MONEY comes, money goes: MPs of the House Finance Committee yesterday agreed to a government request for the release of some ?114,000 in order that the state can then pay the taxman.
The amount represents the income tax on fees paid to constitutional law expert Claire Palley for her services to former President Tassos Papadopoulos.
Palley served as consultant to Papadopoulos from 2004 to 2007, for which she earned around ?500,000.
She was hired on a net-of-tax salary arrangement - where the tax on income is paid by the employer on behalf of the employee. This meant it was the Office of the Presidency which hired her that owed any income tax to the Inland Revenue Department (IRD).
In late April the IRD addressed a letter to the Finance Ministry, saying the amount due - ?114,082 - was substantial and could be ignored no longer.
Complicating the matter was the fact that parliamentarians had 'crossed' (withheld) the item on the 2012 budget relating to the expenses of the Presidency. Among others, the item includes such things as the President's air travel costs -- which was also released recently.
Given that Palley's remuneration had been drawn from this fund, the Finance Ministry needed to secure the pending amount of ?114,000.
In what is an accounting exercise, the amount will now be paid into the Consolidated Fund - the government's main bank account - and from there to the IRD.
"It was not Mrs. Palley who owed the money," explained DISY MP Harris Georgiades. "She had nothing to do with this."
Asked what reason the government gave lawmakers for its five-year delay in settling the amount, Georgiades said: "They told us it was an oversight...they neglected it. At least they didn't try to make any excuses."
Palley had also served as constitutional consultant to the government during the long-drawn out United Nations-sponsored reunification talks from 1980-2004.
She is the author of the book, "An International Relations Debacle" which deals in detail with the UN Secretary-General's Mission of Good Offices in Cyprus in the period 1999-2004 and its culmination with the presentation of the Annan Plan V.
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