9/9/20; 3:52PM
On August 8, 2020, President Trump signed an Executive Order permitting employers to defer the withholding and payment of payroll taxes between September 1 and December 31, 2020. This means that employers may elect to stop withholding the 6.2% employee social security tax from employees’ paychecks for the next four months. While this would provide a temporary increase in net pay for most employees, the taxes are only deferred, not waived. Under the program, employees would have to repay all deferred taxes between January 1 and April 30, 2021. Any deferred tax not repaid by May 1, 2021 would be subject to interest and penalties, and employers would be responsible to collect or repay deferred taxes that may still be owed if an employee leaves the university.
For these reasons, and because of the logistical challenges associated with managing and tracking the deferred taxes, the UNC System Office has advised all constituent institutions to opt out of this program. We concur with this recommendation and will not participate in the tax deferral program.
Please contact the Office of Human Resources at (828) 262-3187 or human-resources@appstate.edu with any questions.