Rates last updated: 22 October 2026 · How we verify
Tax on a Second Job in Ireland: Why Every Euro Is Taxed at 40%, and How to Split Your Credits
Take a second job in Ireland and the first payslip from it usually looks brutal: 40% off the top, no credits, nothing like the deductions on your main salary. There is no higher tax rate for second jobs. What you are seeing is a job that has been given none of your tax credits and none of your rate band.
- Revenue gives you one set of credits (€4,000 for a single PAYE employee in 2026) and one standard rate band (€44,000 at 20%).
- Unless you tell Revenue how to divide them, they stay with your main job and the second job is taxed at 40% on every euro.
- Splitting them in myAccount changes when you pay, not your total tax; any excess paid before the split comes back when you file the Income Tax Return.
See the effect on your own figures in the Salary After Tax calculator.
Below: why the second payslip looks the way it does, Revenue's own worked examples of a split, what a year-end review does with the difference, the myAccount steps, and the one trap that makes the whole year go wrong.
Why the second job is taxed at 40%
- Your €4,000 of credits and €44,000 of 20% band are annual allowances that go by default to the job you registered first.
- The second employer's Revenue Payroll Notification has no credits and no band, so its only instruction is to tax everything at the higher rate.
- Revenue's example: a second job paying €110 a week is taxed €44.00, with no credits, while the main job on €850 a week pays €93.85.
Payroll in Ireland is driven by the Revenue Payroll Notification (RPN) each employer receives. The RPN tells the employer what credits and what cut-off point to apply for that employment. It has no view of your other job. If your credits are elsewhere, that employer is doing exactly what it has been told to do; it is not a payroll error, and chasing HR will not change it.
The same logic applies to USC: your USC rate bands can also sit entirely with one employment, and PRSI is charged in each employment separately, with the €352-a-week exemption tested per job rather than on your combined pay. The lines to look for on each payslip are explained in how to read your Irish payslip.
Revenue sets out the mechanics on its second or multiple jobs page.
What splitting actually does
- You can keep everything with the main job, divide credits and band between the jobs in any proportion, or transfer what the main job doesn't use.
- Revenue's equal split: jobs paying €500 and €450 a week, each given €423.08 of band and €38.46 of credits, pay €76.93 and €56.93 a week.
- Without it, one would pay almost nothing and the other 40% on everything.
Splitting never changes the total income tax you owe for the year. It changes how evenly it is deducted. The aim is to use the full €4,000 of credits and the full €44,000 band across the year, because an allowance that sits unused in a low-paid main job is lost until you file a return.
Revenue's third example shows the transfer option. A main job paying €300 a week uses only €60.00 of credits and €300 of band; the remaining €16.92 of credits and €546.16 of band can be moved to a second job paying €190 a week, which then pays €21.08 instead of €76.00 at 40%. A third job can receive whatever rate band is still unused after that.
Two limits. Some credits cannot be split because they belong to a specific employment: flat rate expenses, for example, follow the occupation. And a split requested part-way through the year is issued on a Week 1 basis, so it is not backdated; the months already paid at 40% are corrected only when you file the return at year end.
A concrete example: the year-end view
- On a €38,000 main job and an €8,000 second job, with everything left with the main job, payroll deducts €6,800; the correct liability on €46,000 is €5,600.
- The €1,200 difference is refunded through the Income Tax Return.
- A split during the year would have collected the right amount month by month instead.
With no split (all credits and band in job one):
| Calculation | Amount | |
|---|---|---|
| Job one: tax at 20% | €38,000 × 20% | €7,600.00 |
| Less full credits | €2,000 + €2,000 | −€4,000.00 |
| Job one PAYE | €3,600.00 | |
| Job two: tax at 40%, no credits, no band | €8,000 × 40% | €3,200.00 |
| Deducted in the year | €6,800.00 |
What you actually owe on €46,000:
| Calculation | Amount | |
|---|---|---|
| Tax at 20% on the band | €44,000 × 20% | €8,800.00 |
| Tax at 40% above it | €2,000 × 40% | €800.00 |
| Less full credits | −€4,000.00 | |
| Correct liability | €5,600.00 | |
| Overpaid | €6,800 − €5,600 | €1,200.00 |
The €1,200 is not lost. It comes back once you complete the PAYE Income Tax Return for the year and the Statement of Liability issues; how that document works is in Statement of Liability explained. What the split changes is cash flow: €100 a month sitting with Revenue until the following year, for no reason other than a form you have not filled in.
The example ignores USC and PRSI to keep the mechanics visible. USC has the same shape: its bands are annual, so leaving all of them with one job overcharges the other until year end.
How to split your credits in myAccount
- In PAYE Services, open "Manage your tax for the current year" and click "edit" above the list of employments.
- Enter the estimated gross pay from each job, then accept Revenue's recommended allocation or adjust it.
- Your employers then receive updated RPNs on the next payroll run.
- Check both employments are listed under "Jobs and Pensions". Your employer registers a second job (only a first job in the State is registered by you), but confirm it is actually there before trying to allocate anything to it.
- Open "Manage your tax for the current year" in PAYE Services. It shows how your credits and rate band are currently allocated.
- Click "edit" above the employments and enter the estimated annual gross salary from each job. Revenue proposes a split based on those figures.
- Choose "Proceed With Recommendation", or "Proceed with Different Recommendation" to set your own proportions.
- Watch the next payslip from each job. The new RPN should show credits and a cut-off point on the second employment. Because a mid-year split is issued on a Week 1 basis, file the Income Tax Return at year end to recover what the earlier months cost you.
If you would rather not choose the proportions, you can send the estimated gross pay for each job through MyEnquiries and Revenue allocates them in the most beneficial way. What you cannot do is leave it: nothing is split automatically when a second employment is registered.
Past years: the money is still there
- Every year your second job was taxed at 40% with unused credits or band in the main job produced an overpayment, and four years are open.
- In 2026 that's 2022, 2023, 2024 and 2025, each claimed with its own Income Tax Return.
- 2022 closes permanently on 31 December 2026.
The review Revenue does at year end is the same one shown in the example above: total income against the full year's credits and band, whatever each employer deducted. The second-job overpayment is almost always joined by reliefs that were never claimed in those years either, so do the whole return rather than just the correction. The process is walked through in how to claim tax back in Ireland.
If you had two jobs in a year and a spell on emergency tax when the second one started, the second employer may have applied the emergency basis rather than a no-credits RPN; the result is similar but the fix is different, and it is covered in emergency tax in Ireland.
What Revenue actually asks for
- For the split, Revenue needs the estimated gross annual pay from each employment.
- For a past-year claim, nothing beyond the Income Tax Return: your Employment Detail Summary already holds what each employer reported.
- Keep the payslips from both jobs anyway: they're the quickest way to see which employment carried the credits.
- Employer registration numbers for both jobs, on each payslip, in case an employment has to be added to your record.
- Estimated gross pay for each job for the current year. A rough figure is fine; Revenue reviews the year anyway.
- Your IBAN on your Revenue profile, so a past-year refund can be paid.
If both payslips look wrong and you cannot tell which employment holds what, our Payslip Review reads them, fixes the allocation with Revenue and tells you what the open years are worth. €79 excl. VAT.
Where to start
Open "Manage your tax for the current year" in myAccount and look at where your credits sit. If the second job shows nothing, that is the whole problem, and it takes about five minutes to fix for the rest of the year.
Related reading
Questions we get asked
Is a second job taxed at a higher rate in Ireland?
No. There is no separate rate for second jobs. It is taxed at 40% because none of your tax credits or standard rate band have been allocated to it. Once you split them in myAccount, each job is taxed in the normal way.
Does splitting my credits reduce my tax?
Not for the year as a whole. Your total liability is the same whether the credits sit with one job or two. Splitting stops you overpaying during the year and waiting until the following year for a refund.
I split my credits in June. Why is the second job still taxed heavily?
A mid-year split is issued on a Week 1 basis, so it applies from that point on and is not backdated. The months before the split are corrected when you file the Income Tax Return after the year ends.
Who registers my second job with Revenue?
Your new employer, by requesting a Revenue Payroll Notification for you. Only your first ever employment in the State has to be registered by you in myAccount. Check "Jobs and Pensions" to confirm the second job appears before allocating credits to it.
Can I claim back the 40% from previous years?
Yes, for any of the four open years, by completing a PAYE Income Tax Return for each. In 2026 the open years are 2022 to 2025, and 2022 closes on 31 December 2026.