Warning that those who depend on PUP will have to pay heavy taxes

DUBLIN: Warning that those who lost their jobs during the COVID-19 period would have to pay a heavy tax on the Pandemic Unemployment Payment (PUP) provided by the Irish government.

Pearse Doherty, Sinn Féin leader and TD, says those who rely on PUP will have to pay up to €1,400 in taxes.

“For one of these payments, for a portion of the year last year, from March to August, the PUP under law was tax-exempt. What the Government did was they rewound the clock – they did something that was never done before in the history of tax legislation – and that is they retrospectively taxed it,” Sinn Féin leader said.

At the same time, the PUP will be taxed from August but this will not be collected for a number of years.

In the wake of COVID-19 crisis, the temporary wage subsidy scheme and other supports were not taxed, but the situation is that it has to be taxed later.

Therefore, Doherty says, people may receive letters about tax liability in the coming days. Although no tax will be collected this year, tax collection will start from 2022. The government aims to complete the tax collection within four years.

Meanwhile, the number of PUP recipients in Ireland rose to 335,599. The increase is 20% in the post-Christmas period. During this period, 58,000 new people received PUP.