531AOA Return by employer

Summary

This section requires employers to send a monthly return to Revenue with information on the USC deducted or repaid that month under the PAYE system. This section applies to emoluments paid on or after 1 January 2019. It mirrors substantially the requirements in section 985G for employer reporting of income tax.

Details

(1) The “return filing date” means the day that is 15 days from the last day of a calendar month. As the period of time is expressed from a particular date, the last day of a month is included in the calculation of the number of days. Therefore, the due date for filing is the 14^th of the following month e.g. the return filing date for USC deducted or repaid during January is 14 February.

(2) On or before the return filing date, an employer must make a monthly return of USC to Revenue in accordance with the Universal Social Charge Regulations 2018.

(3) Revenue may issue a statement to an employer setting out the employer’s USC liability for a month, based on payroll notifications submitted by the employer. The statement will be deemed to be a return made by the employer on the return filing date, or, where the statement is issued after the return filing date, on the date of issue.

(4) Subsection (3) will not apply if the statement issued by Revenue does not accurately reflect the employer’s full USC liability for the month, i.e. a return will not be deemed to have been made.

(5) Where subsection (4) applies, the employer must ensure that all payroll data has been notified to Revenue and that the return the employer is obliged under subsection (2) to submit is accurate.

Relevant Date: Finance Act 2019