Trump appointees furious after being asked to 'immediately' pay thousands in deferred payroll taxes

In August 2020, then-President Donald Trump sidestepped Congress and used an emergency declaration to defer some payroll taxes — and according to Politico reporters Brian Faler and Daniel Lippman, some ex-members of his administration are not happy about the tax bills they have been receiving.

Faler and Lippman explain, "Many of former President Donald Trump's political appointees got a nasty surprise when they left the government: a big tax bill. They've been ordered to immediately repay months of payroll taxes that had been deferred under a bid by Trump to boost the economy ahead of last year's elections — levies he had assured them would later be forgiven."

A May 18 letter sent to a former Trump White House official, according to Faler and Lippman, is demanding $1500 and reads, "If the indebtedness is not paid in full within 30 calendar days, we intend to forward this debt to the Department of Treasury, Treasury offset program, for further collection."

Another former Trump official, according to Faler and Lippman, is being asked to pay $1300 and told Politico that Trump officials "gave our time and effort to this agency, and this is how we're getting paid back." That bill, the official complained, is "unacceptable."

Faler and Lippman explain, "It's a little-noticed addendum to Trump's much-criticized plan last summer to prime the economy. In August, he issued an executive order allowing employers to put off paying their workers' share of the 12.4% Social Security tax for the rest of the year. The idea was to boost consumer spending by putting more money in the pockets of millions. But the initiative was widely rejected by private sector employers, in part because they feared workers would be unprepared to pay the money back. It was mandatory, though, for federal employees making less than $4000 per biweekly paycheck, and the government began implementing it in September."