I am informed by the Revenue Commissioners that the net receipt of residential property tax for each year since 1997 is as follows:
Year
|
€m
|
1997
|
3.95
|
1998
|
1.83
|
1999
|
1.77
|
2000
|
2.02
|
2001
|
1.65
|
2002
|
0.83
|
2003
|
0.40
|
2004
|
0.38
|
Residential property tax, RPT, was abolished with effect from 5 April 1997. However, any person who had a liability to RPT prior to its abolition in 1997 has an obligation to discharge that liability, including the payment of interest.
A liability to RPT is not a charge on a property, except where a person — transferor — transfers a residential property to his or her spouse. In such cases, where a transferor transfers a residential property to his or her spouse, any tax and interest due and outstanding on the date of such transfer shall be and remain, for 12 years from that date, a first charge on that property.
Where a property is sold for a consideration in excess of the RPT threshold the vendor must furnish an RPT clearance certificate to the purchaser to certify that the vendor does not have an outstanding RPT liability. The value threshold for this purpose is €1,300,000 and applies to house sale contracts on or after 5 April 2005. Where the vendor fails to furnish the purchaser with an RPT clearance the purchaser must deduct a specified amount from the sale consideration and remit the specified amount to the Revenue Commissioners. The specified amount is calculated by deducting the amount of the RPT threshold from the sale consideration and multiplying the answer by 1.5%.
Where a person requests a clearance certificate from Revenue and has not previously paid RPT, Revenue will issue a multi-year return form to that person, and the form must be returned to Revenue with payment of any outstanding tax and interest. Where a person has paid RPT previously and requests a clearance certificate from Revenue, and Revenue consider that the RPT has been underpaid for any year(s), an assessment will issue for the amount of the underpayment.
Interest has been applied to late payments of RPT, however, surcharges do not apply to outstanding RPT liabilities.