Inaccurate numbers on Revenue for Gross Pay

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johncb

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A relative is having an issue with how salary numbers are being reported to Revenue using the real-time payroll reporting system.

In summary, the "Gross Pay" being reported is not the gross pay being earned. Rounding the figures a bit for convenience, they earn €7000 gross per month [as per payslip]. Previously this was reported correctly to Revenue as the "Gross Pay" and "Pay for USC". Recently they signed up for a tax-saver ticket, which costs €80 per month. This needs to be subtracted from the "Pay for USC", but I'd expect the Gross Pay to remain unchanged. However, the company are now reporting both "Gross Pay" and "Pay for USC" as €6920 on the Revenue reporting system.

There is no error in how income tax, USC or PRSI are being calculated. However, the gross pay isn't accurate. They've asked their Payroll admin, who said it was fine and they're paying the right amount of tax - don't worry about it.

Should they worry? Is it worth dropping Revenue a note about to clarify, or is this something to let slide?
 
That's normal - the way Taxsaver saves you money is by decreasing your gross pay so that you aren't charged tax on it. "Gross Pay" on your payslip is really "Gross Pay net of Taxsaver".

1. Salary Sacrifice

Employees can reduce their gross salary by the cost of their Taxsaver ticket.

This lowers the taxable portion of their salary and creates immediate savings.


Example
  • Employee earns €30,000 gross salary
  • Annual Taxsaver ticket costs €1,800, deducted from gross salary
  • New taxable salary becomes €28,200
This option is simple, popular, and fully compliant with Revenue rules.
Click to expand...
 
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The OP is correct. Salary sacrifice does not reduce Gross Pay. It should reduce Income Taxable, USC, EE PRSI and ER PRSI able pay, per what what is shown the ROS/myAccount system.

If they send letter to myEnquiries with copy of their payslips, Revenue will take a 'Compliance' action and have the Employer correct the Gross Pay. This is turn may trigger an issue with NAERSA, as AE is based on Gross Pay. There maybe multiple other employees going back years with the same issue.
 
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johncb said:
Should they worry? Is it worth dropping Revenue a note about to clarify, or is this something to let slide?
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I would expect that salary sacrifice should reduce gross but, in any event, if it was me I wouldn't neither worry about it nor chase it.
 
Your salary should still be your salary, and the 80 euro taxsaver reduction should show up separately somewhere.
Ie, payslip should read something like this:
Payment Detail: Salary (Gross) €7,000
Deduction Details: PAYE xxxx; PRSI yyyy; USC zzzz; Travel Ticket (gross) €80; Pension (Gross) €nnnn

This is important as e.g. your pension contribution limits are calculated based on gross salary.

The company might find it is simpler for them to just reduce the gross salary, but that is lazy at minimum.
 
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OP I would approach your payroll team first and ask them to update/correct it. It should be correct, eg if you want to make an AVC to your pension you have to use gross pay and this would reduce your ability. It might be an issue for other things too.
 
@johncb , having benefited from the tax saver yearly travel pass, operated by my public sector employer for many years, it can be confusing on the payslip, but you can rest assured Revenue is recording your gross income of €7,000, and pay for income tax as €6,920.
Your basic pay on payslip should show the €7000, gross pay shows €6,920, with deductions of €80 for the travel pass scheme.
You will be able to confirm all is in order, when you can obtain your Employment Detail Summary (EDS) for 2026, at the end of the year as both your employer and revenue are dealing with this correctly.
 
newirishman said:
Your salary should still be your salary, and the 80 euro taxsaver reduction should show up separately somewhere.
Click to expand...
Are you sure?

Travel pass scheme

This page refers to the travel pass scheme
www.revenue.ie www.revenue.ie

Items not treated as pay​

  1. Overview
  2. Travel pass scheme
  3. Statutory redundancy payments
  4. Repayment of expenses
  5. Refunds of pension contributions
  6. Provision of bicycles for directors and employees
Click to expand...
Edit: sorry, I think that's in relation to the employer paying it and its exemption from BIK so maybe not relevant here?
 
newirishman said:
Payment Detail: Salary (Gross) €7,000
Deduction Details: PAYE xxxx; PRSI yyyy; USC zzzz; Travel Ticket (gross) €80; Pension (Gross) €nnnn

This is important as e.g. your pension contribution limits are calculated based on gross salary.

The company might find it is simpler for them to just reduce the gross salary, but that is lazy at minimum.
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This is exactly how it appears. The Gross pay is still the full amount [e.g. 7000], with the relevant deductions you've suggested. The payroll system seems to modify that gross amount when the values transfer over to Revenue. I say "transfer" because I'm sure this is an automatic operation, and payroll don't need to manually upload details to Revenue. Why it changes the "Gross Pay" field when making that transfer is very confusing.
 
misemoi said:
if you want to make an AVC to your pension you have to use gross pay
Click to expand...
I think using "Pay for USC" is more correct for this purpose? I believe it was asked here before [maybe by me], but that amount by which the Gross Pay is reduced to get the Pay for USC has already received its tax relief, and you don't get to take a second bite on the tax relief cherry for that amount. Or words to that effect! :)
 
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