The Irish Road Haulage Association (IRHA) have an arrangement with Revenue on the payment of UK subsistence.
To avail of this arrangement a firm must be an IRHA member and if not an IRHA member the generic Revenue guidance document for subsistence applies.
It is important to note that any payments to drivers in respect of subsistence must be supported by full and compete records.
Failure to maintain these records will result in the entire payments made to drivers being treated as taxable, grossed up for tax purposes and PAYE/PRSI/USC being levied on the employer (plus potential Revenue interest & penalties). Under Revenue rules it is the employers responsibility to ensure all payments to employees are correctly treated for tax purposes. The Revenue enforce these requirements rigorously.
The subsistence claim form should include – details of journey, departure time, destination, cross referenced to customer invoice relating to journey or delivery docket. The subsistence claim form must be signed by the drivers to confirm they are correct and complete in respect of the related journeys and must be duly authorised before being paid. These records must be maintained for six years together with all relevant tachographs (tachographs are only required to be maintained for the two years prior to the current year).
The subsistence payment cannot at any stage be regarded as an addition or as a substitute for wages which this means the agreed daily rate cannot be reduced by subsistence allowances.
For example, if you are paying a driver €160.00 gross per day you cannot reduce this gross value by the subsistence allowable for overnights in the UK.
The gross daily wage rate should be agreed independently of where the driver is travelling to/from.
You will also need to be cognisant of the minimum wage rates when agreeing a daily gross rate (currently €9.80per hour).