Q.  I worked fewer days than usual in 2009 since I had to take some unpaid leave from work. What difference does this make to my PRSI and tax deductions for the year and how do I find out?

10.01.10

Your PRSI payments are contributed on a weekly basis and if you didn’t work some weeks you may not have a PRSI contribution for that week.
Another complication is that the tax year and the PRSI contribution week start on the first of January every year. In 2009 the first of January fell on a Thursday which meant that each PRSI contribution week ran from Thursday to the following Wednesday. This means if your work pattern was week on-week off you would still have two contributions recorded. If you didn’t work for three weeks in a row you would only lose one contribution week.

You have a legal right to see the record of your PRSI contributions kept by your employer. You also can ask your employer to give you a statement of your PRSI contributions once every three months. (Normally this is written as a deduction on your payslip.) At the end of each tax year your employer must also give you a P60 which is a statement of your pay and a record of the tax and PRSI deducted by your employer during the year. Usually income tax deducted by your employer for each pay period is calculated as if you will continue to earn that level of income for the year. If you worked fewer days or you stopped working during the year you may have paid too much tax. If you think that you have overpaid tax in the year you can request a PAYE Balancing Statement (P21) for the year from Revenue. Your P21 gives details of your total income, tax credits and PAYE tax paid for the tax year. It also shows whether you have overpaid or underpaid tax for the year. If you have overpaid tax, a cheque for the amount overpaid will be attached. If you have underpaid tax your district office will indicate if, and how the underpayment will be collected - usually by reduction of your tax credits for a subsequent tax year.

Citizens Information: Buncrana 074 9363496; Carndonagh 074 9373741

Return to > Citizens Information