Vol. 441 No. 7
47 Mr. Cullen asked the Minister for Finance, in respect of those recipients of unemployment benefit who will be liable for taxation as a result of the 1994 Budget proposals, the number of people who will be liable to taxation under this measure; and the amount of tax likely to be collected.
The extent, if any, to which taxation actually arises, from making Unemployment Benefit reckonable as income for tax purposes, essentially depends on the level of other income that recipients of Unemployment Benefit or recipients' spouses have in the same tax year. If, in an individual case, there is no other income in addition to the Unemployment Benefit the income tax exemption limits will generally ensure that there is no tax to pay. Consequently, as detailed information on the total incomes of Unemployment Benefit recipients is not available, it is not possible to indicate the precise number of people who will pay additional tax under this measure. Such a number would of course also depend on the actual number of people receiving Unemployment Benefit in a year. All that can be said is that the number could be of the order of 90,000 to 100,000 but such an estimate is highly tentative. I would like to point out, however, that many of these people would, in any event, have been liable for tax without Unemployment Benefit being reckonable as income for tax purposes.
The yield that is estimated will arise from this measure is £18 million in 1994 and £30 million in a full year.
