From 1 January 2024, Ireland employers need to send an additional new type of return to Revenue containing non-taxable expenses and benefits which are not included in the existing payroll submissions. This is known as the Enhanced Reporting Requirements (ERR). Details need to be sent for:
Small benefits – the benefit value and date the benefit was first made available to the employee in the year.
Unlike other benefits, a small benefit is exempt from tax, PRSI and USC.
Remote working daily allowance – the amount paid, the number of days this was for and the payment date.
Travel and subsistence – the amount paid and the payment date for sub-types:
travel vouched
travel unvouched
subsistence vouched
subsistence unvouched
site based employees
emergency travel
eating on site
Returns need to be sent on or before the payment date, or for small benefits on or before the date the benefit was first made available to the employee in the year.
Setup
Pay items
Go to Payroll > Global Setup > Pay Items.
If appropriate pay items do not exist already, set up new items – using numbers that have not already been used – for each of the following:
Remote working daily allowance amount – this should be an hours type item with the input recording the number of days this is for. You will need to set the standard rate to 3.20.
Remote working daily allowance item
The following items are input items. A value will be entered through the timesheet – this can be completed manually or by loading.
travel vouched
travel unvouched
subsistence vouched
subsistence unvouched
site based employees
emergency travel
eating on site
Input items
Go to Payroll > Global Setup > Item Sequences.
These items need to be put in the correct place in the sequence, and must be before Gross Pay.
Item Sequences
4. Add the new items into the sequence or sequences used by Ireland employees.
5. Select the new items, choose Update Employees from the action menu and click Apply Action. This creates the new employee items against each employee.
Parameters
Go to Payroll > Global Setup > Parameters.
Set the following PR parameters.
Parameter | Description |
REMOTEWRK | The pay item for the remote working daily allowance amount. |
TRAVELVO | A list of pay items for travel vouched. |
TRAVELUN | A list of pay items for travel unvouched. |
SUBSISVO | A list of pay items for subsistence vouched. |
SUBSISUN | A list of pay items for subsistence unvouched. |
SITEEMPS | A list of pay items for site based employees. |
TRAVELEM | A list of pay items for emergency travel. |
SITEEAT | A list of pay items for eating on site. |
Annual Details
Go to Payroll > Global Setup > Annual Details for Tax Year.
On the Small Benefits section of the Annual Details screen, record the small benefit limits.
Any small benefits provided per year are currently limited to two per employee with a combined maximum value of €1000.
Benefits
Benefits first need to be set up in Payroll > Global Setup > Benefits, then applied to individual employees in Payroll > [Frequency] Payroll > Employee Maintenance > Other > Benefits.
A small benefit may be something like a gift voucher provided to the employee on a single date. In this case, enter the full amount on the benefit definition record; this full amount will be applied to every employee receiving this benefit, instead of the annual value being proportioned to the period the employee has the benefit for.
When setting up such a benefit, on the benefit definition record tick the Apply Full Amount box.
When recording a small benefit against an employee, tick the Small Benefit box.
Validation prevents you from entering more small benefits than are allowed in the year or small benefits whose total value exceeds the annual limit.
For the submission, the period associated with the benefit is the tax period for the start date for the benefit. Submissions can include benefits with future start dates (you do not need to wait until the payroll is moved into that period). This means you can do the submission on or before the date the benefit is made available.
ERR Submissions
ERR submissions are very similar to Payroll submissions. The same digital certificate and password as are used for Payroll submissions are also used for ERR submissions.
There is no limit on the number of submissions per period. A submission contains an entry for each employee expense and benefit, so each employee may have multiple entries within a submission file. The submission sends whatever unsent information is available to send at the time.
Making a submission
Calculate the payroll. (Note that it may run more slowly than previously.)
Accept the payroll.
Generate the BACS/EFT file (or move the employees on to PAID status by the appropriate method).
Submit the normal payroll submission for the period.
Optionally, go to Payroll > [Frequency] Payroll > ROS ERR Submission Report and run the report. This shows all the expenses and benefits that will be included in the submission.
Go to Payroll > Weekly Payroll > ROS Workbench > ERR Submissions.
Add a return.
The year defaults to the current year (updateable). The period is set as the earliest for the year with data to send; this is not updateable. Upon saving the 'Comments' field gives a count of the expenses and benefits to send (which matches those shown on the report for that period).
Optionally, select the return, choose Validate from the action menu and click Apply Action.
This generates a report with any validation errors.
Correct any errors then run the Validate action again.
Select the return, choose Submit from the action menu and click Apply Action.
You can enter benefits retrospectively. Although you cannot pay expenses in a prior period, you could fill in the parameters to specify which items are for the relevant expenses. If you do so it will pick these up and allow you to do the missing submissions.