Revenue directed that all of my salary be subject to 8% USC?!

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FiveFingers

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I just got my payslip today for the month of November and noticed that I paid over 2200 in USC!! I normally pay 216.09 every month (salary 60K). I contacted payroll. She said that they had been directed by Revenue to apply 8% to all of my salary for 2016! She said it could be a mistake and to talk to Revenue. The lines are closed right now, but to save me a sleepless night, could someone please explain how this can be possible?? I can't afford to be 2000 down on the mouth of Christmas. Why in the name of Scrooge would Revenue decide to collect 8% on all of my earnings for 2016- I'm below the 8% threshold. My husband pays his USC separately.

Thanks!
 
216 a month is about2.5k a year. On a salary of 60k I believe you should be around 7% (it keeps dropping by a bit so roughly) which is 4.2k for the year so you appear to be short anyway. The most obvious reason though, would be share options or ESPP. Did you cash in any or get any bonus during the year ?
 
These are the USC charges for 2016.

€0 to €12,012 1%, €10,037 to €16,016 4%, €12,012 to €17,576 3.5%, €12,012 to €18,668 3%,
€16,017 and above 7%, €17,576 to €70,044 7%, €18,668 to €70,044 5.5%
– €70,044 and above 8% €70,044 and above 8%


Income of €70,044 and above attracts 8% USC, suggest you check what were you paying through the year, your husbands situation is relevant if you are taxed jointly.
 
No USC is individualised joint assessment doesn't apply to it so her husbands income has no bearing on it for the USC anyway. 8% on everything would usually only arise in an emergency tax situation or if the person had a 2nd paye source of income and via paye anytime moved all their usc band to the other employment. If an amended cert was issued by revenue to your employer they would also issue one to you and would usually at this stage of the year issue it on a week 1/month 1 basis to avoid the situation you are describing arising.
 
Palerider said:
These are the USC charges for 2016.

€0 to €12,012 1%, €10,037 to €16,016 4%, €12,012 to €17,576 3.5%, €12,012 to €18,668 3%,
€16,017 and above 7%, €17,576 to €70,044 7%, €18,668 to €70,044 5.5%
– €70,044 and above 8% €70,044 and above 8%


Income of €70,044 and above attracts 8% USC, suggest you check what were you paying through the year, your husbands situation is relevant if you are taxed jointly.
Click to expand...

I think you have interspaced 2015 with 2016 USC rates.

FiveFingers said:
I just got my payslip today for the month of November and noticed that I paid over 2200 in USC!! I normally pay 216.09 every month (salary 60K). I contacted payroll. She said that they had been directed by Revenue to apply 8% to all of my salary for 2016! She said it could be a mistake and to talk to Revenue. The lines are closed right now, but to save me a sleepless night, could someone please explain how this can be possible?? I can't afford to be 2000 down on the mouth of Christmas. Why in the name of Scrooge would Revenue decide to collect 8% on all of my earnings for 2016- I'm below the 8% threshold. My husband pays his USC separately.

Thanks!
Click to expand...

Fivefingers, are we getting the full story?
Some change in your income or personal circumstances had to have triggered this.
 
There is another possibility here and that's that the payroll person has made a complete pig's ear of your salary. Was USC being deducted on a month by month basis over previous months and/or has she mis-interpreted whatever instruction he/she got from revenue?
 
Salary of 60k excluding BIK and other unknown effects should lead to USC of €2,593 or €216.08c. There is something we are not being told here or payroll is making a hash of it. I wouldn't lose sleep over it though. See virtual accountant as I can't include links.
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Thanks Folks.

Spoke to Revenue this morning. I changed employers in July of this year. I rang Revenue on my first day to request that my tax credits be transferred to my new employer. Apparently, such a request automatically triggers a changeover for USC information to the new employer. However, in my case, this automatic changeover never happened. So, while I was correctly paying 216.08 in USC every month since, Revenue suddenly discovered that they had no USC information for me and directed my employer to charge 8% USC on everything earned this year!!! But of course, no one decided to tell me, hence the panic attack when I saw my payslip yesterday. So, Revenue has apologised and issued a new P2C cert to my employer. As soon as they get that (hopefully Monday), my employer will pay me back the overcharge. Wow, what an overreaction by Revenue.
 
Thanks for getting back. A word of caution regarding timing though. There is a possabilty that payroll will wait till your December pay date to rectify the matter. This may be earlier than normal in the month though as my company tends to have December payroll out a few days before Christmas week.
 
elcato said:
Thanks for getting back. A word of caution regarding timing though. There is a possabilty that payroll will wait till your December pay date to rectify the matter. This may be earlier than normal in the month though as my company tends to have December payroll out a few days before Christmas week.
Click to expand...

Thanks Elcato. Payroll gave me back the money yesterday - it's a small and very efficient company!
 
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