Does a UK based company have to pay PAYE in Ireland for an employee

Just wondering about the implications of working for a UK company as a technician in Ireland, I am a new company employee but because I am based in Ireland they want me to look after my own taxes. The contract I will sign says this. Are they not required by law to contribute my PAYE/PRSI to revenue. I assume if I have to look after it myself then that makes me self employed. Can someone please help, I dont want to go down the road of looking after my own taxes. This is time and an expense I cannot spare..Thanks

If your contract is regarded as an employment then the UK company is obliged to register for PAYE/PRSI as an employer in Ireland and deduct PAYE/PRSI as any normal employer would.

A couple of questions:

1. Will you be invoicing the UK company on a per job basis or will you receive the same pay every week/month regardess of what work is done
2. If there is no work will you still get paid
3. Will you be paid holiday pay
4. Will you be liable for insurance
5. If a job goes wrong, who will be responsible (financially) for correcting the error

If you are an employee of the UK company based pretty much full time in Ireland then the company will have to operate Irish PAYE on your employment income. They do not have the option of asking you to "look after your own taxes". If you are in Ireland less than 183 days and certain other conditions are satisfied then PAYE may not have to be applied but your UK employer will still have reporting/registration requirements in Ireland (except in cases where you have very few days in Ireland i.e. less than 30). The UK company will need to familiraise itself and comply with these rules that are in effect since 2006. Perhaps you should direct them to the Revenue statement of practice on the area (avialble on the Revenue website) and that may make them act. If they don't do anything about this and Revenue go after them, it is the company that will penalised for non operation of PAYE and it is likely that the payments received by you will be treated as net salary payments and therefore the comapny will need to gross these amounts up and pay over PAYE on these higher amounts (with interest and penalties). Another thing the company will need to consider is whether your activities in Ireland creates a permanent establishment of the comapny in Ireland (with resulting corporation tax issues to consider). They should get advice on these matters.

Thanks for the reply DB74, The contract does state that I would be an employee. Would this company be breaking the law by not paying my PAYE/PRSI? Even If I were to sign the contract stating that I look after my own taxation, does this leave the company non liable

1/ I will be paid every month regardless of jobs done
2/ I still get paid if there is no work on.
3/ Holidays are paid for
4/ Company is liable for Insurance
5/ If a job goes wrong it is the companies responsibilty.

Thanks again

Thank you for the response Breninio, I think they need to start looking at registering for PAYE in ROI for me before I sign, I was under the assumption that they had applied for some type of opt out system where the employee would have to self regulate taxes. I can see now that they are just looking for an easy solution to this by putting the onus on me to look after PAYE/PRSI

Sounds to me like they want you to be an independent contractor , and not an employee.

And again, the UK company does not choose as to whether the treat you as a self employed contractor or an employee, it is question of fact and something they would need to be able to stand over if queried by Revenue.

Breninio said:

And again, the UK company does not choose as to whether the treat you as a self employed contractor or an employee, it is question of fact and something they would need to be able to stand over if queried by Revenue.

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It's legal and very common in IT for companies to use independent contractors in this manner..

The minutae of the contract will determine the legality of the situtaion, not the industry

jhegarty said:

It's legal and very common in IT for companies to use independent contractors in this manner..

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But they are contractors, not employees - there is a big difference between hiring a contractor to do work on your behalf and employing someone.

It is not your obligation to ensure PAYE is operated, as this is the company's obligation.
However, I would suggest that you retain part of your salary for taxes and PRSI, advise the Revenue that you are an employee and your employer is not operating PAYE.

The Revenue should then contact the employer to operate PAYE, and the company may at that point request amounts back from you to fund this liability.

This is a messy situation to be in.