Mr. Niall Cody:

I will go back a little bit to 2019. In 2019 what we call PAYE modernisation came into effect. It was announced in the budget in 2016. The PAYE modernisation system involved real-time reporting of payroll data and the abolition of P30s, P35s and P45s. In the operation of payroll, all payslips are essentially reported in real time to Revenue. That came in in 2019. Two years ago, the reporting requirement of non-taxable expenses was introduced which is the other part of that. If someone gets taxable expenses, that is returned under the PAYE system because they are taxable. There are three categories of non-taxable expenses. What was introduced then was the requirement to report that in real time. The commencement order for that was signed at the end of last year and that came into effect from 1 January this year.

As they have always had to do as a condition of paying non-taxable benefits, employers had to determine if they were non-taxable or taxable. They had to do that before they paid them. The ERR requires the reporting of that to us. We had a lot of engagement, including webinars, with tax advisers, practitioners and business interests. Obviously, any change tends to be resisted. At the start of the year, we said that we would work with businesses up to 30 June on how they report on it, and take what we call a service-for-compliance approach. At this stage, at the end of April, 33,563 employers have reported non-taxable benefits through the payroll system covering €446 million.