Nov 2017
27
What's new for Thesaurus Payroll Manager
Payroll Bureaus
Thesaurus Payroll Manager 2018 is now available to purchase online. We’re delighted to introduce our new features that will help you get the very best payroll experience yet. Here’s a peek at a few changes we are very excited about:
Direct emailing of reports: Bureaus will have the ability to email key payroll reports and a single PDF document containing all employee payslips directly from within Thesaurus Payroll Manager. This will save you time each pay period for each client, compared to the work involved in exporting, saving the files and emailing them to clients.
Getting ready for PAYE Modernisation: PAYE Modernisation will be effective from 1st January 2019 allowing for PAYE reporting to be submitted to Revenue in real time. By operating in real time, Revenue can ensure that the correct tax deduction is being made at the right time for every employee. Thesaurus Payroll Manager will have full functionality to seamlessly handle PAYE Modernisation. We’ve already begun to work directly with Revenue to streamline the PAYE Modernisation process. Find out more.
Illness Benefit: Illness Benefit will be taxable through the P2C file from 1st January 2018 and this will result in more frequent P2Cs being issued for employees.
Thesaurus Payroll Manager 2018 is getting ready for Illness Benefit changes and PAYE Modernisation:
- Thesaurus Payroll Manager 2018 gives much more priority to the P2C download process, keeping a log of all imports and reminding you when P2Cs have not been imported.
- To prepare you for the new reality, where payrolls will be required to be processed in real time, we have included a “Late Payrolls” button to help identify those payrolls that are falling behind.
- Your own processes will probably need to be more streamlined with real time submissions, so we have added (and will continue to add) automated client emailing from within the software. The initial version of 2018 will include this for the payroll preview report, the payroll summary report and the P30 report.
- The 2018 release will also include emailing of a single pdf document containing all payslips.
- Towards the latter half of 2018, Revenue will ask you to submit a list of employees for each employer through ROS. The ability to prepare this file is also part of our initial 2018 release.
We will bring you further updates throughout 2018, in many cases via free CPD webinars (which will also help with your structured CPD requirements). Register for our next free PAYE Modernisation webinars here.
Thesaurus Connect: Our latest cloud add-on introduces powerful features including:
- Secure online backup.
- Employee self-service to access payslips & request holiday leave.
- Client dashboard to view payroll reports, annual leave requests and employee details.
- HR & Annual Leave Management.
- Bureau discounts up to 75%.
Employee Gift Cards: In the last year, we’ve been working with OneforAll to offer your clients the ability to securely purchase gift cards for their employees. Orders are delivered in a plain envelope, addressed to the employer, with all gift cards enclosed. Find out more.
Payroll Journal Export: Export a payroll journal where your compatible files can be easily exported. Each payroll journal file is customised to the individual accounts software provider for easy upload.
End of year webinar
Our highly experienced support professionals have put together this free webinar covering the year end procedures within Thesaurus Payroll Manager.
Register 6 Dec | Register 23 Jan
Free PAYE Modernisation Webinar
PAYE Modernisation is probably the biggest overhaul of the PAYE system since PAYE itself was introduced back in 1960. It will have wide ranging effects on all employers across Ireland.
24 Jan - Employer Webinar | 25 Jan - Bureau CPD Webinar
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Nov 2017
24
Premature births & maternity benefit
From 1st October 2017, the period for which Maternity Benefit is paid has been extended in cases where a baby is born prematurely. A premature birth is described as one at less than 37 weeks’ gestation. It is estimated that every year in Ireland approximately 4,500 babies are born prematurely.
Currently, under the Maternity Protection Acts 1994 and 2004, a mother is entitled to 26 weeks’ maternity leave and 16 weeks’ unpaid leave. Maternity leave normally starts two weeks before the babies expected due date or on the date of the birth of the child should it be earlier.
Under the new amendment, where a child is born prematurely the mother’s paid maternity leave will be extended by the equivalent of the duration between the actual date of birth of the premature baby and the date when the maternity leave was expected to start. For example, where a baby is born in the 30th week of gestation the mother would have an additional entitlement of approximately 7 weeks of maternity leave and benefit i.e. from the date of birth in the 30th week to the two weeks before the expected date of confinement. This additional period will be added onto the mother’s normal entitlement to 26 weeks of maternity leave and benefit, where the mother meets the ordinary qualifying criteria.
Mothers of preterm babies are advised to contact the Department of Employment Affairs and Social Protection (DEASP), email maternityben@welfare.ie, to arrange the additional payment.
Babies surviving from the earliest gestations, such as 23 weeks, can spend months in a neonatal unit in hospital, by the time a premature baby gets to go home, a mother’s maternity leave can almost be used up. This new change has been heralded as a positive step in supporting parents during a difficult time.
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Nov 2017
20
Taxation of Illness Benefit - 2018
Currently, employers are required to tax Illness Benefit and Occupational Injury Benefit payments paid to employees by the Department of Employment Affairs and Social Protection (DEASP).
With effect from 1st January 2018, employers will no longer be responsible for taxing Illness Benefit. From this date Revenue will tax Illness Benefit by adjusting employee's tax credits and/or rate bands. Revenue will receive real-time interfaces of taxable DEASP income and the adjusted tax credits and/or rate bands will be notified to employers via P2C files. As a result of this change there will be more frequent P2Cs for employees. While payroll operators will no longer need to tax Illness Benefit, it will be extremely important to implement amended P2Cs immediately.
In addition, from 1st January 2018 Illness Benefit letters will no longer be delivered to the ROS Inbox. In light of this change, employers may need to review their sick pay schemes.
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Thesaurus Payroll Software | BrightPay Payroll Software
Nov 2017
16
Why not get more for you and your employees when making Bonus payments?
As the long dark evenings set in and Halloween is over, the build up to the most wonderful time of the year will begin again! At this time of the year a significant amount of employers pay-out a Christmas/annual bonus and no matter how little or large the bonus is, a large portion ends up being paid over to the Revenue if it is put through the payroll as a taxable addition.
For example, if an employee’s salary is €35,000 per annum and they receive a bonus of €1,000 at Christmas, this employee would only receive around half of this amount after tax, employee PRSI and USC. The company would also be liable to pay 10.75% employer PRSI on the bonus, so in addition to giving the bonus of €1,000 there is also the extra €107.50 meaning the bonus is in fact costing the company €1,107.50.
The Solution
Revenue allow one small non-cash benefit per employee per annum up to the value of €500, PAYE, PRSI OR USC do not need to be applied to the benefit. A gift card or voucher seems to be the most popular way of allowing this payment to be made to the employee. The most popular gift card would seem to be One4All gift cards. Thesaurus Payroll Manager offers unique integration with One4All allowing employers to purchase gift cards quickly and easily for their employees. The integration offers a range of benefits, including:
- The ability to pay via EFT, a facility not available to regular gift card customers
- No additional charges, unlike when purchasing direct from the Post Office
- Tracking of gift cards purchased so that you as an employer are alerted if you attempt to purchase more than one gift card for an employee in any one tax year
- Prevention from ordering a card in excess of the exemption limit, i.e. €500.
Please note, where a benefit exceeds €500 in value, the entire amount will be subject to PAYE, PRSI and USC.
Purchasing gift cards through Thesaurus Payroll Manager is both simple and straightforward. To order, simply click on the Gift Card option at the top right hand side of the screen, fill in your company details, select the amount for each employee's gift card and click to proceed to the gift card website. The software will bring you to the gift card website where you will arrange payment and delivery details.
It is also possible to order Me2You gift cards through Thesaurus Payroll Manager, if required tick to order from Me2You.
For further details, click here.
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Nov 2017
14
PAYE Modernisation – What do these changes mean for you?
The existing PAYE (Pay As You Earn) system was introduced nearly sixty years ago ensuring that correct deductions are made relating to pay and tax.
From 1st January 2019, this system for PAYE will undergo a long overdue update, but don’t worry, this update will benefit all involved – including employers and employees.
Employers –
PAYE Modernisation will change how employers report their payroll information to Revenue. Every time an employee is paid a file will need to be submitted (electronically) to Revenue, consisting of all details of employee payments, deductions and leaver information. The contents will be similar to the current annual P35, but this file will be submitted every pay period (weekly, monthly, fortnightly, etc.).
The update will also allow employers to submit a new employee’s information before they commence employment with them. PAYE Modernisation / Real Time Reporting (RTR) will result in a reduction in the occurrence of year end over/underpayments of tax.
This new Revenue reporting system is anticipated to be fully integrated into payroll software. Fortunately, it is envisaged that the workload will not increase as a result of PAYE Modernisation.
Employees –
An online statement will be sent before the start of the new tax year which will detail the employee’s tax credits and standard cut-off point (SRCOP). This will be based on estimated income and details available to Revenue.
Employees will be encouraged to make any adjustments to this online statement, including any claims for additional entitlements. This differs from the current system where an employee is required to wait until the end of the tax year to apply for any refund as a result of overpayment of taxes or to find out if there are amounts due to Revenue as a result of underpayment of taxes.
P60s will be abolished, employees will instead have access to their pay and tax record online, this will be updated on an ongoing basis throughout the year as they are paid. This will enable Revenue to carry out periodic reviews to identify if employees are utilising their tax credits and SRCOP to the maximum effect (e.g. where an employee has 2 employments) and, where applicable, employees will be prompted to reallocate tax credits and SRCOP.
Related articles
- PAYE Modernisation - Are You Ready For January 2019?
- Revenue moves to PAYE Modernisation
- Auto Enrolment Planned for Ireland by 2021
- 2018 and Beyond
Nov 2017
13
Maternity Leave & Benefit Extended for Mothers of Premature Babies
Paid maternity leave has been extended in cases where a baby is born prematurely.
Up until now, mothers in Ireland were entitled to 26 weeks maternity leave with 16 weeks additional unpaid leave which must be taken immediately after the end of the maternity leave.
This meant that for some mothers of premature babies, their leave could be almost used up by the time they get their baby home from hospital.
However under the new arrangements, mothers of premature babies will be entitled to an additional period of paid maternity leave.
From 1st October 2017, the period for which Maternity Benefit is paid is being extended in cases when a baby is born prematurely. The benefit will extend for the duration between the actual birth date of the premature baby to the date when the maternity leave was expected to commence. This will extend the existing 26 weeks of paid maternity leave, so that mothers of premature babies can give their children the care and attention that they need.
This change will benefit nearly 4,500 women annually.
You can view more information about Maternity Benefit on the Department of Employment Affairs and Social Protection’s website.
Nov 2017
10
2018 and Beyond
With GDPR kicking in next May and PAYE Modernisation going live in January 2019, accountants and other bureau payroll providers will have a lot to contend with.
PAYE Modernisation will involve major process changes for many of your clients (just to ensure that a file is submitted to Revenue on or before the payroll date). Ensuring that payrolls are processed using the most up to date tax credits and cut off point information is also an essential part of the new system.
Because Illness Benefit becomes taxable through the P2C file from January 2018, ensuring that you use the most recent P2Cs will become a must before each and every pay run from as soon as January 2018.
We have been busy making updates to Thesaurus Payroll Manager 2018 to better prepare you for all of the above changes. Here is a quick outline of the software changes that we have made for 2018. These changes are in addition to those which cater for Budget 2018.
GDPR
Password retrieval is now an automated process which will require a recovery email address for each payroll client.
We have added a bit more file encryption so that you will be better protected if your system is compromised, your laptop is stolen or a memory stick goes missing.
You may be aware that our recent year end upgrade includes a feature whereby backup files can be securely sent to our support staff, should it be required to help with a support query.
Optionally, our cloud add on, Thesaurus Connect, will enable you to backup securely to a secure European Azure server and restore securely from that server to your payroll. Thesaurus Connect will also provide you with the added benefit of giving your clients and their employees direct access to their personal data, ensuring transparency and assisting with Data Subject Requests.
PAYE Modernisation and Illness Benefit Changes
Thesaurus Payroll Manager 2018 gives much more priority to the P2C download process, also keeping a log of all imports and reminding you when P2Cs have not been imported.
To prepare you for the new reality, where payrolls will be required to be processed in real time, we have included a “Late Payrolls” button to help identify those payrolls that are falling behind. This will be particularly useful where you have hundreds of payroll clients.
Knowing that your own processes will probably need to be more streamlined with real time submissions, we have added (and will continue to add) automated client emailing from within the software. Our initial 2018 release will include this for the payroll preview report. It will also include emailing of a single pdf document containing all payslips, the emailing of the P30 and emailing of the payroll summary report. It should be noted that these emails are transmitted securely through our Thesaurus servers and do not require third party software. This is the same system that our payslip emailing currently uses.
Towards the latter half of 2018, Revenue will ask you to submit a list of employees for each employer through ROS. The ability to prepare this file is in our initial 2018 release. The file is required by Revenue for data alignment. Their aim is to have knowledge of the correct employment details for as many employees as possible when PAYE Modernisation goes live.
At Thesaurus Software we plan to help you with PAYE Modernisation as much as we can. We have already been through these changes in the UK and can use this experience to help address issues before they arise.
We will bring you further updates throughout 2018, in many cases via free webinars (which will also help with your structured CPD requirements). Register for our next free webinars here.
We will begin testing the new real time systems with Revenue from April 2018 and we’ll keep you appraised of our progress.
Finally, we have included a few more importers should any of your clients (or colleagues) choose to move from other payroll software.
Related articles
Nov 2017
6
PAYE Modernisation - Are You Ready For January 2019?
Revenue has released an information leaflet titled “PAYE Modernisation – Are You Ready?”. This kick-starts their awareness campaign for businesses to get ready for payroll changes called PAYE Modernisation or Real Time Reporting (RTR). Revenue outlines the steps that all employers need to take in order to ensure that their current records and obligations are up-to-date and correct.
PAYE Modernisation will change how employers report payroll information for their employees to Revenue. A file will need to be submitted (electronically) to Revenue, containing all details of employee payments. The contents are similar to the annual P35, however, this file will be submitted every pay period (weekly, monthly, fortnightly, etc.).
If you are an employer who uses payroll software, then the work involved to comply with PAYE Modernisation will be minimal. However, for smaller employers who do not use payroll software, the process of complying with PAYE Modernisation will be time-consuming and stressful. Currently, these employers make one manual submission to Revenue through their annual P35. With PAYE Modernisation, these employers will be required to make an employer submission to Revenue each pay period in real time. The employer submission will contain details comparable to what currently appears on an employer’s P35 return.
With PAYE Modernisation in mind, Revenue has contacted nearly 400 employers regarding their P35L returns for 2016. These returns contained employees who were never previously registered as working with the employer. This communication reminds those employers of their obligation to comply with PAYE regulations and requests those employers to submit a P46 for the non linked employees currently in their employment, the commencement date should be input as 1st January 2017 for employees that commenced employment before the current tax year. This action will then result in a new P2C (tax credit certificate) being issued for these employees.
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Nov 2017
2
Auto Enrolment Planned for Ireland by 2021
Taoiseach Leo Varadkar said that the Government will publish a five year roadmap for pension reform before the end of the year. This will include the introduction of an auto-enrolment pension scheme for private sector workers, two-thirds of whom currently have no occupational pension to supplement their state pension. The first payments are expected to be made into new individually held funds by 2021.
He said the government would “work closely and consult with employers” in designing the new scheme. The Minister for Employment & Social Protection Regina Doherty, said that there will be no discrimination in the new auto-enrolment pension scheme proposed by Taoiseach Leo Varadkar.
“You can’t discriminate somebody that’s earning 20 grand to somebody that’s earning 40 grand,” said Minister Regina Doherty.
“But it’s always going to be based on the percentage, so whatever percentage you put in, the employer will put in a percentage and the State will put in a percentage, and we have to work out the details as to what that percentage will be.”
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Nov 2017
1
10% pay rise for Construction Sector under new Sectoral Employment Order
A Sectoral Employment Order (SEO) for the general construction industry has been signed into law by the Minister for State at the Department of Business, Enterprise and Innovation, Pat Breen.
Effective from 19th October 2017, the order provides for mandatory terms and conditions in the construction sector, including pay, pensions and sick leave. In finalising the Order, the Labour Court received submissions from the Construction Industry Federation (CIF), UNITE the Union, the Irish Congress of Trade Unions and the Trustees of the Construction Workers Pension Scheme.
Who does the Order affect?
The Order applies to employers in the construction sector, regardless of whether or not they are CIF members. The sector is defined to include both “Building Firms” and “Civil Engineering Firms”, examples will include companies involved in; construction, reconstruction, alteration, repair, painting and decorating. It is estimated that the new Order will apply to approximately 50,000 workers. Notably electricians and plumbers are not included.
Hourly Rates
The new minimum hourly pay rates are:
- New Entrant Workers: €13.77
- Category 1 Workers (General Operatives with more than 1 years’ experience: €17.04
- Category 2 Workers (Skilled General Operatives): €18.36
- Craft Workers (Includes: Bricklayers, Carpenters, Plasterers): €18.93
- Apprentices
- Year 1: 33.3% of Craft Rate
- Year 2: 50% of Craft Rate
- Year 3: 75% of Craft Rate
- Year 4: 90% of Craft Rate
These new rates are approximately 10% higher than they had been under the previous Registered Employment Agreement (REA).
Unsocial Hours
The following unsocial hours payments will now apply:
- Monday to Friday, normal finish time to midnight: time and a half
- Monday to Friday, midnight to normal starting time: double time
- Saturday, first four hours from normal starting time: time and a half. All subsequent hours until midnight: double time
- Sunday, all hours worked: double time
- Public holidays, all hours worked: double time plus an additional day’s leave
Pension Scheme and Sick Pay Scheme
The Order provides that employers must provide pension benefits with no less favourable terms than those in the Construction Workers Pension Scheme (CWPS). The Order also provides for a mandatory sick pay scheme, in recognition of the health and safety risks posed to industry workers.
Dispute Resolution
The Order includes a new dispute resolution procedure. No strike or lock-out is allowed unless and until all stated dispute resolution procedures have been exhausted.
Where to from here?
The Order is a significant development for those in the general construction industry. Employers will need to review their payment practices to ensure that they comply with the new requirements.
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