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Community Employment Schemes and USC

This information is correct as of 6 December 2023.

Community Employment (CE) workers payments are non-USCable. CE payments are listed under welfare like payments and exempt income. This does not mean that the workers themselves are USC exempt, it just means that the CE payments are USC exempt. The payments, rather than the participants are exempt.

A CE participant could also have other income that is liable for USC.

Revenue have advised that CE participants were not exempt from USC, just that they should be changed 0%. Their reasoning is 'A customer on a CE Scheme may not be USC exempt as they may have income
from another source which exceeds the USC threshold of €13,000'.

When submitting a CE payment to Revenue, the amounts will be:

  • Gross pay for USC: €0
  • USC deducted amount: €0

 (Note that these amounts will be automatically filled in by Payback for the submission. The user does not enter these anywhere.)

Setting up the CE payment

Set up an new element in the Elements grid in the Employee screen for the CE Payment

To make the 'gross pay for USC' and the 'USC Deducted' fields zero
in the submission,  the USC column in the Elements grid should be unticked.

In the Pay method tab, set the salary, or rate to 0. (unless the employee is also getting non-CE wages)

Two lines will appear in the pay slip. The first line will be zero, and the second line will be for the employees zero USCable Community Employment amount.

 

 

Community Employment and RPNs

 

RPNs should be imported as usual for CE participants. Note that the USC rates may not be zero nor may the USC be explicitly Exempt in the RPN.

Do not tick the 'USC Exempt' check box in the in the USC tab.

Only in rare cases are employees USC exempt, and this instruction usually comes via an RPN.

Note that the CE payment set up in the Elements grid will always be exempt for USC no matter what is in the imported RPN.

If the employee believes that their RPN is incorrect, then they should contact Revenue to get it amended. Revenue will not discuss the tax affairs of employees with their employers.

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