If your company deferred employer-taxes through Gusto during 2020, here's how to repay the IRS.
The deposits of the employer's share of deferred Social Security tax must be deposited by the following dates (referred to as the “applicable dates”) to be treated as on time—paying by these dates will avoid a failure to deposit penalty:
If an employer pays any amounts ahead of these dates, the amount is first applied to what's due on Dec 31, 2021, then to the amount due on Dec 31, 2022.
For the portion of deferred taxes that were required to be repaid in 2021, the IRS sent reminder notices to companies in October 2021. Employers who have yet to repay the full amount of deferred taxes owed will get additional reminder notices from the IRS beginning September 2022.
You can pay the amount owed (on or before the due date) electronically using the EFTPS (preferred method), by credit or debit card, or by a check or money order. To repay the taxes:
For more information, visit EFTPS.gov, or call (800) 555-4477 or (800) 733-4829 (TDD).
The IRS treats each “return” period individually, and uses those filings to determine the amount of tax due. This can be confusing when you receive multiple notices for the same amounts due on the the same dates.
As an example, if a company who files 941 forms (quarterly) deferred taxes in all four quarters of 2020, they'd have received four reminder notices from the IRS (one for each quarter) stating the same deferred amounts were due on the respective dates of 2021, and 2022. You can cross-check the amounts due with reports in Gusto by following the steps below.
The amounts listed in our reports may not exactly match what the IRS shows as “due” and “payable”. If the amount on the IRS notice does not match the amount on the Gusto report, you must pay the full amount on the IRS notice—failure to do so may result in penalties and interest.
You can also review how much was deferred in 2020 by downloading form 941 in Gusto:
Gusto did not defer taxes for employees in 2020 (just employer-taxes)—employers are required to repay all deferred tax amounts back to the IRS once the deferment period ends, even if they haven’t collected the taxes from their employees.
Payment due date for employee deferred taxes
The due date for tax repayments extended from April 30, 2021, to December 31, 2021. Any associated interest, penalties, and tax consequences for late payments (regarding any unpaid applicable taxes) will begin to accrue on January 1, 2022.
For more information and FAQs about these programs, visit the IRS website.