Social Welfare (Consolidation) Act, 1993

Payment of contributions and keeping of records.

[1981, s. 15(1); 1988, s. 9]

14.—(1) Regulations may provide for—

(a) the time and manner of payment of employment contributions,

(b) the collection and the recovery of, and the furnishing of returns by employers in relation to, employment contributions,

(c) the charging of interest on arrears of employment contributions,

(d) the waiving of interest due on arrears of employment contributions,

(e) the estimation of amounts due in respect of employment contributions and appeals in relation to such estimates,

(f) the furnishing of returns by employers in relation to periods of insurable employment,

(g) the deduction by an employer from the reckonable earnings of an employed contributor of any employment contribution reasonably believed by the employer to be due by the contributor, and adjustment in any case of over-deduction, and

(h) any matter ancillary or incidental to any of the matters referred to in any of the preceding paragraphs of this subsection.

[1981, s. 15(2); 1993, s. 19]

(2) Without prejudice to the generality of subsection (1), regulations under that subsection may provide for—

(a) the assignment of any function relating to any matter referred to in that subsection to the Collector-General or to such other person engaged under contract by the Minister, with the consent of the Minister for Finance, for this purpose,

(b) the assignment to the Collector-General of any function conferred on the Minister by section 224 and the modification for that purpose of any provision of that section,

(c) the inspection by or on behalf of the Revenue Commissioners of records prescribed under subsection (5),

(d) treating, for the purpose of any right to benefit, contributions paid after the due dates as paid on those dates or on such later dates as may be prescribed, or as not having been paid, and

(e) treating as paid, for the purpose of any right to benefit, employment contributions payable by an employer in respect of an insured person which have not been paid, where the failure to pay such contributions is shown not to have been with the consent or connivance of the insured person or attributable to any negligence on the part of the insured person.

[1981, s. 15(3)]

(3) Nothing in any regulations under this section shall affect the liability of the employer under section 10(3) to pay employment contributions.

[1981, s. 15(4)]

(4) The provisions of any enactment, regulation or rule of court relating to the inspection of records, the estimation, collection and recovery of, or the furnishing of returns by employers in relation to, income tax, or relating to appeals in relation to income tax, shall, with any necessary modifications, apply in relation to employment contributions which the Collector-General is obliged to collect as they apply in relation to income tax.

[1981, s. 15(5)]

(5) For the purposes of this Part, regulations may require employers to keep such records as may be prescribed in relation to the earnings of persons employed by them and the periods during which the persons were employed, and to retain the records for prescribed periods.