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ALL EMPLOYEES SHOULD should receive their 2015 P60 by Monday, 15 February.
Every employee is entitled to receive a P60 from his employer if he or she was employed on the last day of the year, i.e. 31 December. If an individual leaves employment during a tax year they will receive a P45 when leaving and will not receive a P60 from that employer.
Most people reading this will think, “Oh yeah – I get them… wonder what they are for? Wonder where I’ve put mine”. From our experience people receive their P60 and it’s “filed” in a drawer never to be seen again. However, a P60 is actually an important document and it is worthwhile knowing what it’s for and how you as a tax payer might use it.
People might be interested to hear that by ensuring your P60 is correct you could also ensure that you are not overpaying tax and that you are getting the correct tax credits available to you.
Every employer is obliged to deduct tax based on the tax credit certificate issued to them by Revenue regardless of any other information they may have. The tax credit certificate issued by Revenue is based on the information they hold in relation to you i.e. they may not be aware that you are entitled to certain additional credits if they have not been informed of this.
Not an assessment
It is important for all employees to understand that the P60 is not a Revenue assessment of your position and is not an indication of your final tax liability for the year. The P60 merely provides a summary of the tax, PRSI and USC deducted by your employer in the tax year.
Some important terms
Tax Credits – these are used to reduce your income tax liability. The amount of credits available to you depends on your personal circumstances as you will see below. Not all tax credits may be factored into payroll and in some cases additional tax credits may be claimed after the year end resulting in a refund.
Tax credits represent euro for euro the actual money in your pocket i.e. a tax credit of €100 means a tax saving of €100 meaning €100 more in your pocket.
Tax Bands – there are currently 2 rates of tax in Ireland, the standard rate of 20% and the higher rate of 40% (as of 01 January 2015).
The first portion of your income is taxed at the standard rate and once you have earned a certain amount everything after that is taxed at 40%.
Your tax band confirms the amount you can earn before being taxed at 40%. The band is allocated on an annual basis but it is divided out into months to help spread your tax evenly.
PRSI class – this is determined by factors such as your level of earnings, whether you are an employee or self employed and whether you are a private or public sector worker. Your PRSI class will determine the rate at which you pay PRSI and the amount of income you can earn without incurring the charge.
PPS Number – this is your unique identification number for all dealings with the Public Service (i.e. Revenue, Department of Social Protection, health and education services)
P60 Analysis
Each P60 may be divided into various sections as follows:
Top portion – this part of the P60 contains your personal details i.e. your name, address, PPS number, tax credit and rate band information.
Again. It is important to remember that the tax credit and band here is merely a summary of what has been applied via the payroll. Also, it is important to look into this top section of the P60 to confirm which year the P60 relates to. This information is found at the very top of the P60.
Section A – this part of the P60 confirms your gross taxable pay for the year. The figure here will be after the deduction of any pension contributions you will have made via the payroll. This may explain any difference when you compare this figure to the gross pay per your contract. If you changed employment during the year your pay details in this section will be subdivided into the salary paid to you by your previous employer (s) and that paid to you by your current employer. Also included will be any taxable Illness Benefits payments received.
Section B – this part of the P60 confirms the total tax deducted in the year. Again, if you changed employment during the year the tax paid details will be subdivided into that paid in your previous employment (s) and that paid in your current employment. Thus giving a total summary for the year.
Section C – this section confirms the amount of Local Property Tax (LPT) deducted in the current employment via payroll during the tax year.
This section does not record any LPT payments made through any mechanism other than payroll – so you shouldn’t expect to see any direct debit payments recorded here. This figure will appear as 0.00 unless you have elected (or your employer has been mandated) to pay LPT in this way.
Section D – This section confirms the amount of pay subject to USC in this and previous employments in the year. This figure may not be the same as the amount of pay subject to tax, as it will be prior to the deduction of pension contributions.
Section E – This section confirms the amount of USC deducted from you in this employment and previous employments.
Section F – This part of the P60 provides details of the PRSI paid in your current employment. This section is different to the last two sections in that PRSI paid in previous employments is not recorded here. The first item in this section is the employee PRSI for the year i.e. the PRSI that was actually deducted from your salary.
Prior to 2011 this amount would also have included health levy and this made the calculation a little more complicated, but now that the health levy has been abolished this part of the P60 is a lot easier to understand.
The second item in this section is total PRSI i.e. employer and employee PRSI. If you deduct the figure from the first item from this total figure you will have the total PRSI paid on your behalf by your employer in the year. Section C also contains details regarding your PRSI class etc.
The bottom of the P60 will show details of your employer’s name, registration number and address.
You should keep this document safely as evidence of your pay and tax details for 2015. Should you believe you may be entitled to a tax refund, you may be required to submit the document for review.
Barry Flanagan, Senior Tax Manager at www.taxback.com.
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Would love to see RTE explain the salary Ray D’Arcy receives based on them figures.
How does Newstalk Breakfast see a rise in listeners with that insufferable know it all Ciara Kelly.
@Laura Ni Hearga: The same way Pat Kenny’s show sees a rise. People hate listen so they can scream at the radio.
@Laura Ni Hearga: because she speaks her mind, comes without a preset agenda unlike one or 2 of her newstalk colleques (they are actually the ones showing a drop in listeners esp that leftie moncrief fella) and also the fixed narrative of rte radio 1 presenters some also on the way down.
@Laura Ni Hearga: yeah can’t stand her.
@ChadChaderson: stopped listening to morning Newstalk because of her would do your nut in
@M: Ciaras co-presenter is a “leftie”.
Thats why the numbers are up?
RTE just caters for wokesters, while they all support and applaud each other the rest of us switch off
You’d want to be barking mad to listen to it though…
2fm…a joke of a station. I’m not saying breakfast republic was everyone’s cup of tea but imagine having 180,000 listeners, cancelling the show, sacking Keith Walsh and replacing them with that muck.
@Brian Heffernan: 2FM should be sold off. It adds nothing to the FM band. RTE Gold would be better on FM instead of it. Not all parts of the country get Classic Hits so RTE Gold would fill a gap for those areas.
@Brian Heffernan: Well said Keith.
@Brian Heffernan: It’s bad because Dan Healey has lost the plot these day’s. What on earth is he thinking with these day’s? His Arse it must be… putting them 3 on the breakfast show especially that dreadful horror voice of Doireen! Christ she is bad!!!
@Ed: listen to Jennifer Zamparelli or allowing someone to get sick into your ears? Which would you prefer?
@Billy Davies: I’d rather choose none of them if that’s ok.
@Ed: Good point, Kind of a BBC Radio 2 which is the biggest station in the UK..
Delighted for Dermot and Dave. Really enjoy the vast majority of their stuff (except for Noni).
Lol at those PR comments – trebles all round – everyone’s doing brilliantly! The reality is there is very little choice on Irish FM radio – I wonder if they survey how many people are listening to online stations or 6music?!
How come Lyric doesn’t rate a mention?
@PJ Berry: Yes, I’ve listened to Lyric FM for a lot of my life. It has a smaller listenership according to the report.
Radio novvvvaaaaaaa. Except Dee Woods, she’s a tool
The quiz at four on ray d’arcys show every day is kinda boring and dragged out. He’s asking contestants what they’re having for the dinner just to kill a few extra minutes
@Sean O Cathasaigh:
That’s my favourite part
2FM breakfast show has to be the worst ever since radio started. They must have picked them three gob.. sh..it..s from the bottom of the toilet bowl. Jennifer Zapp is just as bad. Now Tracy is good at her job. God it would be great if Radio Nova from the 80s came back on air. They were propper DJs.
RTÉ have a radio station? Must look for it.
@Dave Barrett: you can’t see radio, it’s invisible
@Hugh Morris: Radio Station. Where they broadcast from. Not the frequency.
Even allowing for language difference, I’m surprised that Tús Áite at 1700 on RNaG isn’t on the list. Only from 3 to 5 news topics discussed daily in ‘standard’ Irish, at drive-time, calmly, without adverts, and without the need to reach hastily to turn off the bongo-bongo at 1800 that’s on RTE1. RNaG(+TG4) is possibly the only good reason to pay a TV licence.
@Fachtna Roe: Interesting. Good to see an unbiased comment on here for a change! But that’s enough about my comment…
@William Tallon: LOL, you’re a leg end
@Hugh Morris: The game’s afoot…
Newstalk Breakfast,The Pat Kenny Show a bit of Lunchtime Live, a bit of Moncrieff and a bit of Spin SW and that’s it for me. I find all the rest a tad silly! Nobody makes up for Gerry Ryan, Larry Gogan, Gay or Marian… “those days are gone…”
10 songs on repeat all day long
Government should make haste and prepare an urgent meeting regarding the implementation of a Radio tax to support RTE
What is bewildering for us non Irish is how boring rte is to us non Irish ears and then there’s rte, s total lack of any diversity.. All its presenters and output is all much cut from the same cloth.. Why eg are their no afro presenters.. Or any other ethnic or religion.
.
Irish radio listeners must have a high boredom threshold… Its seems to me that most people under seventy don’t watch or listen to rte. And then the tam ratings include those that are just switching channels.
Ie retention span!
Irish Radio, regardless of who owns it, is absolutely brutal. How many times a day do these stations think we need to hear Adele bemoaning some personal problems for starters. Classic hits my bean bag. Pretty much the same 30 or so songs recycled over and over. And that Dua Lipa rendition of Elton Johns songs is some of the laziest music I’ve ever heard. There’s no effort in it. Same tripe over and over and over across all the stations.
yes if you add up all the listeners to every single station the total figure exceeds the population by 4 or 5 times so yeah even if i channel hop i guess i am counted.
Lies lies more lies
Those who have ears to hear let them hear. We lend our ears to endless patter, but weather forecasts are important.
The Ray D’Arcy Affect
where I live i have very little choice, even hard to pick up rte since the they done away with dab radio. lucky I’m getting a Bluetooth radio from Santa.
The D’Arcy Affect
have your say