Dáil Éireann Debate, Wednesday - 15 January 2014
151. Deputy Simon Harris asked the Minister for Finance the number of households which have not confirmed their payment method for the local property tax, excluding those who have opted for deferred payment; the way Revenue intends to pursue defaulters; and if he will make a statement on the matter. [1549/14]
View answer152. Deputy Simon Harris asked the Minister for Finance the way in which the Revenue Commissioners intend to pursue defaulters of the €100 household charge; and if he will make a statement on the matter. [1550/14]
View answerI propose to take Questions Nos. 151 and 152 together.
I am informed by the Revenue Commissioners that a compliance rate of 91% has been achieved for the Local Property Tax (LPT) for 2013. The Commissioners have also confirmed that by the end of December 2013 the amount of LPT collected for 2013 was €242m and €76m was collected in respect of 2014. In the region of 78% of liable persons have already confirmed their payment method for their 2014 LPT liability and a constant number of property owners continues to submit their 2014 payment instructions to Revenue each day. Since the start of the New Year, LPT payments in the order of €1m are being received every working day.
The Commissioners are also currently working through over 60,000 items of correspondence relating to property owners 2014 LPT obligations. They advise that any person who has submitted a genuine query (by email/letter/voicemail to the LPT helpline) regarding their 2014 liability in advance of the filing date will be treated as having complied with their requirements on time, once they file their payment instruction for 2014 promptly when the query is resolved. Processing returns which continue to be filed and dealing with this correspondence is Revenue's current priority. The Commissioners strongly advise anyone who has not yet confirmed their payment method to go on-line immediately to file their 2014 Payment Instruction in order to avoid interest charges. Where a person requires assistance with filing on-line or does not have their Property ID or PIN, they should call the LPT helpline on 1890 200 255.
On the Household Charge, as I informed the House in my reply to Questions 147 (54014/13) and 148 (54015/13) on 17 December 2013, section 156 of the Finance (Local Property Tax) Act 2012 (as amended) provides that where the €100 Household Charge for 2012 had not been paid by 1 July 2013 the arrears amount is increased to €200 and is regarded as Local Property Tax (LPT). The €200 arrears can be paid by property owners using any of the payment methods that are currently available for paying LPT. I understand that to date some €2.7m has been paid directly to Revenue in respect of about 13,500 properties and payments continue to be received on a daily basis.
An extensive data matching exercise has been undertaken by Revenue since it received the Household Charge database from the Local Government Management Agency (LGMA). The Commissioners have confirmed that about 1.3m records from the LGMA's Household Charge Register have been matched with the LPT Register but it will not be possible to fully match all Household Charge payments to the LPT Register. The main difficulty is where different people paid the Household Charge and the LPT for the same property; for example, where someone other than the owner paid the Household Charge, the owner's details will not be on the Household Charge Register. Mismatches arise particularly in the case of properties with non-unique addresses. The Commissioners estimate that approximately 45,000 properties fall into this unmatched category.
I strongly recommend that property owners check their LPT record online at www.revenue.ie using their Property ID and PIN. If Revenue's LPT record shows that there is €200 LPT/ Household Charge arrears but they have paid their Household Charge, they should send Revenue a copy of the receipt for the Household Charge and Revenue will remove the charge from the LPT record.
I previously informed the House that Revenue will begin a compliance campaign on LPT/Household Charge arrears in the first quarter of 2014. Two elements of this campaign have already been implemented. Persons who have outstanding LPT liabilities, including Household charge, will not receive a tax clearance certificate, and those whose 2013 LPT was deducted at source on a mandatory basis have been advised that this is continuing. Further elements of the campaign will be rolled out over the coming months supported by a public awareness campaign. These taxes cannot be avoided because the relevant properties cannot be transferred without payment of outstanding LPT liabilities.
The Revenue Commissioners have a duty, in the interests of fairness and equity to those who are compliant, to take effective follow-up action to recover the tax from the non-compliant. I support Revenue's approach, which is to seek to maximise the level of voluntary compliance from property owners in the first instance, but to apply the range of enforcement options and other sanctions available thereafter if non-compliance persists.
