Pay
Your payslip explained: PAYE, USC and PRSI line by line
Last updated 16 October 2026
What each line on an Irish payslip means and how your employer works out PAYE, USC and PRSI each pay day. How to check the figures are right.
Every Irish payslip follows the same logic. Your employer doesn't decide your tax: Revenue sends them a Revenue Payroll Notification (RPN) with your yearly tax credits, your 20% band and your USC bands. Payroll software divides those by the number of pay days.
The lines, from top to bottom
- Gross pay (before tax): salary or wages for the period, plus overtime, bonus and any taxable benefit such as a company car. Benefits show as notional pay.
- Pension: your own contribution. It comes off before income tax, not before USC or PRSI.
- Taxable pay: gross pay less pension contributions. Income tax is worked out on this.
- PAYE: income tax, 20% up to your cut-off point for the period and 40% above it, less your tax credits for the period.
- USC: charged on gross pay in bands. Your RPN gives the cut-off for each band.
- PRSI: social insurance, a percentage of gross pay, with a class code such as A1 (the usual one for employees).
- Net pay (take-home pay): what is paid into your account.
An example month
A single employee on €4,500.00 a month, paying €225.00 into a pension, in March 2026. Revenue gives them €4,000 of credits and a €44,000 cut-off point for the year, so €3,666.67 of each month's pay is taxed at 20%.
| Gross pay | €4,500.00 |
| Pension | (€225.00) |
| Pay for income tax | €4,275.00 |
| Income tax (PAYE) | (€643.33) |
| USC | (€96.07) |
| PRSI | (€189.00) |
| Net pay | €3,346.60 |
Why the same pay can show different tax
Most people are taxed on the cumulative basis. Each pay day, payroll works out the tax on all your pay since 1 January, using all the credits and band you've had so far. Then it takes off what you've already paid. If you were short of hours one month, the unused credits carry forward and lower your tax later in the year.
On the Week 1 basis, each pay day stands alone and nothing carries forward. On emergency tax, you get no credits at all and most of your pay is taxed at 40%, with USC at 8%.
Checking your payslip
- Compare the credits and cut-off point on your payslip with your Tax Credit Certificate in myAccount.
- Check the basis says cumulative, not Week 1 or emergency.
- If PRSI looks high, check the class code: most employees are A1.
- From October each year PRSI rises (to 4.35% on 1 October 2026), so net pay dips slightly.
Work it out
Sources
- Revenue: Cumulative basis (weekly credits and cut-off points, worked examples) (checked 16/10/2026)
- Revenue: Weekly, fortnightly, four-weekly and monthly pay periods (checked 16/10/2026)
- Revenue: Standard rates and thresholds of USC (checked 25/10/2026)
- Department of Social Protection: PRSI 2026 Contribution Rates and User Guide (SW 14) (checked 25/10/2026)
General information, not tax advice. HeyPenny is not a tax agent.