Agency and temporary work: how you are taxed

Agency workers pay tax through PAYE like any employee: whoever pays you runs payroll. How to avoid emergency tax when assignments change.

Revenue taxes people placed through an employment agency in the same way as anyone else in a job. If you are an employee, income tax, USC and PRSI come off each payment through PAYE, and you get the same credits and bands. The only question is who runs the payroll.

Who deducts the tax

• if the agency is obliged to pay you, the agency is your employer for tax and operates PAYE
• if the business you are placed with pays you directly, that business operates PAYE

Either way, the payer must have your PPSN and a Revenue Payroll Notification (RPN) for you before your first pay day.

Employee or self-employed?

Some agencies or businesses describe temporary workers as self-employed contractors. What the contract says doesn't decide it. Revenue applies five questions:

1. Is there an exchange of work for pay?
2. Must you do the work personally, or could you send someone else?
3. Does the business control how, when and where you work?
4. Do the wider circumstances, such as who provides equipment, who carries the risk and whether you can profit from doing it better, point to employment?
5. Does any specific legislation change the answer?

Revenue expects part-time, casual and seasonal workers, such as shift staff in retail, catering, farming and events, generally to be employees, even for one-off shifts. If you are told you are self-employed but the answers point to employment, ask the payer to review it against Revenue's guidelines.

Moving between assignments

Temporary work means more starts and stops, which is where tax goes wrong. Each time you start with a new payer:

• register the job in myAccount, or the payer may have to use emergency tax until it gets an RPN
• if you work for two payers at once, decide which gets your credits and rate band; the other usually gets none. See tax on a second job
• when an assignment ends, mark the job as finished in myAccount, so your credits can move to the next one

PAYE works on a cumulative basis, so a gap between assignments usually leads to a refund on the next payslip. Your credits and band for the weeks you weren't paid are given back. A single person in 2026 has €4,000 of credits and a €44,000 rate band for the year.

At the end of the year

If you had several payers, check your Employment Detail Summary in myAccount and request a Statement of Liability (Revenue's end-of-year summary). People with broken work patterns are often due a refund. See refunds after the year ends.

Work it out

• PAYE calculator →
• Emergency tax refund →
• Contractor or PAYE job: which pays more? →

Sources

• Revenue: Emergency Tax rules (checked 25/10/2026)
• Revenue: Cumulative basis (weekly credits and cut-off points, worked examples) (checked 16/10/2026)
• Revenue: Tax rates, bands and reliefs (checked 25/10/2026)

General information, not tax advice. HeyPenny is not a tax agent.