MANY agency locums at Noble’s Hospital have not been paying income tax or National Insurance here, Tynwald was told.
Speaker Steve Rodan said that ‘hundreds of thousands of pounds’ of taxes had gone uncollected as locum doctors had not been on the local payroll.
Health Minister David Anderson said hospital staff employed on contract as locum doctors were now liable, as from April 6 this year, to Manx income tax and National Insurance contributions regardless of their residence status. He said payments to agency staff totalled more than £4.7m in 2011-12.
Treasury Minister Eddie Teare confirmed an exercise being carried out by the Income Tax Division in conjuction with all government departments had ‘highlighted several interesting cases’.
He said: ‘This initiative has found a number of areas of concern which may mean that the correct amount of tax and National Insurance contributions due to the Isle of Man are not being collected and those areas of concern are being addressed.’
He said the Assessor has the statutory power to direct that payments attributable to labour or service are treated as remuneration and recipients treated as employees for tax purposes. He said this power was being used as part of the current initiative.
He added: ‘The Assessor will ensure all individuals providing services to government are treated correctly for income tax and National Insurance purposes.’