What goes on a Irish payslip
Reviewed by Mellow Editorial Team, HR & payroll content team
Every Irish payslip must show gross pay, all statutory deductions (income tax, USC and PRSI), and net pay. Employers are legally required to provide a payslip each time an employee is paid, and the figures on it must match the real-time submission sent to Revenue on or before payday.
Gross pay
This is the starting point — the employee's total earnings before any deductions. It includes basic salary or wages, overtime, bonuses, commission, and the taxable value of any benefits in kind. Everything that counts as pay for tax purposes should appear here.
Income tax (PAYE)
Income tax is deducted under the Pay As You Earn system. Ireland uses a two-rate structure: 20% on income up to roughly €44,000 for a single person, and 40% on anything above that. The exact threshold shifts depending on the employee's personal circumstances and marital status.
Crucially, Ireland does not use a personal allowance in the way the UK does. Instead, Revenue issues each employee a Tax Credit Certificate showing their tax credits and rate band. Credits reduce the actual tax owed euro for euro — so the payslip should show gross tax calculated, then credits applied, giving the net tax deducted. If an employee has not submitted their details to Revenue, you must apply the emergency tax basis, which is less favourable for the employee.
The tax credit certificate also tells you whether to apply the standard or higher rate band to that employee. Keep it updated — employees can change their credits during the year.
USC (Universal Social Charge)
USC is calculated separately from income tax and applied in bands. The rates for 2026/27 are:
- 0.5% on the first band of income
- 2% on the next band
- 3% on the next band
- 8% on income above the top threshold
Employees earning below a certain weekly or annual threshold are exempt from USC entirely. Revenue's Tax Credit Certificate will confirm whether USC applies and at what rates for each individual. USC does not reduce with tax credits — it is a straightforward banded charge on gross income.
PRSI (Pay Related Social Insurance)
PRSI appears twice on the payslip: once as an employee deduction and once as an employer cost. Most employees in private-sector employment fall under Class A.
- Employee PRSI: approximately 4.1% of gross pay
- Employer PRSI: approximately 11.15% of gross pay
The employer's share does not come out of the employee's pay — it is an additional cost on top of salary that you pay directly to Revenue. It should appear on the payslip for transparency, but it does not reduce net pay.
PRSI entitlements build up over time and underpin access to benefits such as Jobseeker's Benefit, the State Pension and Maternity Benefit, so accurate classification and payment matter well beyond the payslip itself.
Net pay and other deductions
Net pay is what lands in the employee's bank account: gross pay minus income tax, USC and employee PRSI. If there are other deductions — a pension contribution, a bike-to-work scheme repayment, a salary sacrifice arrangement — these also appear on the payslip, either before or after tax depending on how they are structured.
From 2026, pension auto-enrolment under the My Future Fund scheme is being introduced. Once it applies to an employee, their contribution will appear as a separate deduction, with the employer contribution shown alongside it.
A payslip should always make it straightforward for an employee to trace the journey from gross to net. If someone cannot follow the maths from one line to the next, the payslip needs to be clearer.
Reporting to Revenue
Every time you run payroll, you must submit a Payroll Submission Request (PSR) to Revenue through ROS on or before the date the employee is paid. This is real-time reporting — there is no monthly batch submission. The figures on the payslip and the Revenue submission must match exactly.
Errors picked up late can trigger interest and penalties, so it is worth reconciling payslip totals against your ROS submissions regularly rather than waiting until year-end. Revenue can compare what employees report against what employers submit, so discrepancies tend to surface.
If you are running payroll across more than one country, the real-time obligation in Ireland sits alongside different deadlines and filing formats elsewhere — how Mellow runs payroll across six countries on one platform explains how that can be managed without maintaining separate processes for each jurisdiction.
---
Run HR and payroll in Ireland with Mellow
Mellow brings HR, payroll and 12 AI agents into one platform — built to handle Ireland properly, with payroll included, from £4 per employee per month. The AI agents don't just answer questions; they generate contracts, run cost estimates and draft letters for you.
[Start a free trial →](/register)