Dáil Éireann Debate, Wednesday - 17 September 2014
16. Deputy Barry Cowen asked the Minister for the Environment, Community and Local Government if he has raised concerns over local authorities’ collection of the non-principal private residency tax; his plans to revise the non-principal private residency tax timeframe of charges; and if he will make a statement on the matter. [34331/14]
View answerThe Local Government (Charges) Act 2009, as amended, provides the legislative basis for the Non-Principal Private Residence Charge. The NPPR Charge, which has since been discontinued, applied in the years 2009 to 2013 to any residential property in which the owner did not reside as their normal place of residence. The NPPR charge is based on self-declaration and therefore the onus is on the property owner themselves to register their property and make the payment. The 2009 Act places the Charge under the care and management of the local authorities and application in particular circumstances is a matter for the relevant local authority.
Part 12 of the Local Government Reform Act 2014 deals with the collection of undischarged liabilities relating to the NPPR charge. The Act provided for a period from 2 March 2014 to 31 August 2014, during which time no new late penalties were applied to existing liabilities. I understand that large numbers of individuals were seeking to settle their NPPR liability in the days leading up to 31 August and not all could get through to their local authority, due to the high volume of calls. The Local Government Management Agency, on behalf of the local authorities, has confirmed, in recognition of this, that individuals who made contact with either the National Bureau or with their local authority before the expiry of the deadline indicating the property for which they wanted to settle the NPPR liability and giving their contact details, could have penalties frozen at 31 August 2014 levels.
If such contact was not made or if payment was not made in full or if settlement terms were not agreed by the end of that period, an additional late payment fee of €120 per liability date applied on 1 September 2014. In addition, the entire NPPR liability is increased by a factor of 50% and frozen. There are no plans to revise this legislation.
Under section 77 of the Local Government Reform Act 2014, my Department issued guidance to local authorities concerning matters relating to arrears of the NPPR charge and late payment fees to ensure that a consistent national approach is adopted. The guidelines encourage local authorities to take a proactive approach to ensure that any outstanding NPPR liabilities are discharged in the most equitable, efficient and economically beneficial manner, including guidance on dealing with issues of financial hardship. It is expected, in the majority of cases, that local authorities will collect the full NPPR charge liability from owners. In some cases, this may be by means of arrangement by installment. All non-compliant owners should log on to www.nppr.ie or, alternatively, contact their local authority to discuss any matters they wish to clarify and to make their outstanding payments.
