I am informed by the Revenue Commissioners that, as with any contract of engagement between two parties in the construction sector or in any other sector, whether a person is engaged either
1. under a contract of service (that is, engaged as an employee and who pays tax under the PAYE system of tax deduction at source); or
2. under a contract for service [that is, as a self-employed contractor and who pays tax under the self-assessment system with a credit granted for tax paid by deduction at source under electronic Relevant Contracts Tax (eRCT) system],
is determined by the facts and evidence of each case and guidance on that matter is provided in the Code of Practice for Determining Employment or Self-Employment Status of Individuals was prepared jointly by the Irish Congress of Trade Unions, business representative bodies and relevant State agencies.
The electronic Relevant Contracts Tax system applies to payments made to a sub-contractor by a principal contractor in the construction, meat processing and forestry sectors. As regards the construction sector, I am informed by Revenue that there are 99,741 sub-contractors currently registered under the eRCT system, of which 23,202 are sole traders and the balance being companies or partnerships.
As to the Deputy's request for "the number of workers that are employed in a P60 basis within that sector", I am taking this to be an enquiry as to the number of employees in the construction sector. I am informed by Revenue, based on employer end of year PAYE returns for 2014, that there were 75,386 individuals employed in construction related businesses.
As to the alleged loss of employer PRSI to the Exchequer because of employers' behaviour, the construction sector is an acknowledged area of high risk from a tax compliance standpoint. I am informed by Revenue that monitoring of the sector for abuses of the tax and duty systems forms part of its on-going compliance programmes and to which they commit significant resources. In line with the welcome growth in activity in the sector, Revenue currently has an extensive dedicated focus on construction to target the various tax compliance risks associated with the sector.
As I have outlined in my responses to several previous Parliamentary Questions, if the Deputy has specific information relating to individuals or businesses in any sector who are involved in tax evasion, she may pass that information to my officials who will ensure that it sent to Revenue for investigation. As an alternative, the information may be passed directly to Revenue who have provided a facility, on their website, to report tax evasion. A link to the template is set out below:
[Link: http://www.revenue.ie/en/business/shadow-economy/index.html and
https://www.ros.ie/online-enquiry-web/goodCitizen
