The pharmacy puts the professional on its payroll for the engagement — even for a single day — and pays the agreed hourly rate through payroll with income tax, USC and PRSI deducted at source. The professional gets a payslip; the pharmacy pays employer PRSI on top.

This is Revenue's default expectation for locum pharmacists, and it's how permanent, part-time and student roles are always paid.

The professional joins an umbrella company — a ready-made, insured, VAT-registered company run by a specialist provider. The pharmacy receives an invoice from and pays the umbrella company; the umbrella then employs the professional, runs payroll, deducts all taxes, pays Revenue and issues a payslip. The provider charges the professional a monthly/weekly fee for this.

Contracting Plus, one of the best-known Irish providers, offers two flavours: Umbrella PAYE (quickest — you're simply an employee of the umbrella, keeping Class A PRSI, well suited to first-time or short-term locuming) and Umbrella Director (you become a director within their umbrella structure — more expense flexibility and tax planning for committed full-time locums, without the admin of your own company). Other Irish providers offer similar services — compare fees and what's included (insurance, expenses handling, pension options).

Committed full-time locums sometimes incorporate: their limited company contracts with the pharmacy, invoices for the work, and pays the locum a salary through the company's own payroll. An accountant typically runs the company's books, returns and payroll.

Revenue has reviewed these locum companies closely and flags specific traps: travel between home and the pharmacy is a normal commute (not tax-free travel expenses, even across short contracts); only vouched, wholly-and-exclusively business expenses are deductible; wages paid to family members must be genuinely earned and proportionate; and supplying staff is VATable at 23% once turnover passes the VAT registration threshold.

Historically, some locums simply invoiced pharmacies as self-employed sole traders and settled their own tax through self-assessment. Following Revenue's guidance, this is now the exception rather than the rule: an engagement is only genuinely self-employed if it passes the five-step Karshan framework on its real facts — and Revenue states that, in its experience, locum pharmacist engagements are generally employment.

If an engagement that's really employment is paid as self-employment, the pharmacy remains liable for the PAYE, USC and PRSI it should have deducted — a contract clause saying 'self-employed' carries little weight. Many pharmacies now decline sole-trader invoices for standard locum cover for exactly this reason.