Overview
In this announcement, we'll be sharing updates on:
- Extra Payment in December Pay
- COLA and Minimum Wage
- Income Tax Changes
- Other annual changes
- VOPS (Vocational Occupational Pension Scheme)
Extra December Payment
Before delving into 2025 changes, we'd like to highlight that those running monthly payroll may be required to pay two extra days to their full-time employees.
We have created a specific article on this to guide you How to Add Extra Days in December Pay
COLA and Minimum Wage
The COLA for 2025 is of €5.24 per week, whilst the minimum wage has increased by €8.24 per week.
Our team has updated both Buddy and our salary's calculator values immediately, ensuring that when you are reviewing COLA, all amounts are already included.
We'll share more updates towards December, but you can check out how to apply COLA here: Apply Cost Of Living Adjustment (COLA) and Minimum Wage
Income Tax Changes
Buddy has also reflected the changes to Income Tax bands. In practice, you do not need to take any action, as the options for employees and employers remain the same.
If you'd like to look at how the tax band revision will impact you or your employees, check out our salary calculator!
Other Annual Changes
Alongside COLA and income tax changes, annual rates like Social Security contributions and sickness/injury benefits are updated.
The Social Security rates have been updated as per MTCA Guidelines. Category D SSC has increased by up to €1.20 per week
Occupational Pension Schemes
In Buddy, you can already make use of allowances called VOPS employee and VOPS employer. The employer share is only mentioned in reports.
The Employee portion is deducted from the net pay and shows in the FS3.
As some of you may know, Buddy is operating in the UK, where we already have developed a dedicated Pension Scheme feature with multiple API integrations.
As the scheme continues to develop, we'll continue to work with existing pension scheme providers to facilitate these processes on the employers.