Question: 

An employee was mistakenly reimbursed for expenses to the amount of €2,400. The employer and employee have come to an agreement where the employee will repay the amount back to his employer at a rate of €100 per month over a period of 2 years.

Would this be considered to be a preferential loan and subject to Benefit in Kind (BIK)?

Answer: 

Yes, it would appear that this should be considered to be a preferential loan as money has been advanced to the employee free of tax and it will be repaid over a 2 year period. As no interest is being charged by the employer, the BIK should be calculated based on the Revenue specified rate of 13.5%, on a reducing balance basis.

Are Good Friday and Easter Monday Public Holidays?

Good Friday is not one of the 9 statutory public holidays, but it is a bank holiday. If an employee does not work on this day, it is generally treated as annual leave unless they have a contractual entitlement to be paid for it.

Easter Monday is a public holiday and employees are entitled to a paid day off on the day, a paid day off within a month, an additional day's pay or an additional day of annual leave. Part-time employees must have worked 40 hours in the preceding 5 week period in order to have an entitlement. For those employees who normally do not work on a Monday, their public holiday entitlement is calculated as one-fifth of their normal working week.

As both Good Friday and Easter Monday are SEPA holidays, for those employees who otherwise would normally be due to be paid on Friday 14th April, employers are reminded that they may need to change the electronic funds transfer processing date so employees' bank accounts are credited on Thursday 13th April.