Insights

Explore Irish tax rules on employee benefits, including BIK exemptions, pension contributions, company cars, and remote working allowances.

Businesses with employees who availed of SARP during 2024 are required to file their annual SARP Employer Return with Revenue by 23 February 2025. From 1 January 2025, employers can submit the 2024 Employer Return through the online eSARP portal which is available through the Revenue Online Service (ROS).

Ensure payroll tax compliance by submitting your PAYE Settlement Agreement before 31 Dec. Learn how to report benefits and expenses under ERR rules.

Employers can offer many different share schemes to their employees or directors, often as a way of rewarding employees and encouraging loyalty and participation in a tax efficient manner.

Discover key employment tax changes in Ireland and stay compliant: Enhanced Reporting Requirements, staff entertainment, travel expenses, and contractor status insights.

Employers and trustees operating share schemes are required to file an annual return with Revenue by 31 March after the end of each tax year. The return form to be filed is dependent on the type of share scheme operated. In some cases this includes the filing of a nil return where no reportable events have taken place during the year in question, but a filing is still required.

Finance Bill (No. 2) 2023 introduced an amendment to the collection and reporting requirements of share option related taxes. The taxation of a gain realised on the exercise, assignment or release of share options has moved from an individual self-assessment system to a PAYE real-time payroll withholding system.

The Revenue Commissioners (“Revenue”) first introduced the Special Assignee Relief Programme (SARP) in 2012 as a method for encouraging companies to relocate or assign their key employees to work in Ireland. Where certain conditions are satisfied, 30 percent of taxable employment income over €100,000 is disregarded for income tax purposes. This programme can result in significant tax savings for key employees.

With a significant number of employees now working in different locations, global mobility has become an area of focus for Ireland’s Revenue Commissioners. Revenue has increased their resources in this area and begun to issue detailed guidance that addresses employers and employees in these circumstances.

A foreign employment tax obligation can arise from as little as an employee spending one day working in a foreign country. Such obligations should be considered from a very early stage given the high personal tax rates that apply across Europe and associated penalties for companies who fail to register for and operate payroll withholding taxes.

SARP was first introduced in 2012 to encourage the relocation/assignment of key employees to Ireland. Where certain conditions are satisfied, 30% of taxable employment income over €75,000 will be disregarded for income tax purposes. Income which is disregarded for income tax purposes is not exempt from the Universal Social Charge (USC) or PRSI.

On 14 April 2022, Revenue announced a concession in relation to the Irish tax treatment of Ukrainian citizens who continue to be employed by their Ukrainian employer and who perform their duties remotely from Ireland. We have outlined a summary of Revenue’s treatment of the Irish tax position of Ukrainian citizens who work remotely in Ireland below.