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Sinn Féin has criticized the government for “turning back the clock” to tax those who received Pandemic Unemployment Pay (PUP).
People will now face bills of up to 1,470 euros after it was decided to retroactively tax the support that was introduced in March, said Sinn Féin finance spokesman Pearse Doherty.
“I, as someone who has been dealing with financial bills for 10 years, have never seen a situation where there are retrospective taxes where you go back in time and say that the payments that were paid, that were tax exempt under the law, they are now taxable.
“The question is why would you do this? Why would you violate a principle that is enshrined in tax law throughout the world?” Mr. Doherty asked.
It comes after the Oireachtas Finance Committee, in which Mr. Doherty participates, voted through a section of the Finance Bill that stipulates that the Pandemic Unemployment Pay is subject to income tax.
Mr. Doherty said, “Don’t go back and take a tax a payment that was paid.
“We have never done it, we have never done it for the banks that exploited the loopholes in our tax code, we have never done it with vulture funds, we have never done it with large accounting firms, but with the government decided for the first time in history they’re going to turn back the clock and tax a payment. “
He agreed that the payment is taxable as of August, when the PUP was established on a legal basis, but said it was not taxable before that date.
“The legal position is that from March 13 to August this payment was a payment for urgent needs.
“The 2018 Finance Bill makes it clear that urgent needs payments are not taxable. The government cannot do it both ways,” he said. .
Speaking in the Finance Committee on Monday, Finance Minister Paschal Donohoe said it was always the government’s intention that those in the PUP pay income taxes, but not PRSI or USC.
He said he had made it clear in the April Day.
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