THE leader of a major international fraud gang was claiming Pandemic Unemployment Payments (PUP) from the State despite being locked up in jail awaiting his court outcome, the Herald can reveal.
Daniel Almajanu (35) was jailed for four years and four months on Wednesday after he pleaded guilty to two counts of having custody of 53 fake bank cards and one count of making 65 fake bank cards at various locations around Dublin between January 1 and February 13 last year.
The Romanian national also pleaded guilty to one count of possessing a laptop designed to make false cards.
Gardaí said this week that data found on that laptop showed that he could have made up to €5m from his cloned credit card scam.
The latest numbers show tax revenues in January were down 9pc compared to the same month last year, including big falls in Vat and excise duty, while social welfare spending was 42pc higher.
January is an important month for Vat collection which is usually boosted by pre-Christmas trading, however, Vat receipts last month were down €340m from last year.
That reflects the hit to trading from the successive lockdowns in November and late December, and suggests CSO retail sales data that showed a rise in December spending has not translated into the tax take.
The Exchequer figures record a total €520m drop in cash terms of tax collected versus the same month last year.
Covid related lockdown restrictions were cited as the primary factors leading to a fall off in employment in the Múscraí Gaeltacht during 2020.
So said Údarás na Gaeltachta s Regional Manager for Munster, Dónal Ó Liatháin, as he commented on the Gaeltacht development agency s annual statement for 2020 which was published this week.
According to an employment survey carried out during November in the Gaeltacht regions, there were 664 people employed in Údarás na Gaeltachta supported companies in the Cork Gaeltacht - comprising Múscraí and Oileán Cléire/Cape Clear - at that time. This was a drop of 35 jobs on the 2019 figure of 699. The fall off would have been greater were it not for the creation of 23 new jobs in the region.
Government called out on PUP contradictory and confusing back tax payments
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Differing and confusing explanations provided by the Government, including those by a Laois Offaly Minister for State, in an attempt to justify the retrospective taxation of the Pandemic Unemployment Payment payment have been criticised by a service which provides free legal advice in Ireland.
Eilis Barry, Chief Executive of the Free Legal Advice Centres, has called into question remarks made by the Minister for Social Protection Heather Humphreys on the RTÉ 1 News at One programme that the payment would be treated as income by Revenue, similar to Jobseeker’s Allowance and that the retrospective nature of the legislation pursuant to which the PUP has been taxed is a matter for Revenue.
The payment was put on a statutory footing in August and, like other core social-welfare payments, was made liable for income tax. But the decision to apply this retrospectively between March and August has been heavily criticised, including by the Free Legal Advice Centre, which has questioned whether the move is constitutional.
Q: How much is owed for those who were on the wage subsidy scheme?
Consumer tax manager with Taxback.com, Marian Ryan, said the amount owed will vary from person to person.
“What is owed will depend on their circumstances, their earnings pre- and post-TWSS and if their employer subsidised the TWSS with additional income and topped up the employee’s gross weekly wage.”