Pearse Doherty (Donegal, Sinn Fein) | Oireachtas source

This is one of the issues we addressed when the scheme was introduced. The scheme has been extended and will be extended again. It needs to be extended for affected sectors right out to the end of the year. However, if we take it that it will potentially run for 22 weeks, for those workers and employees who have benefitted to the maximum amount of €410, it is more than €9,000 in untaxed income from which they have benefitted. If it is extended, that figure will go up. There is a huge anxiety here because they do not know what this means. They do not know if the underpaid tax will amount to hundreds or thousands of euro at the end of the year. They have no way of calculating it. There is no online calculator for the Revenue, which I am suggesting to the Minister today. Revenue is extremely efficient and excellent in terms of the Revenue Online Service, ROS. A type of online calculator would be beneficial.

The Minister mentioned that it would be spread over 2021 and possibly beyond. When will a decision be made on whether it will be 2021 or whether it will go into 2022? What will happen to those employees who have their employment terminated either at or before the end of the year and who have an unpaid tax liability? Will they have to pay it in a lump sum? I have asked a number of questions but most important is the suggestion that we need an online tax calculator that will give examples of the potential liability across a range of individuals.

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