning he or she is paid a predetermined and fixed salary that’s not subject to reduction because of variations in the quality or quantity of work performed.
  2. Salary level test. The employee is paid at least $455 per week or $23,660 annually.
  3. Duties test. The employee primarily performs executive, administrative or professional duties.
Neither job title nor salary alone can justify an exemption — the employee’s specific job duties and earnings must also meet applicable requirements.
 
Certain employees (for example, generally doctors, teachers and lawyers) aren’t subject to either the salary basis or salary level tests. The current regulations also provide a relaxed duties test for certain highly compensated employees (HCEs) who are paid total annual compensation of at least $100,000 and at least $455 per week.

Significant changes under the final rule

The DOL issued a proposed rule in July 2015, revising the 2004 regulations, and received more than 270,000 comments in response.
 
The revisions in the final rule, which take effect December 1, 2016, mainly relate to the salary level test. The rule increases the salary threshold for exempt employees to the 40th percentile of weekly earnings for full-time salaried workers in the lowest-wage Census region (currently the South) — $913 per week or $47,476 per year. 
 
In response to what the DOL described as “robust comments” from the business community, the final rule allows up to 10% of the salary threshold for non-HCE employees to be met by nondiscretionary bonuses, incentive pay and commissions, as long as these payments are made on at least a quarterly basis. Thus, an employee’s production or performance bonuses could push him or her over the threshold and into exempt status (assuming the other tests are satisfied).
 
The rule also updates the HCE threshold above which the relaxed duties test applies. It raises the level to the 90th percentile of full-time salaried workers nationally, or $134,004 per year. 
 
The final rule continues the requirement that HCEs receive at least the full standard salary amount — or $913 — per week on a salary or fee basis without regard to the payment of nondiscretionary bonuses and incentive payments. Such payments will, however, count toward the total annual compensation requirement.
 
The standard salary and HCE annual compensation levels will automatically update every three years to maintain the levels at the prescribed percentiles, beginning January 1, 2020. The DOL will post new salary levels 150 days before their effective date.

The duties test

The final rule makes no changes to the duties test. In the proposed rule, the DOL had sought comments regarding the effectiveness of the test at screening out workers who aren’t bona fide white-collar workers. 
 
But it determined that the new standard salary level and automatic updating will work with the duties test to distinguish between overtime-eligible workers and those who may be exempt. Moreover, as a result of the revised salary level, employers won’t need to consider the duties test as often — if a worker’s pay doesn’t satisfy the salary level test for exemption, the employer needn’t bother assessing the worker’s duties.

Compliance options

According to the DOL, employers have a range of options when it comes to complying with the changes to the salary level (although it doesn’t require or recommend any method). Options include:
 
Review and do nothing. After completing an internal review, you might choose to do nothing if your white-collar workers fall short of the new salary level but don’t ever work more than 40 hours per workweek.
 
Raising salaries. You may want to raise the salaries of employees who meet the duties test, have salary near the new salary level and regularly work overtime. Paying them at or above the salary threshold will maintain their exempt status.
 
Paying overtime above a salary. You could continue to pay employees a salary covering a fixed number of hours, which could include hours above 40. For example, you might:
And, of course, you might reorganize workload distributions or adjust employee schedules to redistribute work hours in excess of 40 across current staff. You could also hire additional employees to reduce or eliminate overtime hours worked by your current staff.

The big picture

As noted, the cost of the new overtime rules is more than just the increased compensation; it also includes additional payroll tax liability on that compensation, as well as administrative costs to comply. This is a complex and complicated issue; and we recommend you consult your employment advisor with questions or concerns.