Hiring an employee in Ireland involves a mix of employment law, payroll setup, tax registration, contracts, and ongoing compliance. In this week’s Blog, Nuala McGowan, ACA, CPA, AIA and founder of McGowan Accountancy Services explains the steps and considerations an employer must take in hiring a new employee.
Hiring someone who has worked in the State before
You should request a Revenue Payroll Notification (RPN) for your new employee. You must operate payroll using the details returned to you in the RPN. On your first payroll submission for that employee, you should include their commencement date.
Applying the emergency basis of taxation
You must tax an employee on an emergency basis where no RPN is available.
This may occur when the employee:
- does not have a Personal Public Service Number (PPSN)
- or
- is not registered for PAYE.
Obtaining an RPN
You are obliged to notify Revenue of any new employee where it is not the employee’s first employment in the State. You should include the commencement date on the first payroll submission for that employee.
Hiring someone who has never worked in the State before
Someone who has never worked in the State before must first register with Revenue. This will ensure that the correct amount of tax and Universal Social Charge (USC) will be deducted from their wages.
Your employee is responsible for registering for tax if it is their first ever job in the State. Starting your first job will guide your employee through what they must do to register for tax.
You will need to provide your employee with:
- your employer registration number
- their staff number, if you use these in your business (also called a personnel or works number)
- and
- their frequency of pay.
Once your employee has registered their job on the Jobs and Pensions service, you will be able to request a Revenue Payroll Notification (RPN). You can then tax your employee on a cumulative basis or a week 1 or month 1 basis, depending on what the RPN instructs.
For more information on this topic contact Nuala on on (090) 66 25818 or email nuala@