Am i entitled to a PRSI refund

I'm trying to find out how PRSI is charged but it seems to be a minefield so i'm hoping you guys can send me in the right direction.....
I was working for the first half of the year and i paid PRSI as class A1 as my earnings are over 352 eur a week. However i went on maternity leave in June with no earnings besides maternity pay from social welfare.

My question is, can i get a PRSI refund ( not the health levy) as my earnings for the year are less than 18,000 - i input my wages into the taxcalc website and it says zero PRSI. I called the PRSI refunds section and they didn't want to know about it so i need to know if i'm right before calling again.

No, you won't be entitled to a refund of PRSI. Depending on what year you're talking about you might be due a refund of health levy.

Thanks for your reply.
Its 2011 - i'm really confused, why is the taxcalc website saying zero?

Twang said:

Thanks for your reply.
Its 2011 - i'm really confused, why is the taxcalc website saying zero?

Click to expand...

Because I presume you've put in an annual figure. PRSI for employments is calculated weekly, on a standalone basis, it's not cumulative.

Consider 2 people:

Person 1:
Week 1 - 51: €351.99 p.w. - Class A0 = Pays no PRSI.
Week 52: €353 - Class AX - Pays 4% on €226 = €9.04
Total earnings €18,304.49 - PRSI paid €9.04.

Person 2:
Week 1 - 51: €352.50 p.w. - Class AX - Pays PRSI on €225.50 = €9.02 p.w. = €460.02
Week 52: €200 - Class A0 - pays no PRSI.
Total earnings €18,177.50 - PRSI paid €460.02.

So in that example both people have worked 52 weeks, and earned almost exactly the same amount gross over the course of the year, but the one who actually earned less will have paid about €9 a week more in PRSI.

Thanks so much for your clear explaination!
You've really explained this really well