Dáil Éireann Debate, Thursday - 5 December 2013
51. Deputy Joanna Tuffy asked the Minister for Finance the reason householders who choose to pay their local property tax by credit card or debit tax must make their 2014 LPT payments by 27 November 2013, a full 31 days before the due date; and if he will make a statement on the matter. [52256/13]
View answerI note that similar questions concerning payment of the 2014 Local Property Tax (LPT) liability by credit card or debit card have been raised by a number of Deputies and I provided a detailed response in my reply to Questions Nos. 202 (46491/13), 214 (46815/13), 215 (46879/13), 216 (46881/13), 229 (46999/13), 232 (47059/13), 239 (47101/13), 143 (47110/13) and 252 (47136/13) on 5 November 2013 and to Question 40 (48645/13) on 14 November. In accordance with the Finance (Local Property Tax) Act 2012 (as amended), the tax for 2014 is payable on or before 1 January 2014. Consequently, there is no requirement on property owners to pay their 2014 LPT before 1 January 2014. The range of payment options provided by the Revenue Commissioners ensures that nobody needs pay LPT before that date (except in a case where a property is changing hands) and also provide the flexibility for a property owner to select a payment option that best suits their particular circumstances.
I understand that the Chairman of the Revenue Commissioners dealt with this issue comprehensively when she attended a meeting of the Joint Committee on Finance, Public Expenditure and Reform on 7 November 2013. The Chairman informed the Committee that in order to provide for a delayed payment of LPT by way of credit/debit card, Revenue would be required to retain taxpayer’s credit/debit card data. The Commissioners would be very concerned about retaining such data from a data protection perspective, as it is not best practice, and other issues, including costs, also arise. Recent well-publicised data breaches arising from the retention of such data underline those concerns. The Chairman agreed that the Commissioners would review the payment patterns for 2014 to establish the proportion of owners who choose to pay the tax by credit/debit card and that they would also carefully review the issues around retaining debit/credit card data and its potential impact on systems, costs, security and data protection.
The Deputy should also be aware that for those with a debit card, payment by way of single debit authority is a simple, safe, secure alternative, which also provides property owners with an extended payment date of 21 March 2014.
