Social Welfare Consolidation Act 2005

Offences in relation to employment contributions.

[1993 s214(1); 1994 s7 & Sch C]

252.—(1) An employer who—

(a) fails to pay at or within a prescribed time any employment contribution which he or she is liable to pay under Part 2 ,

(b) deducts or attempts to deduct the whole or any part of any employer’s contribution in respect of a person from that person’s remuneration,

(c) makes a deduction from the remuneration of a person in respect of any employment contribution which the employer is liable under Part 2 to pay and fails to pay at or within a prescribed time the employment contribution in respect of which the deduction was made,

(d) adjusts the method of payment of reckonable earnings to an employed contributor who was employed in consecutive weeks in order to ensure that the employed contributor is exempted in any week from the employment contribution payable under section 13 (2)(b) and regulations made under section 13 (10), or

(e) adjusts the amount of payment of reckonable earnings to an employed contributor in order to avoid payment of contributions at the rate specified in section 13 (2)(d)(ii),

is guilty of an offence.

[1993 s214(2)]

(2) An employer, or a servant or agent acting on behalf of the employer, who, for the purpose of evading or reducing the amount of his or her liability in respect of employment contributions which the employer is liable to pay under Part 2 and which he or she has not paid—

(a) knowingly makes any statement or representation (whether written or verbal) which is to his or her knowledge false or misleading in any material respect, or knowingly conceals any material fact, or

(b) produces or furnishes, or causes or knowingly allows to be produced or furnished, any document or information which he or she knows to be false in a material particular,

is guilty of an offence.

[1993 s214(3)]

(3) Where records are required to be kept by employers under regulations made under section 17 (5) in so far as they relate to the recording of payment of earnings and the periods to which those earnings refer the records shall be recorded at or before the time of payment of those earnings.

[1993 s214(4)]

(4) A person who fails to comply with subsection (3) is guilty of an offence.

[1993 s214(5)]

(5) A person who is guilty of an offence under this section (other than an offence under subsection (1)(d)) is liable—

(a) on summary conviction, to the penalties provided in section 257 (a), or

[2005 (SW&P) s26 & Sch 4]

(b) on conviction on indictment, to a fine not exceeding €13,000 or the amount that is equivalent to twice the amount so unpaid or deducted, whichever is the greater, or to imprisonment for a term not exceeding 3 years, or to both.

[1993 s214(6); 2005 (SW&P) s26 & Sch 4]

(6) A person who is guilty of an offence under subsection (1)(d) is liable on summary conviction to a fine not exceeding €1,500 or on conviction on indictment to a fine not exceeding €13,000.

[1993 s214(7)]

(7) (a) Where an employer has been convicted under this section of the offence of failing to pay any employment contributions which he or she is liable under Part 2 to pay, he or she is liable to pay to the Social Insurance Fund a sum equal to the amount which he or she has failed to pay and, on such conviction, if notice of the intention to do so has been served with the summons or warrant, evidence may be given of the failure on the part of the employer to pay other employment contributions in respect of the same person during the 3 years before the date when the notice was so served, and on proof of that failure the court may order the employer to pay to the Social Insurance Fund a sum equal to the total of all the employment contributions which he or she is so proved to have failed to pay, and the employer's right of appeal against the conviction under the section shall include a right to appeal against that order.

(b) Any sum paid by an employer under this subsection shall be treated as a payment in satisfaction of the unpaid employment contributions, and the insured person’s portion of those employment contributions shall not be recoverable by the employer from the insured person.

[1993 s214(8)]

(8) Nothing in this section or in regulations under this section shall be read as preventing the Minister from recovering by means of civil proceedings any sums due to the Social Insurance Fund.