I am advised by Revenue that Section 156 of the Finance (Local Property Tax) Act 2012 converted any arrears of Household Charge (HHC) that was still outstanding on 1 July 2013 to a Local Property Tax (LPT) liability of €200 per property and made Revenue responsible for collecting the tax. On assuming responsibility for the collection of HHC, Revenue received the Register from the Local Government Management Agency (LGMA) and cross-referenced it with the LPT Register to identify a database of properties for which the Household Charge is still outstanding. As part of its communications strategy, Revenue clearly stated that the database would not be 100% accurate for a number of reasons, for example because the LGMA Register captured the name of the person who physically paid the charge rather than the property owner (e.g. child paying on behalf of a parent) and did not capture details of exemptions in every case.
I am further advised that during the building of the LPT Register, Revenue collaborated with all Local Authorities and Social Housing Bodies to confirm details of their individual property portfolios. This was done to ensure tenants were correctly excluded from the Register thereby ensuring against unnecessary correspondence issuing. However, given the scale of the project it was inevitable that some data matching errors would occur in spite of Revenue's best efforts. For that reason Revenue very clearly stated throughout its LPT/HHC communications strategy that tenants who incorrectly received notifications should immediately make contact with the LPT Helpline to have the record amended. Where tenants failed to make contact or provide sufficient information during the contact, then the Register continued to hold inaccurate information, which could result in arrears notices issuing.
As part of the HHC compliance campaign, Revenue built new functionality to its online system to facilitate people in confirming their HHC status in a very user friendly and intuitive manner. The new system is accessible via the Property ID and PIN codes that issued on the arrears notices. The system allows users to make a HHC payment, confirm payment has already been made, or confirm that an exemption in respect of HHC exists. Revenue also added significant extra resources to its Helpline to ensure people have access to service on a timely basis. The online system is available twenty four hours a day while the Helpline is currently offering an 8am to 8pm service.
Finally, it is essential that tenants who receive notifications in respect of either LPT or HHC liabilities immediately contact Revenue to clarify their status. Where contact is not made it is inevitable that such cases will be listed for compliance activity, which causes unnecessary stress to the persons in question.
