IRS and states recently affected by Hurricane Sandy will extend tax deadlines and waive some penalties to tax payers affected by this natural disaster.
States affected by Hurricane Sandy that have extended payroll tax filing and payment deadlines for the 3rd quarter (normally due on October 31st) are: CT to November 15th; MD to November 2dn; MA to November 7th; NJ to November 7th, NY to November 14th; PA to November 7th; RI to November 7th and VA to November 9th.
The Internal Revenue Service Announced that employees (nannies, housekeepers, etc.) affected by a qualified disaster can be offered tax-free reimbursements by their employers, per IRS internal revenue code here. Employers do not have to require proof of expenses and are not required to report the payments on employee Forms W-2, but payments can be listed in Box 14. Payments are for costs not already covered by insurance plans and do not cover disaster-related losses. For example, a family may have paid for their nanny’s hotel stay when they were evacuated. Or a family may have provided groceries when their nanny’s power loss resulted in the loss of all refrigerated and frozen goods. In these scenarios, the IRS does not require that the employer report this as wages. This is NOT typical – normally the IRS holds that there are never gifts between a family and their nanny or any employee – the monetary value of the gift from the employer would usually be considered taxable income and would be subject to the nanny taxes.