Tens of thousands of farmers will be affected by new Revenue rules which will modernise the way employers pay PAYE and related taxes due for their workers.

The rules cover all employers including the more than one-third of farmers who employ family members or others as farm workers. They will not require farmers or their workers to pay more tax. But they will require the farmer employer to pay PAYE, PRSI and Universal Social Charge (USC) more promptly.

Currently farmers forward taxes owed for employees anywhere from once to four times per year. From next January, the taxes will have to be forwarded to Revenue every month.

But the big change will be how often farmer employers will submit employee and wage records to Revenue. At present, most farmers only notify Revenue of the details at the end of the tax year. But from next January Revenue wants details about employees’ taxes to be submitted every time wages are paid – in advance. Most farmers pay their workers weekly, so they could have to submit the information every week.

Accountants

The vast majority of farmers get their accountants to deal with these matters. They will now have to notify their accountants every week about wages paid.

Where a farm worker does regular hours and receives the same pay every week, this will be straightforward. However, where the hours are irregular or seasonal overtime is involved, submitting this information could be more demanding.

There is concern among accountants that when weather is fine farmers often disappear into the fields and fall behind on their office work.

According to Declan McEvoy of IFAC, farmers will probably notify their accountant of wage details by text, email or phone call. The aims of the new rules, which Revenue is calling Smart PAYE, include putting employer returns online and eliminating paperwork, he said.

He said the new system would mean more reporting work for accountants and that yearly fees would therefore increase. The increase was not yet known but was likely to be “a couple of hundred euro per worker”, he added.