USC underpaid by employer

[fayf]

What has GDPR got to do with any of this?

If an employer believes the tax credits on the Revenue system are incorrect they are completely permitted to advise the employee.

The context here was, an Employer actioning a change “any correction, can only be done by the employee, due to GDPR etc” Revenue will not take information from an employer, only an employee, due to GDPR. Revenue will not provide any data to an employer other than the RPN details, Employers have no access, to individual circumstances which can impact Tax Credits, & have no access to the reasons for reductions in SRCO & USC cut off thresholds, they also have no access to 2nd employment information, and other sources of PAYE income, such as Pension income, no access to adjustments to credits from previous years, so an employee’s detailed revenue data is private to the employee, an employer can only see the totals applied to the employment, and not any breakdowns, so it has everything to do with GDPR.

There is a whole section on GDPR on the revenue website: https://www.revenue.ie/en/corporate...tion/principles-of-data-protection/index.aspx

Bottom line here is, it is an Employee’s responsibility to check their revenue data is correct and fully up to date, this is not, and never has been, an employer responsibility.

 

[Dr Strangelove]

Employers have no access, to individual circumstances which can impact Tax Credits, & have no access to the reasons for reductions in SRCO & USC cut off thresholds,

This has been the case forever and is nothing to do with GDPR. It is to give employees a degree of privacy from their employer about other employments and personal circumstances. It is nothing to do with GDPR.

Your claim was:

and it is not the Employers place, to highlight a tax issue,

It is not the employer’s obligation, but neither GDPR nor anything else does not stop an employer advising an employee that their Revenue data looks implausible and that the employee may wish to take action.

Anyway I don’t wish to drag things off topic any further.

 

[T McGibney]

It is not the employer’s obligation, but neither GDPR nor anything else does not stop an employer advising an employee that their Revenue data looks implausible and that the employee may wish to take action.

An employer has literally no business prying into an employee's PAYE or USC data and attempting to deduce why a particular rate has been applied.

In any given case, the reduced rates of USC may well apply for example to someone who has been granted a discretionary medical card on foot of a medical condition or illness that they do not wish to disclose to their employer.

 

[cally1990]

Employer didn't mess it up
They applied the Rpn provided
Sounds like reduced rate usc for having a medical card (instructed by revenue)
A person can't earn more than 60k and get reducted rates
If they do by the end of the year , standard rates will apply and a liability will arise according to revenue
Employers have no control of your personal situation by having reduced rates
In summary, if you earn more than 60k and have reduced rates usc it's your responsibility to tell revenue you will exceed the earnings limited and switch you to standard rates to prevent a liability
Regarding the liability , you might do a phased payment plan approach
Hope it works out for you , not ideal having a liability

 

[dubdub123]

Employer didn't mess it up
They applied the Rpn provided
Sounds like reduced rate usc for having a medical card (instructed by revenue)
A person can't earn more than 60k and get reducted rates
If they do by the end of the year , standard rates will apply and a liability will arise according to revenue
Employers have no control of your personal situation by having reduced rates
In summary, if you earn more than 60k and have reduced rates usc it's your responsibility to tell revenue you will exceed the earnings limited and switch you to standard rates to prevent a liability
Regarding the liability , you might do a phased payment plan approach
Hope it works out for you , not ideal having a liability

But shouldnt the employer have picked up amended taxcert and calculated withholdings for USC based on thst rate as below:

1) issued in jan stating
- Income chargeable at 0.5% 12,012
- Income over 12,012 in this employment chargeable at 2%

2) then in October an amended tax cert was provided
- Income chargeable at 0.5% 12,012
- Income chargeable at 2% 10,908
- Income chargeable at 4.5% 47,124
- income over 70,044 in this employment chargeable at 8%


Im not sure why the start of year one had those rates to be honest but ive been earning over 60k for a number of years. I did change employment during 2022.
Obviously i should have picked up on the Jan cert but surely payroll should have been updated based on October?

While I appreciate its on me to have correct withholdings, i would hsve expected employer to action the Oct tax cert info. Or are they only getting info once at start of year?

 

[DB74]

No the employer shouldn't have picked up amended tax cert

It's not up to any employer to ensure that their employee's tax credits or withholding tax brackets are correct, at any stage of the year, it's up to the taxpayer

Employers MUST use the tax credits etc provided by Revenue. It is illegal not to do so and every breach can carry significant fines and penalties.

Most likely the October cert was issued on a Week1 / Month 1 basis which means that the USC from this cert onwards was collected properly but the underpayment most likely relates to the period from 01/01/2023 to the date of the issue of the new cert when the incorrect USC rate was applied

 

[jpd]

Employers should download the RPN before every payroll run to ensure that they have the latest information

For most payroll software, this is included as a feature, to be used or not at the employers' discretion

 

[cally1990]

Employers should download the RPN before every payroll run to ensure that they have the latest information

For most payroll software, this is included as a feature, to be used or not at the employers' discretion

This is correct but so is the above post, the amended Rpn for these situations is always a week1/month1 basis so the damage was already done and any payrolls after the amended cert only corrects those

If they issued a cumulative cert,,,,the entire usc liability would have come up in the payroll

and possible create a negative net payment ,/wipe out the wages

so they issue week1/month1 So the payroll can be operated correctly

And the liability dealt with by way of a tax return

 

[T McGibney]

For most payroll software, this is included as a feature, to be used or not at the employers' discretion

It's not a matter of discretion though.

 

[jpd]

What I meant is that it probably isn't an automatic download of RPNs but a user managed download

 

[cally1990]

What I meant is that it probably isn't an automatic download of RPNs but a user managed download

This is correct but the software providers "prompt" the users by 'download now" buttons for example when they go to create a wage , this happens in sage and Collsoft anyway , the user is presented with a window to download the latest RPN before proceeding to create a wage, it's no excuse to be avoided but you are correct, it isn't FORCED , the payroll user needs to do it otherwise they can X/close tht window and proceed which will use thr previous rpn BUT an error warning message is returned ffom revenue that an 'out of date Rpn used' and this messsge is also on the payroll report on ROS so employers and revenue can see a payroll didn't sue thr latest RPN