COBRA premium assistance credit extended. The credit for COBRA premium assistance payments has been extended. It now applies to premiums paid for employees terminated before March 1, 2010, and to premiums paid for 15 months. See COBRA premium assistance credit on page 7.

Employers can choose to file Forms 941 instead of Form 944 for 2010. Beginning with tax year 2010, employers that would otherwise be required to file Form 944 can notify the IRS if they want to file quarterly Form 941 instead of annual Form 944. See Revenue Procedure 2009-51 for more information.

Verifying social security numbers. Starting in fall 2009, the Social Security Administration (SSA) will no longer manually verify Social Security numbers (SSNs) over the telephone. SSA now offers an automated telephone service, Telephone Number Employer Verification (TNEV), that lets employers and authorized reporting agents verify up to 10 employee names and SSNs. For more information, see Verification of social security numbers. in section 4.

Withholding income taxes on the wages of nonresident alien employees. A new procedure applies to figure the amount of income tax to withhold from the wages of nonresident alien employees for wages paid in 2010. See Withholding income taxes on the wages of nonresident alien employees in section 9.

Optional additional withholding adjustment for Pensions. An optional procedure and additional withholding tables are provided for figuring the amount of income tax to withhold from pension payments.

Social security and Medicare tax for 2010. Do not withhold social security tax after an employee reaches $106,800 in social security wages, which remains unchanged from 2009. There is no limit on the amount of wages subject to Medicare tax. Social security and Medicare taxes apply to the wages of household workers you pay $1,700 or more in cash. Social security and Medicare taxes apply to election workers who are paid $1,500 or more.