Dáil Éireann Debate, Thursday - 21 January 2021
61. Deputy Claire Kerrane asked the Minister for Finance the number of pandemic unemployment payment recipients who have tax to pay; the breakdown of the number of persons owing tax who received payments of €203, €250, €300 and €350, respectively; and the average tax payment owed by these recipients. [3536/21]
View answer66. Deputy Pearse Doherty asked the Minister for Finance the number of persons who received the pandemic unemployment payment in 2020 and received an end of year statement in which their tax position is underpaid as a result of receiving the payment; and the number of persons for whom their tax position is underpaid as a result of receiving the payment in intervals of €100, with respect to the amount by which their position is underpaid. [3098/21]
View answerI propose to take Questions Nos. 61 and 66 together.
Revenue has advised me that they published a detailed breakdown of the position of PAYE taxpayers for 2020, based on their Preliminary End of Year Statements (PEOYS). The information, which is available at the following link, https://www.revenue.ie/en/corporate/documents/statistics/registrations/paye-preliminary-eoy-statements.pdf shows the distribution of overpayments and underpayments, by amount (including averages), for all relevant PAYE taxpayers. This includes those who received the Pandemic Unemployment Payment (PUP) and the Temporary Wage Subsidy Scheme (TWSS) either separately or combined. The published information also includes those who did not receive any PUP or TWSS payments.
While it is not possible to identify whether an underpayment is solely due to a taxpayer unit having been in receipt of the PUP, table 2 sets out the position for those taxpayer units who received only the PUP and not a combination of the PUP and the TWSS; table 3 sets out the position for those persons who underpaid in increments of €100; and table 4 provides information on taxpayer units who received a combination of the TWSS and the PUP.
Finally, Revenue advise me that it is not possible to provide a breakdown of the persons owing tax by reference to the specified PUP payment amounts (€203, €250, €300 and €350) or a combination of those amounts. However, the published tables have average wages for each amount range.
