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Property Taxation Administration

Dáil Éireann Debate, Tuesday - 15 October 2013

Tuesday, 15 October 2013

Questions (14, 15)

Terence Flanagan

Question:

14. Deputy Terence Flanagan asked the Minister for Finance the reason property tax is not being deducted from the pension of a person (details supplied) in Dublin 5; and if he will make a statement on the matter. [43163/13]

View answer

Terence Flanagan

Question:

15. Deputy Terence Flanagan asked the Minister for Finance the reason local property tax has not been deducted from a pension of a person (details supplied) in Dublin 5; and if he will make a statement on the matter. [43165/13]

View answer

Written answers

I propose to take Questions Nos. 14 and 15 together.

I am informed by the Revenue Commissioners that the difficulties in both cases arose as a consequence of processing errors. In both cases the persons in question filed their LPT Returns within the specified time limits. However, the returns did not automatically upload to the Property Register because the details supplied did not match the data held on the system for those properties. The returns were subsequently ‘suspended’ and referred to an operator for manual investigation. The operator successfully matched the properties to the persons in question and uploaded the correct details to the Property Register. Unfortunately the preferred payment options of Deduction at Source from Department of Social Protection (DSP) pensions did not upload to the Register due to a processing error. The processing error resulted in the Register incorrectly indicating that the persons had not selected any payment option and for that reason no instruction to commence Deduction at Source was transferred across to DSP for either case.

In regard to Question No. 15, I am further informed that Revenue has recently issued a compliance letter to the person warning of commencement of mandatory deduction at source from a private pension source if a payment arrangement is not put in place within ten days. It is now clear that this letter should not have issued as it was based on inaccurate information held on the Property Register.

I am assured by Revenue that it is making immediate direct contact with both persons to firstly apologise for the errors and to make arrangements for payment in a way that best suits both individuals.

Finally, while any error is unfortunate, Revenue has assured me that vast majority of returns and payments received in regard to approximately 1.59 million properties have been accurately recorded on the Property Register and that the error rate is very small in the overall context of the scale of the 2013 LPT programme.

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