The Biden administration shot down the claim made by former Trump administration employees that they did not receive adequate warnings they would be footing the bill for thousands of dollars in unpaid Social Security taxes.
A Department of Agriculture spokesperson told the Washington Examiner Thursday that the National Finance Center, the agency nested within the USDA that handles employee financial services for the entire federal government, had sent out more than a dozen “written communications” to individuals employed by the federal government in 2020 on how taxes deferred by the CARES Act must be repaid. Six of those warnings came prior to the expiration of the Trump administration on Jan. 20.
The spokesman additionally charged anew that the prior administration was entirely responsible for the confusion surrounding this specific tax burden, writing that “this is a policy from the previous administration that was initiated by the previous administration and communicated to federal employees on a number of occasions during the previous administration as well as during this current administration.”
“The NFC does not set tax policy,” the spokesman said in a pointed email statement. “That was done, in this instance, by President Trump’s Memorandum on Aug. 8 and then reinforced by the IRS on Aug. 28. It is the responsibility of payroll and HR offices across the federal government to communicate directly with their employees.”
“If an individual separated from federal employment, as you note, retired from federal employment, or was furloughed and still owed an outstanding amount on the deferred Social Security tax, a notice was issued to the employee informing them of the obligation,” the statement continued. “Employees or former employees may be reacting to recent reminders about repayment.”
The spokesman also noted that since the majority of the affected individuals were no longer employed by the federal government, they would have until the end of 2022 to pay the bills in full.
The Washington Examiner previously interviewed more than a dozen former Trump administration officials who received notifications beginning in early April that they owed between $1,000 and $1,500 in deferred taxes.
The majority of the officials felt “betrayed,” and all claimed to have received no prior warning of the taxes owed from either the Trump administration or Biden administration.
Three of the officials interviewed, however, suggested that former President Donald Trump’s statements on the subject, coupled with the chaotic nature of the Trump-Biden presidential transition, confused his own administration officials.
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Trump frequently touted the payroll tax deferrals as a hallmark of his coronavirus response, despite the fact that the overwhelming majority of private sector employers opted out of the program. Federal agencies, on the other hand, were forced to defer payments by the White House’s Office of Management and Budget.
The 45th president additionally promised either to forgive deferred payments or make the payroll tax cut permanent should he win the election, yet a post-election effort to forgive the deferrals for federal employees and members of the military was voted down by the then-Republican-controlled Senate in December 2020.
