On August 8th, the White House issued and the president signed a number of Executive Orders including one for payroll tax deferral.
It appears that this order defers the withholding, deposit, and payment of the Social Security tax withholding but not Medicare tax withholding for employees that make less than $4,000 bi-weekly. The order does not appear to eliminate the eventual payment requirements.
Unless legislation changes the payment requirement, employers may hesitate to stop withholding Social Security taxes that are not forgiven but only deferred.
As it relates to the payroll tax obligation, the order states:
Sec. 2. Deferring Certain Payroll Tax Obligations. The Secretary of the Treasury is hereby directed to use his authority pursuant to 26 U.S.C. 7508A to defer the withholding, deposit, and payment of the tax imposed by 26 U.S.C. 3101(a), and so much of the tax imposed by 26 U.S.C. 3201 as is attributable to the rate in effect under 26 U.S.C. 3101(a), on wages or compensation, as applicable, paid during the period of September 1, 2020, through December 31, 2020, subject to the following conditions:
(a) The deferral shall be made available with respect to any employee the amount of whose wages or compensation, as applicable, payable during any bi-weekly pay period generally is less than $4,000, calculated on a pre-tax basis, or the equivalent amount with respect to other pay periods.
(b) Amounts deferred pursuant to the implementation of this memorandum shall be deferred without any penalties, interest, additional amount, or addition to the tax.