Payment issues

drywash

Hi all,

First time poster so be patient with me

I'm having some concerns about my job. I'm working in an office. Its a start up company and my employer applied for and received money from the Enterprise board to pay my wages to start us off, I believe the amount would cover my wages for 6 months. My job is a skilled one and average salary is around 24000. I was unemployed and on the dole so I agreed to a much lower salary to both help myself get back to work and help the company get off its feet. So I agreed to the basic weekly minimum wage, and all my taxes would be paid by my employer so I would be coming out with about 340 a week which I was happy with.

When I first started the grant hadn't yet come through so I agreed to just be paid for whatever hours I did, which wasn't anything major I did about 20-26 hours a week.
Now the grant has come through and he is still only paying me by the hour but this is still fine with me as I'm doing more hours so I'm nearly doing enough to get my full wage

My actually problem regards how I am being paid. Its been cash every time which I took no notice of as this is my first full time job and I never paid tax on any of the part time jobs I had before so it was always cash. So at first this was fine but now I've started to worry that maybe he isnt actually paying my tax. So my first question is how can I find this out without actually asking him directly because knowing him he will get extremely offended if I do ask him.

My second question relates to the money due to me over the last week. Before I left the office yesterday he asked me for my hours and told me that he would have a cheque waiting for me tomorrow morning when I get in. I was happy out with this until I found out yesterday evening that some of the cheques he has written lately have been bouncing. I was also told during this same conversation that my boss had told this person that he was struggling to pay my wages. Now considering he got that grant money only a few weeks ago I find this quite worrying and makes me think this grant has already been spent on something else. So my second question is what do i do with the cheque tomorrow. Generally I would cash it in the credit union, put a little into my credit union savings and take the rest of it in cash. Should I just do this and seen if it actually bounces or is good?

I really appreciate any advice anyone has. if you want more info just ask!

thanks

drywash

the_syco

Ask for a payslip. Say your bank asked for it, or something. The payslip will have the info on how much tax you have paid. No payslip increases the chances you are not paying taxes, which goes against you when you claim for the dole in the future...

AARRRGH

the_syco wrote: »

Ask for a payslip.

Yep, that's a nice, inoffensive way of finding out if you're paying tax (and PRSI) or not.

Regarding the bouncing cheques... I've been in your situation before, also with a startup. Lodge the cheque into your account and see if it bounces. If it does, do not accept "we will owe you x" as I fell for that rubbish before and lost about 10k because of it.

There's not much you can do except start looking for another job. Cash flow problems really are a sign it's time to leave.

donkey balls

by law you have to get a contract which states where your principle place of work is the hours your going be working and a pay slip.

ghosttown

a payslip is a powerful piece of paper if he ends up insolvent. Say he says to a liquidator / examiner that you were a contractor, you will be in trouble, and potentially end with the tax bill yourself. Print and keep emails where he delegates work to you, to show you have an employee / employer relationship. Log onto revenue.ie and input your PPS number to see your tax credits are allocated correctly. May be too late, but try get a letter of employment off him, say you need it for a bank account. If you now go for social assistance and there's no record, you will wait a long time.... Good luck, and don't let him off the hook.

miec

To be honest it sounds like your boss is struggling and does not have the greatest business head in the world, there is no point in employing someone unless they can properly afford them, the first red flag was the messing about re: wages when you started. I suggest you look for another job asap and follow some of the excellent advice given by the other posters. I wouldn't mess around with tiptoeing, I would say to him that you'd like a job contract drawn up with the hourly/weekly rate stated and a payslip, he needs this for his own records as well. The other aspect is every year you should get a P60, information on wages need to be given to the revenue before the end of January, I nearly sure this is the deadline, (some time away) but if you are still with company after February, make sure you get your P60, it is your piece of property. I wouldn't worry too much about being paid cash, some businesses operate in this manner but still pay the prsi and tax at the end of the year. I had a job like that once and the employer paid the lump sum required. Good luck. Oh I just had another thought, you can ring the tax office for a P21, it gives what tax you have paid for the year, again it may still be too early at present.