Dec 2022
22
BrightPay year-end payroll checklist
Now that 2023 is almost upon us, let’s get you up to speed on your year-end duties. Here are some final things to note, and some common questions that’ve come in, so you can have your payroll software all set and ready to go for January.
Download BrightPay 2023
You can purchase your licence for the new tax year by simply logging into your BrightID. From here, go to ‘Licences’ and ‘purchase a desktop licence key’. Just select the type of licence you require, select a payment method, enter your billing details, and you’ll be emailed your licence key. To download the software for the new tax year, click here.
Import data from previous software
Once you’ve downloaded the 2023 software, on the open screen, select Import Employer(s) > Choose import from BrightPay 2022 and click Open. If you have more than one employer file, highlight all and then click 'Open'. BrightPay will let you know when the import’s complete.
Get your year-end summary report
Year-end summary reports are available in BrightPay under Analysis > Year to Date, and choose ‘Tax Year’ as your period type.
No P60s and P35s needed – employees just access their EDS
P60s are no longer used as of 2019, and have been replaced with Employment Details Summary (EDS). This is essentially a summary of an employee’s pay, income tax, USC, PRSI and LPT and is available for to access, print or save through Revenue’s myAccount. We advise that employees wait until after the 15th of January to access their EPS, as employers can make corrections on them up until this date.
P35s are also no longer used, and have been replaced with PSRs that are submitted each pay period through your payroll software to Revenue.
When will 2023 RPNS be available?
RPNs for next year will be available in December 2022, but won’t be updated in real time until 2023. If an employee’s payment date is 2023, you must use 2023 RPN as a 2022 RPN can’t be used in 2023. We advise payroll processors to not make payroll submissions with a 2023 pay date until the RPNs are available, as emergency tax will apply.
What is a ‘Week 53’ and do I have one?
A ‘Week 53’ is when there’s an extra day in the tax year and a pay day falls on the 31st of December or, in a leap year, on the 30th or 31st of December, and is not the employee’s normal payday.
It only applies to employees who are paid weekly (53 weekly payments) fortnightly (27 fortnightly payments) or every four weeks (14 four-week payments) pay days in the year.
If a ‘Week 53’ payment applies to an employee, PAYE Regulations state that the employers should use the latest RPN to apply an extra pay period’s Tax Credit and Cut-Off Points, and deduct Income Tax and USC on a Week 1 basis.
Your payroll software should automatically apply the ruled outlined above. Just make sure to run ‘Week 53’ as a separate payroll run to other pay periods, so the is submitted with the correct payment date to Revenue. BrightPay will know by your payment schedule if a week 53 is applicable and will only offer it if it’s required to do so.
Please note that if an employee's normal pay day has changed during this tax, additional USC cut off points don’t apply. To let the software know and prevent these extra USC cut off points from being allocated, go to Employees > Select the employee > Click their Revenue Details tab> Tick Exclude the employee from the week 53/54/56 USC concession box > Save changes.
What if an employee's pay straddles between two tax years?
If an employee’s pay straddles between two tax years, credits and rate bands cannot be given in advance. So if an employee is receiving two weeks of pay on the 23rd of December this year for the following two Mondays on the 26th December and 2nd January, the payment date must be reported as December 23rd using the credits and rates from week 52. They will then receive the benefits of two weeks’ credits and rate bands in week 2 of 2022. ‘Week 53’ will not apply to this situation and if attempted, will result in underpayments to employees.
Here at BrightPay, we work hard behind the scenes to ensure our payroll software has all the latest updates, and is simple and easy to use. For all the latest payroll trends and news, subscribe to our weekly newsletter. Interested in learning about our cloud extension, BrightPay Connect? With our cloud-extension, you have access to a self-service dashboard, an employee app, an annual leave management tool and much more. Book a demo today to see what you’re missing.
