The IRS today released an advance version of Notice 2020-22 to provide penalty relief with regard to employers’ deposits of federal employment taxes—including deposits of withheld income taxes and employment taxes—that are reduced in anticipation of tax credits under legislation recently enacted to address the coronavirus (COVID-19) pandemic.
Notice 2020-22 [PDF 31 KB] provides:
The relief provided by Notice 2020-22 means that employers may pay qualified sick leave wages and qualified family leave wages (as required by the Families First Act) or qualified wages (pursuant to the CARES Act) using employment taxes that otherwise would be required to be deposited, but without incurring a failure to deposit penalty.
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