Your Irish payslip explained: PAYE, USC and PRSI
Three deductions come off almost every Irish payslip: income tax (PAYE), the Universal Social Charge and PRSI. Each follows its own rules, and only PAYE uses your tax credits.
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PAYE income tax
Revenue sends your employer a Revenue Payroll Notification (RPN) with your yearly tax credits and standard rate cut-off point. Pay up to the cut-off is taxed at 20% (2026: 44,000 EUR for a single person, 53,000 EUR for a married couple with one income) and the rest at 40%; your credits are then subtracted (2026: 2,000 EUR personal and 2,000 EUR employee credit for a single employee). Payroll normally works cumulatively, so credits and cut-off you did not use in one pay period carry forward to the next.
USC
The Universal Social Charge is worked out on gross income, and pension contributions do not reduce it. 2026 rates: 0.5% on the first 12,012 EUR, 2% up to 28,700 EUR, 3% up to 70,044 EUR and 8% above. If your total income for the year is 13,000 EUR or less, you pay no USC at all. Medical card holders and people over 70 earning up to 60,000 EUR pay at most 2%.
PRSI
Most employees pay Class A PRSI on gross pay: 4.2% until 30 September 2026 and 4.35% from 1 October 2026, so October payslips show a small drop. There is no employee PRSI on weekly earnings of 352 EUR or less, and a tapering PRSI credit applies up to 424 EUR a week. PRSI is calculated for each pay period on its own, not cumulatively. The employer's share is not deducted from you.
Pension, benefits and other lines
Your own pension contributions reduce pay for income tax but not for USC or PRSI. Since 1 January 2026, employees aged 23 to 60 earning over 20,000 EUR without a workplace pension are auto-enrolled in My Future Fund: 1.5% of gross from you, the same from the employer, plus a State top-up; there is no tax relief on these contributions. Benefits in kind (company car, health insurance paid by the employer) are added as notional pay for tax, USC and PRSI. Local Property Tax can also be deducted at source.
What changes in January 2027
Budget 2027, announced on 6 October 2026, raises the personal and employee tax credits by 125 EUR to 2,125 EUR each, the standard rate cut-off for a single person by 2,500 EUR to 46,500 EUR, and the top of the USC 2% band to 30,300 EUR. The minimum wage rises to 14.94 EUR an hour. The changes show on your first payslip of 2027, once your employer has the new RPN.
What to check every month
Your PPSN; the tax basis is cumulative, not week 1 or emergency; the tax credits and cut-off match your RPN in myAccount; the PRSI class (A1 for most employees); the 4.35% rate from October; the year-to-date totals add up. Payslop runs these checks for free.
Check your own payslip. Upload it and every line is explained, the rates verified and the questions for HR written for you. Free, nothing stored. Decode my payslip
Questions people ask
Why is my USC higher than I expected?
Because pension contributions do not reduce it, benefits in kind are added to it, and on a week 1 basis the lower bands are not carried forward from earlier in the year.
My payslip says 'week 1 basis'. Is that bad?
Your credits and cut-off are applied to each pay period on its own, so if you started mid-year or had unpaid weeks you may overpay. Ask Revenue through myAccount to move you to the cumulative basis; anything overpaid by the end of the year comes back through a Statement of Liability.
Is the employer's PRSI on my payslip?
Sometimes as an information line. It is never deducted from your pay.
Related guides
Indicative rules as of October 2026. Not tax or legal advice.