Revenue have released figures that there are approximately 159,000 employers making Payroll Submissions to date which has resulted in 23 million lines of information (payslips).

89% of employers have availed of the Direct Payroll Reporting option (i.e. where the payroll software communicates directly with Revenue through the ROS system). 10% of employers are using the ROS manual option (i.e. they are logging into ROS and entering the information online) while 1% of employers are using ROS payroll reporting (i.e. downloading RPN files from ROS and uploading them into the payroll software and vice versa for the Payroll submission).

Employers are reminded that you must report payroll information to Revenue at the time you pay employees. Employers are also reminded that the notional pay for benefits in kind, such as company cars, should be reviewed regularly to ensure the accuracy of the employer's Payroll Submissions. Revenue suggests that such reviews be carried out on a quarterly basis at a minimum.

It has come to our attention that Revenue are now doing a quarterly review of the PAYE/PRSI liability. They are applying the 90% liability rule on a quarterly basis. Employers who are on a fixed Direct Debit and their liability is over the 90% rule after the quarterly review are not being issued with tax clearance certificates and run the risk of interest and penalties.  Therefore, we are advising employers to change from fixed direct debit to variable direct debit.  The amount paid is the liability for that month/quarter; this eliminates a balance at the end of the tax year. If an employer changes from fixed direct debit to variable direct debit and is in a refund situation, Revenue have a hold on refunds and will not issue them unless it is requested through my enquires on www.revenue.ie.  Also, employers will need to ensure that their bank account details are set up to receive EFT refunds. Revenue may also request that any refund be allocated against liabilities due for other tax headings.

Revenue is monitoring Payroll Submissions in the initial months and reviewing any Submission which contains an error and contacting employers to ensure the errors are corrected. Some common errors include: 

• Pay dates which are not within the current tax year;
• Duplicate line items;
• Invalid number of pay periods selected; and
• Duplicate Employment IDs. 

Revenue has also reviewed the quality of the payroll data received and observed the following anomalies:

• No Income tax deducted where an employee was on the Emergency Basis (Income tax should be deducted as there is no longer any Emergency Tax Credit);
• An RPN number being reported but the employee remains on the Emergency Basis (where an RPN has issued, the employee should be on the Cumulative Basis or Week 1 Basis);
• Pay for Income Tax and USC being greater than Gross Pay (e.g. where BIKs were incorrectly omitted from gross pay but recorded as pay for tax and USC purposes). A refund of USC could result in pay for tax purposes and pay for employer PRSI purposes being greater than gross pay;
• USC being deducted in respect of an employee who is exempt from USC;
• USC not being deducted where the employee is not exempt from USC.

Revenue has now made the payroll information for the first quarter available to employees in myAccount since the 9th May 2019. Thereafter, the employee's record will be updated following the filing of the previous month's return. Hence it is anticipated that the employee's record will be updated to include the April payroll information on 15^th May or shortly thereafter.  

Employees are encouraged to register for myAccount (where they are not already registered) in order to view the information. 

Regards

Sally Turner