SDLP leader Colum Eastwood publishes his tax return
THE main protagonists in the Foyle constituency Assembly election battle have published their tax returns.
SDLP leader Colum Eastwood and Sinn Fein’s deputy first minister Martin McGuinness published their income figures following the fall out from the Panama papers affair.
The scandal revealed that British Prime Minister ‘Dodgy Dave’ Cameron had £20,000 in shares in an offshore company in Panama set up by his father.
According to their tax returns, SDLP leader Colum Eastwood is still paying back his student loan more than 15 years after taking it out.
While the size of the loan has not been made public, more than £2,000 was deducted from his assembly salary in the last financial year for student loan repayments.
It is understood Mr Eastwood took the loan out while studying at the University of Liverpool in 2001.
The form does not make clear when he made his first loan repayment.
The documents also show the SDLP leader paid £6,231 in tax on his assembly salary of £41,168.
Martin McGuinness, who has been parachuted in by Sinn Fein to try and take a seat offf the SDLP in Foyle, has also published his tax dealings.
He paid more than £37,000 in tax in the 2014-15 financial year on his Stormont salary of £111,600.
The tax return shows that Mr McGuinness received nearly £61,900 in benefits and expenses – which refers to his assembly MLA allowances.
Mr McGuinness’s calculation indicates that in the year to April 2015 he overpaid income tax by £462.
Sinn Féin said the Deputy First Minister does not take his full salary and that instead Mr McGuinness is paid an industrial wage and gives the remainder to the party.
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