The payroll tax deferral refers to the 2020 CARES Act provision that allowed employers and self-employed people to defer the employer's share of their Social Security taxes. The payroll tax deferral period began on March 27, 2020, and ended on December 31, 2020. The tax rate for Social Security is 6.2% for employers and 6.2% for employees. Therefore, your eligible payroll tax deferral was 6.2% of your self-employment income from that period. If you took advantage of the deferral during this period, it's now time to repay your deferred taxes. The IRS sent a notice to taxpayers who took advantage of this option. However, if you know you used this option and did not receive a letter, you still must repay the taxes by the due dates. The amounts deferred in 2020 are due over the following two years. Half of the deferred Social Security tax was due on January 3, 2022, and half is due by January 3, 2023. This extension is because of holiday and weekend dates around December 31 in both years.