I am advised by Revenue that a key aspect of the work undertaken in regard to Local Property Tax (LPT) was the 'building' of a comprehensive register of residential properties in the State. During the development process, some matching difficulties occurred when consolidating the various Government and non-Government data sources and as a result the information input to the Register for a relatively small number of cases was incorrect.
As part of its comprehensive communications strategy, Revenue requested that any taxpayers who received an LPT Return for a property they did not own to make immediate contact with the LPT team so that the Register could be corrected thereby preventing any unnecessary debt collection/enforcement action, including possible mandatory deduction at source (DaS) from income/pension payments.
In regard to the specific case to which the Deputy refers, the difficulties occurred because the person in question did not make contact with Revenue to confirm that she was not the liable owner of the property for which an LPT Return issued, though it is acknowledged that the various LPT notifications issued to the address of the property in question and she may not have had sight of them. A subsequent reminder issued to her at the address concerned in July 2013 advising that DaS from her income would start if she did not address the issue. Unfortunately, contact was not made with Revenue and an instruction subsequently issued to her employer to start deductions.
Revenue has confirmed to me that the person made contact with the LPT team in October 2014 and confirmed that she was not the liable owner of the property. On the basis of follow up enquiries Revenue has now updated the Property Register with the correct ownership details and the deductions taken from the person's salary in respect of the 2013 and 2014 liabilities will be refunded to her in the coming days.
