Revenue's PAYE Modernisation scheme is introducing a new reporting obligation for businesses in Ireland. Read the following guide to find out if and how it affects your organisation.
Reportable Benefits - a new concept in 2024
Do you make payments to your employees under any of these headings?
If so, from January 2024, you will be required to report details of such payments (called “Reportable Benefits”) to Revenue as part of your monthly payroll returns.
Note, however, that travel and subsistence expenses paid directly by the employer via company credit card/ prepaid cards are not currently within the scope of ERR, nor are fuel cards, toll tags and similar cards or tokens.
Why the change?
The reporting obligation is being introduced as an extension to Revenue’s PAYE Modernisation scheme, which began in 2019. Their stated objective is to obtain quality high-level data to enable them to direct resources away from compliant employers.
Is there any change to the tax treatment of these non-taxable payments?
No, there is no change to te tax treatment of these non-taxable payments. The new requirement is solely a reporting obligation. However, details of these payments will need to be reported on or before the date they are made.
How will this affect my business?
From next January, your business will be obliged to collate and upload specific information on these reportable benefits to Revenue on a monthly basis (or more regularly, if any reportable benefits are paid at a different interval).
What steps do I need to take?
Your business should review its current systems for recording and paying travel and subsistence expenses to determine whether you will be in a position to comply with the new reporting requirements come January. If your expenses payment system is not integrated with your payroll, you will need to consider how the required information can be collated and made available for inclusion in the monthly payroll returns.
If your business is still paying the remote working allowance, it would be prudent to review the existing controls and procedures to ensure remote workdays are being properly tracked and documented.
If small benefits are potentially being issued to employees from various sources in your business, then the necessary safeguards will need to be put in place to determine if these benefits are exempt and are reportable in a timely fashion.
Finally, as this is a new reporting requirement, your business will need to identify who in the organisation is responsible for these filings.
Our payroll process is managed by a third party. Do we need to take any action?
The Revenue Commissioners have been engaging with payroll software providers, and we understand that progress has been made with regard to the specifications of payroll software packages to facilitate the new reporting requirements.
However, similar to the payroll process, your business will still need to collate the relevant data and provide it to your payroll service provider on a timely basis.
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