The Revenue and the Department of Finance have published details of the proposed public consultation on VAT on Property announced by the Minister in the Budget 2007.

On 18 December, Revenue issued eBrief No. 54/2006 (reproduced at Section 2.10) advising that they had published the final report of the VAT on Property Review Project. This report follows a review of the current system of applying VAT on property transactions which was carried out over the past two years in consultation with representative bodies, including ICAI. The review recommends significant changes to the system. A copy of the report is available at http://www.revenue.ie

The Department of Finance concurrently published details of the public consultation process, the purpose of which is to engage in a wide consultation process with interested parties before deciding on any changes to the VAT treatment of property transactions. The Consultation document is available at http://www.finance.gov.ie/documents/publications/other/vatconsultdec06.pdf.

Submissions must be made before 9 May 2007, with the proposed amendments expected to be implemented in 2008. If any member would like ICAI to make representations on their behalf, please forward details to Brian Keegan, Director of Taxation, at brian.keegan@icai.ie or Mary O'Brien, Senior Manager Taxation at mary.obrien@icai.ie