Meetings
As herd size increases, more and more farmers are hiring help to work on the farm. For many, this is the right decision and many will be attempting to share the workload with employees, contractors, or agency workers such as the farm relief services (FRS). I have attended a number of IFA and IFAC meetings recently with farmers about employing staff to work on farms and many farmers have been surprised at some of the issues that have been addressed at the meetings. As soon as you take on someone to work on the farm, you are classed as an employer and there are obligations you must meet. The four big issues that kept coming up at the meetings were:
The terms and conditions of employment (the contract) are the basis of the employment relationship and must be issued to the employee within two months of starting work. An employee must be given a payslip with each payment of wages. Gross wage and all deductions must be shown on the payslip. In the absence of an electronic clocking system, a paper record should be kept of the employee’s hours of work. Many farmers could not believe that these four items have to be addressed by farmers. Remember both the employee and the employer have rights, so just because you are employing someone and handing over money each week in return for work, this does not absolve you of your rights. If it doesn’t work out, then there are minimum notice periods and an employee must give one week’s notice that he/she is leaving the place of work. An employer must also give notice dependent on the length of employment.
Employees and employers can get more information on all these issues at the Workplace relations commission (WRC) on 1890 80 80 90.
Tax changes
The way of paying income tax (PAYE) is currently being updated and modernised. From 1 January 2019, the PAYE modernisation scheme is removing some forms like the P30, the P45, P46s, P60 and end-of-year returns. In effect, what this is turning into is real-time reporting, so when a payment is made to an employee they have to be right up to speed on the tax front.
An employer is responsible for informing Revenue on the tax due for all his/her employees, regardless of relationship to employee (so that means if you are related to the employer it makes no difference). All employees are liable to pay PAYE if they are earning more than €9 a month part-time/ €36 per month full-time.
Whether employers have payroll software or not, they must request the Revenue Payroll Notification online (RPN). If you don’t have software then you can complete an online form and work it through the Revenue Online Service (ROS). Some farmers employ help through an agency such as the Farm Relief Services and as such these are not direct employees of a farmer, they are employees of the agency. Farmers will treat the agency as a contractor and pay on foot of the invoice the agency provides.
Meetings
As herd size increases, more and more farmers are hiring help to work on the farm. For many, this is the right decision and many will be attempting to share the workload with employees, contractors, or agency workers such as the farm relief services (FRS). I have attended a number of IFA and IFAC meetings recently with farmers about employing staff to work on farms and many farmers have been surprised at some of the issues that have been addressed at the meetings. As soon as you take on someone to work on the farm, you are classed as an employer and there are obligations you must meet. The four big issues that kept coming up at the meetings were:
The terms and conditions of employment (the contract) are the basis of the employment relationship and must be issued to the employee within two months of starting work. An employee must be given a payslip with each payment of wages. Gross wage and all deductions must be shown on the payslip. In the absence of an electronic clocking system, a paper record should be kept of the employee’s hours of work. Many farmers could not believe that these four items have to be addressed by farmers. Remember both the employee and the employer have rights, so just because you are employing someone and handing over money each week in return for work, this does not absolve you of your rights. If it doesn’t work out, then there are minimum notice periods and an employee must give one week’s notice that he/she is leaving the place of work. An employer must also give notice dependent on the length of employment.
Employees and employers can get more information on all these issues at the Workplace relations commission (WRC) on 1890 80 80 90.
Tax changes
The way of paying income tax (PAYE) is currently being updated and modernised. From 1 January 2019, the PAYE modernisation scheme is removing some forms like the P30, the P45, P46s, P60 and end-of-year returns. In effect, what this is turning into is real-time reporting, so when a payment is made to an employee they have to be right up to speed on the tax front.
An employer is responsible for informing Revenue on the tax due for all his/her employees, regardless of relationship to employee (so that means if you are related to the employer it makes no difference). All employees are liable to pay PAYE if they are earning more than €9 a month part-time/ €36 per month full-time.
Whether employers have payroll software or not, they must request the Revenue Payroll Notification online (RPN). If you don’t have software then you can complete an online form and work it through the Revenue Online Service (ROS). Some farmers employ help through an agency such as the Farm Relief Services and as such these are not direct employees of a farmer, they are employees of the agency. Farmers will treat the agency as a contractor and pay on foot of the invoice the agency provides.
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