The legislation governing Local Property Tax (LPT) is contained in Finance (Local Property Tax) Act 2012 and was signed into law by the President on 26 December 2012. The Act sets out how the tax is to be administered, how a residential property is to be valued for LPT purposes and provides for the making of a Revenue Estimate. I am informed by the Revenue Commissioners that they are compiling a comprehensive Register of residential properties in the State that will be used to correspond with all property owners. Based on Census 2011 data, produced by the Central Statistics Office, there are an estimated 1.99 million residential dwellings in the State. Revenue is currently refining the LPT Register to identify those properties owned by local authorities and approved housing bodies and will liaise directly with these organisations in respect of LPT arising on these properties. I am further advised by the Revenue Commissioners that some individuals and companies will receive their LPT return electronically via the Revenue Online Service (ROS). Accordingly, the number of paper returns expected to issue to owners of residential properties will be confirmed over the coming weeks, but is expected to be of the order of 1.6 million. This general issue of paper LPT returns to property owners will commence in March 2013.
I am further informed by the Revenue Commissioners that LPT is a self-assessment tax so in the first instance it is a matter for the property owner to calculate the tax due based on his or her assessment of the chargeable value of the property. I would like to clarify that the Revenue Commissioners will not be involved, as a matter of routine, in valuing properties. However, I am advised that they are actively preparing valuation guidance which, taken together with a liable person’s own knowledge of their property, will assist them in assessing its value and that these will be made available as soon as possible. The guidance will include drawing property owners’ attention to the publicly available PSRA property price register which includes some 62,000 of reasonably recent property prices, and a method to help property owners establish average/indicative values for properties in different locations. As I have previously advised the House, where the Revenue guidance is used in an honest manner, the property valuation will not be challenged by Revenue in accordance with its normal Customer Service Charter.
As part of the general issue of LPT returns by Revenue, property owners will also receive an information booklet and a Revenue Estimate of LPT. The Revenue Estimate is not based on a valuation of each owner’s individual property nor should it be regarded as an accurate calculation of the amount of LPT that they should pay. Once the property owner meets their obligations by valuing their property, submitting their return and advising Revenue of their payment method within the relevant time limits, the Revenue Estimate of LPT notified to them is no longer relevant. On the other hand, where a property owner does not submit an LPT return by the due date, the LPT legislation provides that Revenue can enforce collection of the Revenue Estimate. If a property owner pays the Revenue Estimate instead of submitting their LPT return they will not be immune from further action. The property owner is still required to submit a self-assessed LPT return.
