A payroll set-up checklist for Irish employers
Reviewed by Mellow Editorial Team, HR & payroll content team
Setting up payroll in Ireland requires registering with Revenue as an employer, enrolling each employee correctly, and making real-time submissions on or before every payday. Get those foundations right and the ongoing process is straightforward.
Register as an employer with Revenue
Before you pay anyone, you need to register as an employer on Revenue Online Service (ROS). This gives you access to the PAYE Modernisation system, which Ireland uses for real-time payroll reporting.
If you are not already registered for ROS, apply for a ROS access number first. The process takes a few days, so do this well before your first payday.
Once registered, Revenue will issue you a registered employer number. You will need this on every payroll submission.
Gather what you need for each employee
For every new hire, collect the following before their first pay run:
- PPS number — the employee's Personal Public Service number. Without it, you cannot link them to Revenue's records.
- Start date and agreed salary or hourly rate
- Employment basis — full-time, part-time or irregular hours, as this affects leave entitlement calculations
- Bank account details for payment
Once you have the PPS number, add the employee to your payroll software and notify Revenue of the new employment. Revenue will then issue a Revenue Payroll Notification (RPN) for that employee. The RPN tells you what tax credits and cut-off points to apply. Never process a first payment without checking for the latest RPN — if none is available, Revenue's emergency basis rules apply, which are more expensive for the employee.
Understand what you are deducting and paying
Every Irish payroll involves three statutory deductions and contributions:
Income tax (PAYE) is charged at 20% on earnings up to roughly €44,000 for a single person, and 40% on anything above that. Ireland uses tax credits rather than a personal allowance, so the RPN will specify each employee's credits, which reduce the amount of tax actually due. Apply the figures from the RPN exactly — do not estimate.
USC (Universal Social Charge) is banded: 0.5%, 2%, 3% and 8% depending on the level of income. It applies to gross income above a low threshold and has its own rate bands.
PRSI (Pay Related Social Insurance) for most employees falls under Class A. The employee contributes approximately 4.1% of gross pay. As the employer, you contribute approximately 11.15%. PRSI funds the social insurance system including Jobseeker's Benefit and State Pension (Contributory), so both contributions matter.
You are responsible for calculating all three, deducting the employee share from gross pay, adding your own employer PRSI, and remitting the combined total to Revenue.
Submit payroll in real time
Ireland operates a real-time PAYE system. This means you must submit a Payroll Submission Request (PSR) to Revenue via ROS on or before each payday — not at month end, not after the fact.
Each submission includes gross pay, tax, USC, PRSI and any other notifiable payments for every employee paid in that period. Revenue matches this data against each employee's tax record in real time.
After the submission, Revenue issues a Payroll Submission Response confirming receipt. Keep this.
Monthly employer returns and payments to Revenue (covering PAYE, USC and PRSI collected) are typically due by the 23rd of the following month when filed online via ROS. Missing these deadlines triggers interest charges, so build the dates into your finance calendar from day one.
Factor in leave, auto-enrolment and ongoing compliance
Annual leave: Employees are entitled to 4 working weeks of paid annual leave per year (pro-rated for part-time staff). The rate of pay during leave must reflect normal earnings, including regular overtime or allowances in some cases — not just basic salary.
Pension auto-enrolment: Ireland's "My Future Fund" auto-enrolment scheme is being introduced from 2026. Employers will be required to enrol eligible employees and make matching pension contributions. If you are setting up payroll now, confirm whether your employees fall within the scheme's eligibility criteria and ensure your payroll software can accommodate the deductions and employer contributions when the scheme goes live.
Ongoing RPNs: Revenue updates RPNs throughout the year — for example when an employee's circumstances change or at the start of a new tax year. Pull updated RPNs before each pay run, not just at onboarding.
Records: Keep payroll records for at least six years. These include payslips, RPNs, submissions, and any documentation supporting pay calculations.
If you are running payroll across more than one country, the administrative load multiplies quickly. How Mellow runs payroll across six countries on one platform explains how multi-country coordination works in practice.
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