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Two years ago, Tara Higgins, Team Lead with Barden’s Accounting & Tax Practice in Cork, examined the changes we expected to see with the introduction of PAYE Modernisation here, and also what this would mean for you working in payroll, how it would affect your payroll team and what your company needed to know in advance of these changes.
PAYE Modernisation has been in effect for over almost two years now since it launched on the 1st of January 2019 with the goal of delivering Real Time Reporting (RTR) in payroll and putting a bigger focus on payroll compliance for all businesses.
In this blog, Tara looks at the impact these changes have had in the past 2 years and the benefits that have already been seen.
What actually changed?
There was a number of changes that came with the introduction of PAYE Modernisation but the main ones include:
- Businesses are now required to file returns to Revenue in real time which means a submission has to be made with each payroll run;
- Saying a long goodbye to the P45, P30, P35 and the P60;
- Easier access to relevant and accurate information about your pay and tax deductions on revenue.ie by logging into your account (MyAccount).
So… What have the benefits been?
For employers, the main benefit of PAYE Modernisation has been more streamlined, integrated processes and reducing the administrative cost.
We recently caught up with Stuart Anderson, who is a Payroll Manager with Mitie to get his thoughts on what the changes have meant for him on a day to day basis…
“For me, it has saved a lot of time on heavy payroll administration duties and it has really streamlined our communications with Revenue. Now, we have greater capacity to respond to employee queries, we can spend more time on processing the payroll to ensure even further accuracy and we have the opportunity to improve our own payroll processes”
For employees, the introduction of PAYE Modernisation has similarly resulted in positive changes such as the reduction of the occurrence of overpayment/underpayment of taxes and has provided PAYE taxpayers with access to real data.
“It’s been a welcome change for employees too and I’ve already seen the benefits from their perspective. For example, tax credits are almost immediately available now and sent through which has drastically reduced the amount of time spent on emergency tax. Also, now employees have real time data of their earnings which means something even like moving jobs is much more straightforward now! My Account on Revenue is a great tool for employees to have.”
2020 and beyond…
Now that we have passed the initial teething phases, employers now need to ensure they are regularly reviewing their processes to ensure that they can report consistently and accurately in real time.
“I think that 2020/2021 will be the time where it’s further developed, and we will see Revenue continue to sort out some of the minor issues that appeared. I would like to see greater communications from Revenue to promote employees to have more control over their own taxes and I think this would further work with PAYE Modernisation to make the new process even more effective”
As expected, PAYE Modernisation has been welcomed by all. Now, we can see the benefits of Irish payroll being aligned with the future which has created more time and space to continue adding value to the payroll function.
Need help achieving your Payroll ambitions?
We’re laser focused on your future. Here to help you achieve your ambitions, our team of experts are ready with lots of CV, LinkedIn, interview and career advice along with cutting edge market insights. So, get in touch with our Payroll team today at hello@barden.ie