Vol. 495 No. 7
364 Mr. Perry asked the Minister for Finance if tax will be refunded for a person (details supplied) in County Sligo in view of the fact that she is unemployed and has paid her full taxes while she was employed on a nine month temporary contract; and if he will make a statement on the matter. [21405/98]
I am informed by the Revenue Commissioners that the taxpayer in question received a tax refund of £7.75 on 20 October 1998. If the taxpayer's circumstances remain unchanged then a further refund of £15.16 will be made on 13 November 1998.
The individual in question left employment in late August and has been in receipt of unemployment benefit since early September. Any possible refund of taxes due to the individual arising from leaving employment will take account of subsequent UB payments which are considered taxable income. It is a general principle of taxation that, as far as possible, income from all sources should be subject to taxation. In line with this principle the majority of social welfare payments, including UB, are therefore reckonable as income for tax purposes. Treating such payments as income for tax purposes is essentially a matter of equity. It should be noted, however, that since UB was made reckonable as income for tax purposes in 1994 the method of taxing UB has been restructured in order to improve the position of those most adversely affected. To this end a disregard of the first £10 per week of UB for income tax purposes has been introduced.
