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Introduction

Starting 1 January 2024, employers will have to submit certain Expenses and Benefits to Revenue in the similar way payroll is submitted.

These benefit and expenses can be either submitted through Payroll or through separate expenses software. If you use separate expenses software, it is suggested that you check that the product can make these submissions to Revenue.  If you opt to submit this through payroll, then Payback will automatically make the expenses submission when you submit your payroll.

The Benefits and Expenses you need to report are:

  • Travel and Subsistence
    • Vouched Travel
    • Unvouched Travel
    • Vouched Subsistence
    • Unvouched Subsistence
    • Site Based Employees
    • Emergency Travel
    • Eating on site
  • Remote Working Daily Allowance
  • Small Benefits Exemption

(The Small Benefits exemption includes the annual tax exempt €1000 gift vouchers)

 

Note that if you process these through payroll, then the expense amounts will be added onto the employee's net pay.

The only Benefit is 'Small Benefits Exemption', and as this is a benefit it is not added onto net pay. This is because the employee will instead be receiving a gift voucher. It will however, still appear on the pay slip and be submitted to Revenue. It is treated like non-taxable notional pay.

 

Automatic Set up

Expenses and Benefits can be set up automatically using the new Benefits utility. This works in the same way as the quick set up facility.

At the top of the Employee screen is a button called 'Expenses Benefits'. Click this.

The set up utility

Benefits and Expenses are listed under three categories. To set up a Benefit or Expense, tick the appropriate item and enter the expense amount.

For 'Remote Working Daily Allowance', enter the daily rate, not the total amount per pay period.

The Benefit or expense will appear on each pay slip until removed in the employee screen.

 

For the 'Small Benefits Exemption', we suggest setting this up in the Payroll screen as you will only be processing one, or two at most, payments for this benefit.

Manually Setting up Benefits and Expenses

It is possible to directly enter expenses and benefits into the Elements grid.

Each of the new benefits and expenses has been added to the elements list. Select the appropriate one in the elements description drop down.

Note that the 'Type' column in the Elements grid will change to the appropriate element type.

Processing an Expense

Revenue Enhanced Reporting expenses are all non-taxable, so they are not liable for either PAYE, USC or PRSI. 

When the payment is processed, any expenses set up will not be added to Gross pay, but will be added to Net pay. This is because expenses do not contribute to gross pay, but the employee will be compensated for the expense item.

The pay slip will look like the one opposite. Note that the total expenses amount is added onto 'Non-tax Adjustments' so they the employee can be reimbursed.

 

Processing the Small Benefits Exemption

The Processing the Small Benefits Exemption is handled differently. 

The value of the benefit is not added onto Net pay or Gross pay. This is because it is a notional amount. The employee should not be 'reimbursed' as they will have already received the benefit (gift card). In this case the non-taxable adjustment does not have the benefit value.

Similar to the expenses, the benefit is not liable for tax.

Submitting to Revenue

If there are any expenses or benefits recorded in the Payroll screen, these are automatically submitted to Revenue, along with the usual payroll submission, in the submission screen.

Extra expenses summary fields have been added to the submission screen so you can see the expenses amounts that have been submitted.

 

Clicking the 'Delete' button will not only remove the payroll submission, but also any expenses and benefits recorded for the pay date.

Reports

Two new reports have been added, both of which can be accessed via the Reports screen.

  • Expenses and Benefits
  • Annual Expenses and Benefits.

Notes

  • Payback can only submit Expenses and Benefits to Revenue on Pay dates determined by the payment frequency of the employee. It is not possible to set up other dates for Expense and Benefit submissions.
  • Some users may need to load a new digital certificate to submit Expenses and Benefits. This is because Revenue have adopted a system where some certificates may only work for Expenses and not payroll, or payroll but not expenses. There is now a new Digital Certificate Manager in Payback to make this process easier.
  • Expenses and Benefits only need to be reported from 1 Jan 2024 onwards.
  • Each employee can only have two at most, 'Small Benefits Exemption' submissions, with maximum amount of €1000 (2 x €500). It is recommended that these are entered directly into the Payroll screen rather than set up in the Employee screen as they are 'once off' elements.
  • For 'Remote Working Daily Allowance', use the 'Units' column to enter the number of days allowance you wish to report.

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