Oh, right; now we have cumulative provisions. So, they just screwed over an employer who was using the CARES act provision for Advance retention credits: "In other words, even though the employee retention tax credit is an employer Social Security tax credit, the employer can recoup the credit by reducing the tax deposits that would otherwise be made for employee federal income tax withholding, the employee Social Security/Medicare taxes and the employer Social Security/Medicare taxes."

So, optionally, the employer can decide not to withhold for Social Security, but that gives them a lesser amount to retain as their advance credit.

"That's like saying we all had to wait until July 15 to file and pay our Form 1040 taxes -- we didn't have a choice to do it April 15."

Which part? Because a person with a preparer likely did not have a choice. They had to wait for their preparer. An employee won't be given the choice, if their employer does not opt to participate. Unless they use 1040ES, and they would then have to somehow deal with the employer getting the reminder notice later based on optionally deferring the Social Security withholding and payment based on reportable Gross Wages from the final third of 2020, but that one employee already sent in their share of the funds? I don't see how that would work. Something I read mentioned putting these employees' withholdings into a trust account, especially useful for a seasonal employer or one with high turnover.

I'm waiting for the employees to realize that this Trump declaration wasn't meant to help them.