No payroll tax deferral for Fayette County school employees

Teachers and staff at Fayette County public schools will not have their payroll tax deductions deferred, according to information presented at the Sept. 14 Board of Education work session. The U.S. Treasury Department recently issued guidelines allowing employers to defer the withholding and deposit of Social Security payroll taxes between Sept. 1 and Dec. 31 for employees earning less than $4,000 biweekly. But Chief Financial Officer Tom Gray said that numerous “uncertainties” in the guidelines, plus complications with payroll software, would make implementing such deferrals problematic; he added that many employees have already expressed a desire to opt out of a deferral.

Gray noted that any payroll taxes not collected at the end of this year would be added to those deducted at the start of 2021, which would result in lower net pay for employees for several months. Superintendent Joseph Barrow Jr. said deferring the tax deductions would ultimately be “creating more harm for our employees than help.”