Jun 2020
11
In January 2019, we saw the biggest overhaul of the Irish PAYE system since it was introduced. PAYE modernisation requires employers to submit the details of each employee’s pay to Revenue on or before each payday. The new real-time reporting system meant that all forms relevant to payroll taxes (P30, P35, P60, and P45) were abolished. Instead, Revenue issues employers with a monthly statement based on the submissions made by the employer with a summary and breakdown of the total liability due.
It probably goes without saying, compliance with PAYE modernisation is compulsory, and the penalty regime is pretty stiff. The regime includes a fixed penalty of €4,000 for each breach of the PAYE legislation and a fixed penalty of €3,000 imposed on the company secretary for each breach.
With these high stakes, there are three big mistakes you need to avoid when it comes to PAYE modernisation.
We’d be lying if we said it was impossible to comply with PAYE modernisation manually. It’s possible, of course. But lots of things are technically possible: climbing Everest is possible, for example, but it’s difficult.
So yes, technically speaking, your business can go the DIY route to comply with PAYE modernisation. If you don’t have compliant software, the relevant information must be submitted to Revenue manually through Revenue Online System (ROS).
But why struggle when you don’t need to? With the right payroll software in place, the transition can be seamless while also offering many real-time reporting benefits to businesses and employees.
Outsourcing payroll compliance can be a fantastic way to eliminate administrative burdens and free up time. But fundamentally, PAYE modernisation compliance is the employers responsibility.
When you choose an outsourcing partner, you need to be certain that they are not going to overlook your real-time payroll reporting duties. Check with your payroll provider to see how they’re complying, and whether they’re using industry-standard, compliant software like BrightPay.
If you have - rather wisely - opted for the software route to comply with PAYE modernisation, there’s another decision to be made: choosing the right supplier.
There’s a lot of choices out there, but very few software suppliers can lay claim to BrightPay’s level of preparedness.
Before the introduction of PAYE Modernisation, we had already developed this real-time technology and API integration for our UK payroll software. The UK introduced similar real-time reporting requirements in 2013.
We’ve worked with Revenue from day dot to make PAYE modernisation a success, and our software makes compliance simple. Our previous experience allowed us to easily develop payroll integration features that seamlessly align with Revenue’s new reporting requirements.
BrightPay’s pedigree speaks for itself: BrightPay won Payroll Software of the Year 2018 and 2019 and enjoys a 99% customer satisfaction rating. So if you’re seeking the right software partner, look no further.
Book a demo today to discover how BrightPay’s award-winning software can improve your payroll reporting processes.
Jun 2020
3
This webinar will examine key facts & updated guidance on COVID-19 payroll impacts. Understand what the lockdown easing will mean for your business as you reopen and what COVID-19 safety policies you need to introduce.
In recent months, Revenue have introduced COVID-19 Government schemes to help keep paying employees with a number of important updates being rolled out. The government has announced the first steps to ease the coronavirus restrictions with a roadmap in place for lockdown measures to be slowly lifted. Understand how to adapt your payroll processes to accommodate for the schemes and subsequent updates.
Agenda
With the emergence from lockdown becoming clearer, businesses will need to start to put plans and COVID-19 policies in place for their employees to go back to the workplace safely. The Irish Government has introduced a Return to Work Safely Protocol for all businesses to follow. This introduces mandatory measures for organisations to take care of their people and safeguard their health and well-being.
All workplaces must adapt their workplace HR policies, procedures and practices to comply fully with the COVID-19 related public health protection measures identified as necessary by the HSE.
Agenda
If you are unable to attend the webinar at the specified time, simply register for the webinar anyway and we will send you the recording afterwards. You can also click here to view more webinar dates.
May 2020
28
PAYE modernisation came into full effect from January 2019. With this new system, employers are required to report employee pay and deductions to Revenue as their employees are paid.
The aim, ultimately, is to make things simpler. By operating in real-time, Revenue can ensure that the correct tax deduction is being made at the right time for every employee. In turn, employees have online access to payroll information that has been submitted to Revenue by their employer in real-time.
Arguably the most taxing aspect of PAYE modernisation, if you’ll pardon the pun, is that it places substantial responsibilities onto businesses and payroll providers. It's their responsibility to ensure that the correct business processes and practices are in place.
Revenue expects you to get it right, but the change is undoubtedly a significant administrative burden on small employers who process their payroll manually. If you don’t have compliant software, the relevant information must be tracked manually and sent to Revenue through Revenue Online System (ROS).
If that sounds like a headache, it’s because it is. But it doesn’t need to be the case. With the right payroll software in place, the submission of payroll data can be seamless while also introducing many real-time reporting benefits to businesses and employees.
BrightPay has worked closely and will continue to work closely with Revenue to keep our payroll software compliant. BrightPay easily caters for the needs of PAYE Modernisation, removing any heavy lifting on your part.
Change - especially legislative change - comes with its challenges. For businesses that have worked manually (and happily so) for a long time, PAYE modernisation can easily be interpreted as throwing a spanner in the works.
But PAYE modernisation is a chance to make a big leap forward. Revenue integrated payroll software can simplify the payroll process and drastically reduce the administrative cost. Submitting payroll information in real-time eliminates the need for P30s, P35s, P45s, P46s and P60s which further reduces administrative processing.
The benefits are there to be grasped, all you need is the right payroll solution in place. BrightPay won Payroll Software of the Year 2018 and 2019 and enjoys a 99% customer satisfaction rating. There’s no better partner to make the most of PAYE modernisation.
Book a demo today to discover how BrightPay’s award-winning software can improve your payroll reporting processes.
May 2020
27
The government has announced the first steps to ease the coronavirus restrictions with a roadmap in place for lockdown measures to be slowly lifted. Understand how to adapt your payroll processes to accommodate for the schemes and subsequent updates.
During the Operational Phase of the scheme, Revenue will calculate employees' previous average net weekly pay and their maximum personal subsidy amount and provide this information to employers. This will be in the form of a Revenue instruction (in CSV format), which employers must download from within their ROS account and import into their payroll software. Revenue are updating the TWSS files daily to include employees that have been rehired after 1 May 2020 and notified to Revenue in an RPN. Where relevant, the Revenue instruction file must be downloaded from ROS again and re-imported into the payroll software.
The Irish Government has introduced a Return to Work Safely Protocol for all businesses to follow. This introduces mandatory measures for organisations to take care of their people and safeguard their health and well-being. All workplaces must adapt their workplace HR policies, procedures and practices to comply fully with the COVID-19 related public health protection measures identified as necessary by the HSE.
Thousands of shops, businesses and construction sites have reopened as part of the first phase of the easing of COVID-19 restrictions. Many businesses are now able to re-engage their staff that had previously been placed on layoff. Can these employees qualify for the Wage Subsidy Scheme? How does this affect payroll?
May 2020
20
Thousands of shops, businesses and construction sites have reopened as part of the first phase of the easing of COVID-19 restrictions. In terms of bringing staff back to work, employers should put in place a number of measures, as set out in The Government’s ‘Return to Work Safely Protocol’.
Many businesses are now able to re-engage their staff that had previously been placed on layoff. If an employee was laid off and their employment ceased as a result of COVID-19, and the employer now wishes to place this employee back on the payroll, the employee will qualify for the Temporary Wage Subsidy Scheme if their DEASP claim is ceased. However, employees must have had a pay date in February and have been included in submissions between 1 February 2020 and 30 March 2020 under the same PPS number to qualify.
During the operational phase of the Temporary Wage Subsidy Scheme, Revenue are providing all employers with details of the maximum subsidy and maximum top-up for all their employees. This Revenue instruction is in the form of a TWSS file, which was made available to employers on ROS from 4 May 2020.
Where an employee was rehired after 1 May 2020, they were not included in the initial TWSS file, and so J9 submissions for employees rehired after 1 May were processed but rejected for refunding.
From 18 May, the TWSS file now includes rehired employees that were included in an RPN between 2 May 2020 and 17 May 2020, provided the employee was on the employer's payroll on 29 February 2020 with the same PPS number.
From 21 May, Revenue will refresh the TWSS files daily to include rehired employees that have been notified to Revenue and to update the date on the file to reflect when it was refreshed. To be included in this refresh, employers must ensure that the rehired employees are on the payroll and an RPN has been received the day before the employer calculates and submits the first payroll payment to Revenue for the rehired employees. Revenue are currently developing a notification process that will inform employers when a refreshed TWSS file is available to download.
Additional Resource: We have created a template letter that employers can use for employees who are returning from layoff or short-time working.
May 2020
18
The Government’s “Return to Work Safely Protocol” sets out a number of measures employers must consider as they reopen their businesses and bring staff back to work safely.
In terms of bringing staff back to work, employers should put in place a number of measures, including:
Employees must be issued with a pre-return to work form to be completed at least 3 days prior to their return. In completing the form, employees will self-declare as being fit to return to work. If a worker answers Yes to any of the questions, they are strongly advised to seek medical advise before returning to work. A template questionnaire including all required questions can be downloaded here.
any other relevant sector specific advice
Following a risk assessment, employers should arrange for the necessary controls to be put in place to prevent the spread of Covid-19 in the workplace.
Temperature testing should be implemented in line with Public Health advice.
Review and revise existing sick leave policies and amend as appropriate and in line with Covid-19 procedures. A revised sick leave policy is now available in Bright Contracts.
The full Return to Work Safely Protocol can be viewed here.
May 2020
12
Introducing a new service to your payroll clients isn’t always as simple as we’d like it to be. Yes, you know that it would be great for their business and maybe they do too, but it’s likely that they’ll still need some convincing to get them over the line and on board. So, here are 3 things to keep in mind when introducing BrightPay Connect as a new payroll process.
Before you make your case to your clients, you need to be sure that you’re offering them the best service for their business. Every client is different in one way or another, and this means that a one-size-fits-all approach to their payroll just isn’t going to work. It’s also not going to give them confidence in your ability if they think you don’t understand their business, so doing your homework here will really pay off.
In order to get your client on board with your new payroll offering, it’s useful to think about what challenges they’re facing right now regarding payroll, and whether BrightPay Connect is a right fit for them. BrightPay Connect offers a whole range of additional HR benefits, so think about how these extras can save your clients time. Begin your introduction by showing your clients that they’re in safe hands because you fully understand their payroll challenges and you’ve got just the product to help them make their payroll processes even easier than it’s ever been before.
So now that you’ve established how BrightPay Connect can modernise your client’s payroll process, it’s time to pitch the benefits to them. For most clients, this is a simple case of informing them about the HR features they may not have themselves including:
You can also present BrightPay Connect as a time saving opportunity by explaining to them that the cloud functionality frees them up to dedicate additional resources to other aspects of the business.
Every client, whether big or small, is always trying to find new ways to cut costs, reduce administration and maximize profits (without cutting quality services). And in today’s climate, most businesses don’t have any choice in keeping their costs down as much as possible. So, one of the best ways you can sell your payroll services to your clients is by simply showing them just how cost effective it is.
BrightPay Connect offers highly competitive pricing options where users are billed based on usage. The usage subscription model is based on the number of active employees in the billing month. The more clients you have the lower your cost per employee, which means you can pass the savings along to them. You can also find ways to make it even more tempting to your clients, such as offering them a free trial period, or a special deal if they refer a new client to your bureau. This is totally up to you, but don’t be afraid to be creative with how you cost this service.
Book a demo of BrightPay Connect to see how you can help your clients with a new and improved payroll service offering.
May 2020
8
The Thesaurus Software team have received lots of words of praise and thanks over the past few weeks. Here's a selection of some of the wonderful comments that have been sent in. We would like to thank everyone for their positive feedback, your kind words are very much appreciated and encourage us to keep going during in these challenging times.
Thank you. Stay Safe.
Apr 2020
30
If your employer cannot continue to pay you and has to lay you off during the pandemic, you can claim income support from the DEASP. The COVID-19 Pandemic Unemployment Payment is available to employees and the self-employed who have lost their job on (or after) 13th March due to the COVID-19 pandemic.
The Pandemic Unemployment Payment is paid at a flat rate of €350 per week for the duration of the pandemic emergency.
You can apply for the payment if you are aged between 18 and 66 and have lost your employment due to the coronavirus restrictions. Students, non-EEA nationals and part-time workers can apply for the payment. You can also apply if you were working casually and you became fully unemployed as a result of the pandemic.
If you have voluntarily taken time off work to look after your child because of school or childcare closures and you are no longer paid by your employer, you can apply for the Pandemic Unemployment Payment.
You cannot claim the Pandemic Unemployment Payment, if you are continuing to get income from your employment or if you voluntarily left your employment, except to look after your children.
If an employee has been diagnosed with COVID-19 or has been told to self-isolate by their GP, they should instead apply for Illness Benefit, which has also been increased to €350 a week in line with the Pandemic Unemployment Payment.
Join us for a free COVID-19 webinar where we discuss what you need to know about remote working, putting staff on payoff, the Pandemic Unemployment Payment and the Temporary Wage Subsidy Scheme.
Places are limited - Click here to book your place now.
Apr 2020
28
The Temporary Wage Subsidy Scheme enters the operational phase on 4th May 2020.
In the operational phase, Revenue will provide all employers with details of the maximum subsidy and maximum top up for all employees currently on a J9 PRSI class and for any employees who might be placed on a J9 class during the remainder of the scheme.
This Revenue instruction will be in the form of a file (TWSS file) downloaded from ROS. It will not be an automatic download through the software but instead will require you to log in to your ROS account and download the file there. It will operate in much the same way as you would have downloaded P2C files in the past. The software will then import this file and update the subsidies of all J9 employees automatically.
This TWSS file will be available in ROS from 4th May and we will be releasing an upgrade to our software on the same day to cater for importing the TWSS file.
As the 4th May is a bank holiday, our support lines will be open on 5th May but we have plenty of on screen help and would ask that you only contact support if absolutely necessary.
This should be a one time download as the figures in the downloaded file will be based on payroll submissions made for January and February.
To ensure that you will be able to download the file, it is important that you know your ROS login certificate password and you should ensure that you have this to hand.
For your information, a preview of the relevant ROS screens can be viewed here.
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