The Employer’s Contributions Re-imbursement Regulations (Northern Ireland) 1996

Deductions from employer’s contributions payments

5.—(1) An employer—

(a) who employs a person who is a qualifying employee in relation to him for a continuous period of at least 13 weeks, and

(b) who has obtained a deductions certificate, and

(c) who is liable to pay Class 1 contributions in respect of earnings paid to or for the benefit of that qualifying employee in the relevant period,

shall be entitled to deduct an amount determined in accordance with this regulation from his contributions payments.

(2) The amount which an employer is entitled to deduct shall be where the Class 1 contributions specified in paragraph (1)(c) are payable—

(a) at the contracted-out rate, an amount equal to the amount of secondary Class 1 contributions which would be payable by that employer in respect of the earnings paid in the relevant period were those contributions payable at the non-contracted-out rate;

(b) at any other rate, an amount equal to the amount of secondary Class 1 contributions which would be payable by that employer in respect of the earnings paid in the relevant period.

(3) For the purposes of determining an amount which an employer is entitled to deduct under paragraph (2) no account shall be taken of any earnings paid to or for the benefit of the qualifying employee after the relevant period.

(4) In this regulation “the relevant period” means the period commencing with the first day of that qualifying employee’s employment with that employer and ending—

(a) on the last day of such employment;

(b) on the day the qualifying employee reaches pensionable age, or

(c) in the following year on the day preceding the day corresponding to that first day of employment,

whichever shall first occur.