Revenue reassures on virus schemes tax
Revenue has reassured PAYE taxpayers who received pandemic-related wage supports in 2020 that it will not start collecting any tax owed on these payments until January 2022.
Figures released by the tax authority show that about 47% of those who received one or more of the wage supports are either due a refund of tax or have no additional liability.
Liability
Just 23% owe less than €500 in tax, while 15% face an extra liability of between €500 and €1,000.
The head of Revenue’s personal division, Declan Rigney, said the body understood that 2020 was a difficult year for many employees and was aware that underpayments of tax could cause financial difficulties for some people whose jobs were affected by COVID-19 restrictions.
“Given the collection of the amount owed will be spread over four years, an underpayment, for example, of €1,000 will be collected in amounts of just under €5 per week,” he said.
His comments came as preliminary end-of-year tax statements were being made available today (15 January) to all PAYE employees online in Revenue’s MyAccount.
Balanced
Revenue statistics show that more than 80% of all PAYE taxpayers have a 2020 position that is either balanced, overpaid, or underpaid by less than €200.
“Given that Revenue has confirmed that it will collect any tax owing, interest free, over a four-year period, this equates to a collection of €1 extra in tax per week for those with an underpayment of €200,” Mr Rigney said.
Provisional data also indicate that more than 706,000 taxpayers are due a refund.
Underpaid
Revenue also points out that some PAYE taxpayers who have underpaid tax may have additional tax credits for 2020 to claim. This may reduce or eliminate the amount they owe.
The tax body says around 5,600 employers or their agents have not returned data on TWSS wage subsidy payments made to approximately 50,000 employees. These workers will see a TWSS amount of €0 on their preliminary 2020 statement.
“If the TWSS figure displayed doesn’t tally with the payments you received or you see a value of €0, you should contact your employer in the first instance to clarify the matter,” Revenue says.