Enhanced reporting

Under the new rules, employers are obliged to file an additional electronic return with Revenue on or before any payment or reimbursement of reportable benefits to an employee occurs. Reportable benefits covered by the provisions are currently: 

• Remote Working per-diem of €3.20
• Vouched and Unvouched travel and subsistence payments, and
• Vouchers and trivial benefits covered by the small benefits exemption

Although the Enhanced Employer Reporting (EER) return is separate to any payroll filings, it follows similar real time reporting principles and the required information will need to be collated prior to payment or delivery of a reportable benefit.

Further the EER  requires detailed information by relevant reportable benefit on an employee-by-employee basis. The employer is required to use key identifiers such the PPS number, date of birth and/or Work ID, etc., per employee. This format will enable Revenue to not only see the quantum and frequency of reportable benefits but also the key claimants by category in real-time. 

Reportable benefits are areas of recurring tax default on Revenue payroll interventions, most often arising due to poor internal controls and processes. With the introduction of this reporting measure, Revenue has real time information available on payments of tax-free payments and expenses and the provision of the tax-free small benefits enabling more focussed payroll interventions. It is also worth noting that there could be VAT implications where personal payments/benefits have been incorrectly classified as tax free business expenses for payroll purposes. 

Revenue has indicated that ERR will be the first phase of additional employer reporting with respect to the provision of tax-free benefits and payments made to employees with further developments expected over the coming years.

The current focus of EER reporting relates to payments or benefits provided directly to the employee. Currently out of scope of reporting are payments by the employer directly to a vendor or supplier e.g., corporate taxi account, corporate travel agents.

Revenue has also indicated that where corporate credit cards are in use and the employer settles the credit card bill directly with the provider, expenditure costs are not currently considered reportable benefits. As the focus is on the reporting of tax-free elements, it also follows that taxable minor and irregular benefits currently disclosed on a PAYE Settlement Agreement (PSA) by the employer are out of scope of this additional reporting.

Significant considerations arise for employers on the roll out of EER. The level of time involved in reviewing and adapting internal processes may be significant. Various stakeholders across the business may currently be involved in managing delivery of different reportable benefits. Therefore, engagement across all stakeholders will be required in order to map out a streamlined process for data collation. 

• How robust are your policies and procedures around expenses, remote working, and small benefits?
• Do you have a clear view of the quality of the data in your expense systems?
• How manual or automated are your current processes?
• How easy or difficult will it be to map expense categories from your systems to the relevant Revenue category?
• How frequently do you reimburse expenses or make per diem payments and are these on different dates to each other? 
• What element of your employee expenses currently may fall into the out-of-scope category?
• Would a change in process improve efficiencies and reduce the administration involved?
• How easy it is to provide comprehensive supporting documentation and records to substantiate the tax treatment adopted if required?