Employer obligations from 1 January 2019

Commencing and ceasing employees

Note

The information on this page refers to your current obligations. For your obligations before 1 January 2019, please see the Employer's Guide to PAYE.

The process for commencing and ceasing employees is part of your normal payroll process. Forms P45 and P46 are no longer required.

Commencing an employment

Employers are obliged to register new employments, in all circumstances except where it is the employee's first employment in the State. You can register the employment with Revenue by submitting a new RPN request for that employee.

Revenue Payroll Notifications (RPNs) are available in real time for new employees. This removes the need for emergency tax in most cases.

Emergency tax only applies where an employee:

• does not have a Personal Public Service Number (PPSN)
• is working in the State for the first time.

Employees must register their first employment in the State, using the online service Jobs and Pensions. Once the employee is registered, you can request an RPN.

You should request an RPN for any new employees before you pay them. You can do this through your payroll software or ROS. This action will create the employment on our records and an RPN will be made available.

The payroll submission will also include a field for commencement date.

Ceasing an employment

You must include the date of leaving on the final payroll submission if an employee:

• leaves
• is granted a career break
• dies while in your employment.

This notifies us that the employee has ceased employment.

It is important that you include the date of leaving on the final payment. This ensures that a new employer will receive the correct details, from 1 January on the RPN issued to them.

If you delay submitting the date of leaving, the correct tax credits and standard rate cut-off points will not be available. This means that the individual may overpay tax and Universal Social Charge (USC), as a Nil RPN will issue to the new employer. The video below provides further guidance.

Ceasing an employee when you are not due to make a payroll submission

You may have an employee who no longer works with you but is still registered with you on Revenue records. To cease this employee, you should make a nil payroll submission and include a date of leaving. 

Casual employees

You may have casual employees. These are employees without fixed hours or attendance arrangements, and you may not know whether they will attend work again. As a result, you may not be able to include the date of leaving on the final payroll submission.

If a casual employee is not paid by you for a period of three months, you should submit a date of leaving. You must send this immediately after the three months has elapsed. This next payroll submission must include:

• nil pay and deductions for that period
• the date of leaving.

The date of leaving should be the last day the employee worked with you.

Next: Payroll submissions