You'll owe regular taxes plus a hefty 20% penalty tax on the whole balance (including earnings), and interest on the taxes that would have been due originally on the wrongly deferred pay.

FORBES: A Decision That Can't Be Deferred

If the IRS later determines an employee's original deferral violated some new rule (say, just missing a deadline for deciding to defer pay), he'll have to pay regular taxes and the 20% penalty tax on the whole balance (including earnings).

FORBES: Strings Attached

At Doha, nations agreed to extend the Kyoto Protocol eight years to 2020, but few hailed the conference because the whole climate process, on balance, went into reverse.

FORBES: China Demands U.S. Taxpayers Clean Up Its Air

But if you don't pay off the whole balance in the allotted time, you'll typically have to pay interest on the entire amount you initially charged retroactively often at a higher rate than a typical credit card, says Odysseas Papadimitriou, chief executive of credit-card comparison website CardHub.com.

WSJ: 12 Debt Myths That Trip Up Consumers

Just as the cross-community Alliance holds the balance of power in Belfast City Council, across Northern Ireland as a whole those defining themselves as "Northern Irish" hold the balance, as explained elsewhere on this website.

BBC: Balance of power held by Northern Irish