Polish and Irish top of the NI foreigner tax list

MORE Polish people were issued with National Insurance numbers than Irish people in Northern Ireland since 2008, it’s been revealed.

Social Development Minister Nelson McCausland outlined the number of tax numbers issued to foreigners here between April 2008 and September 2012.

Of all foreign nationalities to receive National Insurance numbers, Mr McCausland stated that Polish (9,377 issued) and Irish (7,711) topped the list.

They were followed by Lithuanian (5,396), Slovakian (2,052), Latvian (1,978), Portuguese (1,897), Hungarian (1,402) and Indian (1,338).

Less than 1,000 were issued to Chinese (938), Romanian (899), Spanish (839), French (657), Bulgarian (640), Czech (572), American (514), German (508), Filipino (494), Italian (420), Australian (325), South African (140).

In total 38,097 National Insurance numbers were issued to foreigners over the past four years although the amount has reduced over the period.

Social Development Minister Nelson McCausland stated: “The information regarding the nationality is only available from April 2008. The table below lists the top twenty countries and the numbers of national Insurance Numbers issued to their nationals during the period April 2008 – Sept 2012.”