Dáil Éireann Debate, Wednesday - 27 November 2013
49. Deputy Róisín Shortall asked the Minister for Finance the reason a local property tax letter was issued to a person (details supplied) in Dublin 5 for a property they do not own, despite this person alerting the Revenue Commissioners of this when paying their 2013 liability; and if he will make a statement on the matter. [51054/13]
View answerI am informed by Revenue that a key aspect of the work it has undertaken in connection with the administration of Local Property Tax (LPT) has been the development of a register of residential properties in the State. The development of the Property Register required Revenue to extract and consolidate data from multiple Government and non-Government sources and unfortunately some incorrect records were added to the Register in a relatively small number of cases during the process. I am also advised that the introduction of LPT represented a huge administrative challenge for Revenue. For example, Revenue has answered in excess of 750,000 telephone calls and replied to in excess of 210,000 letters or emails since March 2013.
Unfortunately, in the case referred to by the Deputy, the correspondence received from the person in question in April 2013 was overlooked by the LPT team and as a consequence the required amendments to the Property Register were not completed. The Register has now been amended and the incorrect details have been removed. Contact will be made with the person in question to confirm that the details are now correct.
