Attachments of Earnings in Ireland Payroll

Payroll administrators might sometimes need to withhold an employee’s pay due to orders to orders from a court or other civil authorities. This withholding is known as attachment of earnings. Administrators can manage employee attachment of earnings in the Payroll > Attachment Of Earnings screen of the People feature.

There are two types of orders: priority and non-priority. Deductions are calculated for each order type differently.

Descriptions of priority and non-priority orders

Type of order	Used for	If you can’t make the full deduction
Priority	Maintenance orders or fines	Carry the unpaid difference over to the next pay period.
Non-priority	Civil debts	Don’t carry the unpaid difference over to the next pay period.

It's possible to have several attachment of earnings orders deducting at the same time. In that case, priority orders are deducted first, in the order the employee received them. Next, non-priority orders are deducted, in the order that the employee received them. Deductions are taken from gross pay less PAYE income taxes, NI contributions, and pension contributions.

Attachment of Earnings Types

There are three main types of attachment of earnings orders that are possible in Ireland and to which an employee’s wages might be subject:

• AEO - Child Maintenance and AEO - Spouse / Civil Partner Maintenance: The court determines the amount of maintenance to be paid to either dependent child, children, and, or spouse or civil partner. The Court notifies the employer of the amounts of Protected Pay and Normal Deduction Rate to be entered into system
• AEO - Debt Repayal: The result of civil debt cases where amounts of debt are between 500 - 4,000 Euros that the court has issued an order to repay the debt. The Court notifies the employer of the amount to be paid to the third-party along with Protected Pay and Normal Deduction Rate amounts that the employer enters into the application.

Adding and Editing Attachment of Earnings Records

Click Add in the Payroll > Attachment Of Earnings screen to add an attachment of earnings record. To edit an existing record, select it to expand the Properties section.

The fields in the Properties section are divided into four subsections: General Details, Order Details, Payee Details, and Balances.

Fields in the Properties section

Field	Description
General Details
Effective From	Attachment of earnings order start date.
Effective To	Attachment of earnings order end date.
Type	Drop-down list with the three types of attachment of earnings orders: AEO - Child Maintenance AEO - Debt Repayal AEO - Spouse / Civil Partner Maintenance
Issuing Body	Authority that issued the attachment of earnings order, such as County Court, Court of Session, or District Court.
Active	Checkbox to indicate whether the attachment of earnings order is active or not.
Priority	Checkbox to indicate a priority attachment of earnings. When it this checkbox is cleared, the record is considered a non-priority attachment of earnings.
Legal Entity	Legal entity that the application deducts the attachment of earnings from.
Admin Fee	The administrative fee, if any. You can set up the admin fee using the Arrestment Admin Fee field in the Payroll section of the Properties tab in System Admin > Client Properties.
Order Details
Reference Number	The attachment of earnings order reference number.
Court Order Issued Date	Date that the order was issued.
Court Order Received Date	Date that the employer received the order.
Ordered Amount	Total amount ordered.
Protected Allowances	Amount of protected allowances. If applicable, this amount is often 60% of the employee's net earnings.
Initial Debt	Initial amount of the debt.
Payee Details
Payee	Name of the payee. This drop-down list is searchable if payees are set up for your organisation. See Third Party Payee Configuration.
BIC	Bank Identifier Code. Required to send automated payments.
IBAN	International Bank Account Number. Required to send SEPA payments.
Balances
Deducted TD	Amount deducted to date.
Outstanding	Remaining amount on the order.

You can associate a note with an employee's earning attachments. See Add Notes to Attachment of Earnings.

View or Hide Columns

You can configure the columns that show on the Attachments of Earnings screen and customize their order. The Type, Effective From, and Effective To columns are mandatory and you cannot remove them. The following columns are optional, and you can add or remove them as necessary:

• Court Order Issued Date
• Name
• Court Order Received Date
• Active
• Legal Entity
• Priority
• Reference Number
• Ordered Allowances
• Protected Allowances
• Initial Debt
• Deducted TD
• Outstanding
• Payee

To change which columns show on the screen:

1. Click View to open the Column Manager section.
2. Click Choose Columns.
3. Do one of the following:
   • To remove a column, move it from the Selected to Available list using the arrows.
   • To add a column, move it from the Available to Selected list using the arrows.
   • To reorder a column, select it and use the up and down arrows to change its position.
4. Click Select.
5. In the Column Manager section, click Apply.

You can save the different sets of columns that you configure with the Favourites drop-down list. To save a column set:

1. Follow the steps in the previous task to configure the columns.
2. In the Favourites drop-down list, select Save Favourite As.
3. Enter a name.
4. (Optional) To load the column set by default every time you open the screen, select the Load by Default checkbox.
5. Click Save.

Note: To load a filter that you've saved as a favorite, select it in the Favorites drop-down list.