What is PRSI
OPRSI stands for Pay Related Social Insurance and is payable by employers, employees and self-employed people on earnings. In general, everyone between 16 and 66 years of age, who is in insurable employment, must pay PRSI. If you are an employee, your social insurance contributions are deducted by your employer and collected by the Revenue Commissioners. In fact, the law makes your employer responsible for PRSI, though you may have to pay an ’employee’s share’. PRSI is paid into the national Social Insurance Fund that is made up of a current account and an investment account managed by the Minister for Social Protection and the Minister for Finance, respectively. The current account consists of monies collected from people in employment. This money is then used to fund social insurance payments. The investment account is a savings account that is managed by the Minister for Finance. All records of your insurance contributions are kept and managed by the PRSI Records section in the Department of Social and Family Affairs. The Department is responsible for the payments made as a result of your social insurance contributions. Sometimes, you will hear people describe their PRSI contributions as “stamps.” This term dated from before 1979 when employers would literally stamp a card each week of employment. That card was then brought to a local social welfare office in order to claim social welfare payments.
Business Expenses
Any expenses incurred in the ordinary course of business. Business expenses are deductible and are always netted against business income. Although it is not necessary to include receipts for business expenses when you file your tax return, many tax preparers will ask for detailed, itemized copies of your expenses before they will submit the return. Business owners should keep these kinds of records for a minimum of seven to 10 years from the date of filing.
Refundable Versus Allowable Expenses
These are expenses that are refunded directly by your client/agency. They may be expenses that you have incurred on behalf of the client and are directly refunded back to you. Icon will invoice the client for the expenses and show them as an additional tax free refund in your corresponding payslip. You will need to give Icon a copy of the receipts relating to such expenses.
An allowable expense is a business expense incurred, by the contractor but not refunded by your client. How it is processed is that it is used to reduce the taxable element of your salary and then refunded to you tax free.
