Might be a stupid question but do we pay income tax on this extra 6%?
No, for three reasons:
- This is a tax on your income. You get the income and get taxed on it. That's exactly how the income tax works too, you get the income and then you get taxed on it. Both taxes use the same number for their calculations, they don't depend on each other. (Sort of, there are differences in what deductions hide money from income tax vs what deductions hide money from payroll tax, but what I said is generally true.)
- This isn't extra income. This is a tax that you're no longer paying. Compare this to, e.g., a scholarship or a forgiveness of debt—those would be counted as extra income.
- The tax isn't going away. They're deferring it from now until the end of December, and then you're paying it in January through April. so ypu won't actually see any extra money in the long run.