The deadline for submitting your P35 return is the 15th February.

(We strongly advise checking this date with Revenue as they may decide to change the deadline, and then charge late filing penalties etc). As there is limited support available at the weekends, we would advise completing your P35 return as soon as possible. Here are some guidelines to help you in this process.

Payback ROS P35 Process

  1. IMPORTANT: Make sure you are running at least "Payback Version 2019.03" of Payback. You can see the version info at the top of the screen. If you need to upgrade then click Admin/Backup/Backup to backup your data (this is very important). Then download and run the upgrade file from: http://www.payback.ie/downloads/ Use Payback Version 2019.03 (or higher) to produce your ROS P35.
  2. Revenue do not accept the Payback printed P35 return (they only accept printed returns on their own stationery). We would recommend subscribing to ROS so you can complete your returns online. Go to http://www.ros.ie to subscribe.
  3. You should go to the Reports screen and print out the 'P35 (annual)' and the 'P35 Breakdown' reports for 2018 to ensure they tally with your 2018 P30 returns.
  4. For printed returns: Make sure you are printing all the pages - If you go into the Report Preview window you'll see there are four tabs along the top of the P35 report which correspond to the four sections of the P35. You will then have to transpose the data from the printed report to the Revenue P35 form manually as per Revenue requirements (See point 2)
  5. For ROS online returns: To generate the ROS P35 do the following;
    • Go into the Reports screen
    • Select '2018' from the dropdown on the top-left
    • Select ROS P35 in the reports list
    • Click the 'Check ROS P35' button to check your data is okay. Fix any errors.
    • Click 'Create File' and save the file somewhere you'll remember, like the desktop or your documents folder
    • Upload this file to your account on http://www.ros.ie
    • See the 'Common ROS errors' section for solutions to common problems.

Upload your 2017 P35 to ROS as soon as possible. If you have any issues it will give you time to sort them out.

Frequently Asked Questions

Q. Is it safe to upgrade to v2019.03, as I'm still running v2018.06 (or some other 2018 version of Payback)

A. Yes. Upgrade immediately. Please ensure you perform a backup before upgrading in case there are problems.

Q. Someone left and re-joined during the year. They're now appearing as duplicate employees in the printed P35 report.

A. The printed P35 report will show duplicate employees as two separate lines - This isn't an issue as Revenue only accept P35s on their own stationery. Our printed P35 report is used mainly to cross-check your figures and to manually transpose figures to the Revenue P35 form. Duplicate employees are merged into one record into the ROS P35 file, based on their PPS number.

Q. I want to delete employees from 2018 who no longer work for me.

A. You cannot delete Employees from the master file, as the payroll data has to be retained for historic reasons. If you P45 them they will no longer appear on the 'Payroll' screen. You can now archive employees, which will remove them from the employee list in the employee screen.

Q. Pension payments are not appearing on the P35 report

A. You may have selected the incorrect 'type' when you were setting up the pension deduction. The 'type' is the only way Payback has of identifying the deduction as a pension. You will need to map the pension deductions so that they are picked up for the P35. Here are the instructions: https://www.payback.ie/support/2018-year-end/pensions-not-appearing-on-the-p35lf/

To set up pensions, please follow these instructions:  https://www.payback.ie/support/faq/ (Under Common Queries> Pensions)

Q. I'm getting an error when I upload to ROS

A. Payback have a P35 error fixing facility where it is possible to quickly fix common errors like incorrect PPS numbers etc. To use this facility:

  1. Go to the Reports screen in Payback
  2. Select '2018' for the year, and select the ROS P35 (Annual) report.
  3. A new button will appear at the top of the screen - 'Check ROS Data' - click this button.
  4. A new screen will appear where you can quickly fix most errors that may appear.
  5. Once the message '-No Errors Detected-' Appears in the Check ROS Data screen, recreate your P35 and try uploading to ROS again.

Q. I'm still having problems producing the P35 return.

A. Please Check the forum, and the FAQ. If you can not find the answer, then submit a support ticket describing your problem - this is the fastest way to get a response. The support department is very busy in the weeks leading up to the P35 return. We do not recommend email as your query may get lost and will not be logged.

Q. The P60s are blank.

A. You need to upgrade to 2019.03 (Or higher) and then produce the P60s. If you need to upgrade then click Admin/Backup/Backup to backup your data (this is very important). Then download and run the upgrade file from https://www.payback.ie/downloads/ 

Q. There is no year on the P60s.

A. The P60 template issued by Revenue does not have a year on it. However, due to requests from our customers, we have updated the certificate to now include the year. You need to upgrade to 2019.03 (Or higher) and then produce the P60s. If you need to upgrade then click Admin/Backup/Backup to backup your data (this is very important). Then download and run the upgrade file from https://www.payback.ie/downloads/ 

Common ROS errors and solutions are listed below. If you're still having problems uploading after reviewing this list, then please check the forum and the FAQ. If you still can not find a solution, then submit a support ticket explaining what the error message is.

Benefits: Medical Insurance and Tax Relief at Source

Revenue now requires employers to enter the gross medical insurance premium eligible for tax relief for each employee that has their gross premium paid by the company. To set this up for any eligible employees, select 'ROS P35' in the reports screen and then click the 'Benefits' button that appears at the top of the screen. Select the 'Medical Insurance' tab. Follow the instructions below for any employees that had their Gross Premium paid by the company. If no employees had their Gross premium pay by the company, then you can ignore this requirement.

  • Select each employee and enter the 'Amount Eligible for Tax Relief' OR the 'TRS Amount'
  • Click the 'Update' button and move onto the next employee listed.
  • Tax relief figures can be obtained from the employee's Medical Insurance provider
  • The Amount Eligible for Tax Relief is 5 x TRS Amount
  • The Amount Eligible for Tax Relief must also be either equal to or less than the Gross Premium Paid
  • If you do not fill in these details or fill them in incorrectly for all relevent employees your P35 may be rejected by ROS

Common ROS Errors and Solutions

When you upload the P35 to Revenue in most cases it will upload with no errors. In case you do encounter ROS errors, here are some common ones with suggested solutions;

ROS ERROR: Form version 9 ......
SOLUTION: You've created the P35 file using an old version of Payback (e.g. 2018.06) - You need to upgrade to 2019.03 (Or higher) and then produce the P35 again. If you need to upgrade then click Admin/Backup/Backup to backup your data (this is very important). Then download and run the upgrade file from https://www.payback.ie/downloads/

ROS ERROR: "PPSN has invalid format in the P35L for John Smith, PPSN: 1111111X"
SOLUTION: Enter a valid PPSN in the Employee screen. Re-generate P35.

ROS ERROR: "Surname has invalid format in the P35L for John Smith 22, PPSN: 1111111L"
SOLUTION: Enter the correct surname in the Employee screen (numbers etc. are not accepted as part of the surname)

ROS ERROR: "Date of Birth is missing and employee cannot be identified in the P35L for John Smith, PPSN: Not Provided."
"Address is missing and employee cannot be identified in the P35L for John Smith, PPSN: Not Provided.
"PPSN is missing and employee cannot be identified in the P35L for John Smith, PPSN: Not Provided."
SOLUTION: You must provide these details in the Employee screen.

ROS ERROR: "Date of Commencement must be completed where previous pay and tax is entered in the P35L for John Smith, PPSN: 1111111L"
SOLUTION: You must enter a 'Date Joined Company' in the Employee / YTD screen

ROS ERROR: "Unidentified error in a P35L Employer Tag, Employer Number : Not Provided"
SOLUTION: Ensure you've entered a valid Employer Number in the Company screen. Also, make sure the address lines aren't too long.

ROS ERROR: The value '' of attribute 'number' on element 'ns1:Employer' is not valid with respect to its type, 'registration'.
SOLUTION: You've entered your employer number incorrectly in the Company screen.

ROS ERROR: "Total PRSI is not completed despite liability in the P35L for John Smith, PPSN: 1111111L"
"Pay has too small a value in the P35L for John Smith, PPSN: 1111111L"
SOLUTION: This happens if someone was paid zero for the year. Go into the Payroll screen, click History, and check the payments. Rewind any zero payments, or manually adjust your P35.

ROS ERROR: "Total Weeks Insurable has too large a value in the P35L for John Smith, PPSN: 1111111L"
SOLUTION: You probably entered too many insurable weeks for one of the payments. Go into the Payroll screen, click History, and check the insurable weeks. Either rewind/repay the incorrect entry, or manually adjust your P35.
You may also have entered too many insurable weeks in the Year to Date screen for the employee. The Year to Date screen can be accessed by clicking the 'Year to Date' button in the Employee screen. Run the P35 Breakdown (with USC) report to check the figures.

ROS ERROR: "Initial PRSI Class is missing in the P35L for John Smith, PPSN: 1111111L"
SOLUTION: Can happen in 'zero pay' scenarios, or if the incorrect PRSI class was selected for someone (e.g. if you selected A instead of J for FAS employees). Go into the Payroll screen, click History, and check the PRSI codes for each week. Either rewind/repay the incorrect entry, or manually adjust your P35.

ROS ERROR: "Unidentified error in a P35L: PPSN: 1111111L, Name : John Smith."
SOLUTION: If an employee left and was then re-employed by you, you should ensure they were setup as two separate employees in Payback. For the second employee you need to enter the P45 details carried forward from the first employee. Both employees pay figures are merged under the one PPSN in the P35 return.

ROS ERROR: "Value '29-08-1994' is not facet-valid with respect to pattern '[0-3]?[0-9]/[0-3]?[0-9]/[1-9][0-9]{3}' for type 'date'"
SOLUTION: Your Windows date format may be incorrect.Make sure that the date parts (day/month/year) are separated by slashes '/' rather than minus signs '-' or spaces. You can change this in regional settings in Windows:

  1. Right click on the Date and time at the right bottom corner of your screen.
  2. Click on Date and time settings and click on Change date and time format on right pane.

ROS ERROR: Total PRSI. Employer is liable for PRSI based on class selected.
SOLUTION: If you have only paid Sickness or Illness benefit for an employee then this error can happen. This is a problem with ROS.

ROS erroneously throws this error because even though the employee is in the correct PRSI class, which is liable to an employer contribution, Illness benefit is not liable for PRSI.

The solution is to either rewind all of the effected employee's payments and submit them separately, or to contact ROS for them to fix it. Their email address is: ROSDevSupport@revenue.ie

Notes

  1. If you need to change historic data in Payback, please be aware that rewinding/repaying an employee could change their net pay on your version of their payslip, this could also affect the P30 report for the month in question.
  2. If necessary, you can amend the P35 file manually using the ROS Off-line application which you can download from http://www.ros.ie/PublisherServlet/info/install. If you change the ROS P35 file using the ROS application, then remember that the Payback P35 data will not be an accurate reflection of what you submitted to ROS.