Tax implications for honorariums

[sonorm]

Hi, I work in an organisation that often has speakers in who do not charge for their time/advice but in some instances we would like to pay them honorariums. Are there tax implications here for once or twice annual such honorarium payments? We have received conflicting advice here as tax issues have changed in recent years.

 

[Brendan Burgess]

I don't see that there are and implications for you as the payer. These are not your employees.

They should declare their fees on their tax return.

If you pay people who are not registered for VAT fees gross, and the fees to anyone person exceed a set amount, then you should make a declaration of these in your annual return. But I think that the amount is around €3,000 or maybe even higher, so I doubt this is relevant to you.

What conflicting advice did you get?

 

[capnhand]

Hi

It is unlikely that there would be any tax implications under PAYE as presumably the speakers are providing their services free of charge and are not entitled to be paid as per a contract of employment. Whether or not they are paid an honorarium is purely at the discretion of the organisation.

There may be a technical exposure to gift tax however in the case of say a church or a club the person takes a gift from each member of the club or congragation and as such each would fall below the small gift exemption and may not be taxable.

As in all cases it would depend on the circumstances

capnhand

 

[Padraigb]

The Revenue Commissioners will (rightly, in my opinion) treat the honorarium as taxable income. The only issue is how it is to be accounted for: is it subject to PAYE or should the recipient make a return and account for the tax directly?

If such payments are a part of your way of doing business, then I think the taxman will want you to apply PAYE. Making a few payments a year would probably tip the scales that way.