Jobs and pay

Second job tax in Ireland: do you pay more, and how to split your credits

Written by PAYEWise editorial team, plain-English tax writers working from Revenue sources. Tax review: pending appointment of a named tax-qualified reviewer. Reviewed 28 October 2026.

Quick answer

Having two jobs does not increase your total tax for the year. What changes is how it is collected. Revenue treats one job as your main employment and gives it all your credits and by default, so a second job is taxed at 40% from the first euro. Divide your credits and rate band between the jobs in in proportion to what each pays, and the deductions even out. Anything overpaid comes back at year end.

How to split credits and rate band

Sign in to myAccount and open PAYE Services, then Manage your tax for the current year.
Select the employments and choose Divide tax credits and rate band.
Enter the estimated annual pay for each job, or set the split yourself. Revenue sends an updated Revenue Payroll Notification to each employer.

A sensible split

Give each job enough to cover its pay at 20% and enough credits to cover its tax. If job A pays 40,000 euro and job B pays 10,000 euro, roughly 80% of the band and credits to A and 20% to B works. Revenue can do the split from your estimates.

What cannot be split

Flat rate expenses belong to a specific job and stay with it.
The Employee Tax Credit is a single annual amount shared across PAYE income, not one per job.

Pitfalls

Leaving the second job on emergency tax for months means a large, slow refund rather than correct pay each month.
If you do not tell Revenue about the second job, that employer may also get full credits, leading to an underpayment.

This is independent guidance, not advice from Revenue. Revenue decides your position. You can review any year for free in myAccount.

Sources and review

R49Splitting tax credits and rate bands between jobsofficialchecked 2026-10-28
R56What to do if you get a second jobofficialchecked 2026-10-28

Last reviewed 2026-10-28 (awaiting sign-off by a named tax-qualified reviewer). Every factual tax rule on this page is backed by a dated Revenue source. Spotted an error? Use the contact page.

Reviewed 2026-10-28. Figures use 2026 rules unless a year is stated.

Pitfalls

Leaving the second job on emergency tax for months means a large, slow refund rather than correct pay each month.

If you do not tell Revenue about the second job, that employer may also get full credits, leading to an underpayment.

This is independent guidance, not advice from Revenue. Revenue decides your position. You can review any year for free in myAccount.

Sources and review

R49Splitting tax credits and rate bands between jobsofficialchecked 2026-10-28
R56What to do if you get a second jobofficialchecked 2026-10-28

Last reviewed 2026-10-28 (awaiting sign-off by a named tax-qualified reviewer). Every factual tax rule on this page is backed by a dated Revenue source. Spotted an error? Use the contact page.

Second job tax in Ireland: do you pay more, and how to split your credits

How to split credits and rate band

A sensible split

What cannot be split

Pitfalls

Related

Second job tax in Ireland: do you pay more, and how to split your credits

How to split credits and rate band

A sensible split

What cannot be split

Pitfalls

Related