A series of LPT updates, LPT guidance and press releases issued from Revenue over the last month.

Information and Returns

Local Property Tax (LPT) information leaflets and LPT returns began issuing to property owners last month. The online Valuation Guidance tool was also launched on the Revenue website last month. In advance of the letters issuing, Revenue Chairman Ms Josephine Feehily outlined details of how Revenue will administer the tax.

In a Revenue press statement, the Revenue Chairman outlined the basis of LPT, stressing that it is a self-assessed tax and that Revenue is not valuing properties. She also confirmed that Revenue has compiled a register of residential properties; using the Geo Directory to identify properties and Revenue data and a range of other sources such as the Local Government Management Agency and the Private Residential Tenancies Board to connect the individual to the property. Given that this is a new register, errors are likely and a very small minority of individuals will receive a letter in error according to the Revenue Chairman. If this happens Revenue should be contacted immediately so that the error can be rectified, otherwise the individual will continue to be connected with the property.

The full text of the Revenue Press Statement is published on the Revenue's website.

FAQs

FAQs dealing with information on LPT for employers, farmers and social welfare recipients are published on the Revenue website. The FAQs deal with the payment options, including phased payments, available to these classes of homeowners and how phased payments will be administered by Revenue.

Some key points set out in the FAQs include:

For employers – from July onwards, employers will be obliged to make a facility available for employees to make a phased payment of their LPT over the period July to December 2013 via the PAYE system. Revenue will notify the employer provider to deduct LPT from the employee's net salary via the employer Tax Credit Certificate (P2C) – both the ROS and the paper versions. The employer will be required to account for and remit the deducted LPT to Revenue on Form P30.

Further information for employers and pension providers together with illustrations of the P2C showing LPT charge is included in the FAQs published on the Revenue website.

For farmers - payment of LPT can be made in one single payment or by phased payments over the period July to December 2013. Phased payment options include deduction at source from scheme payments received from the Department of Agriculture, Food and the Marine (DAFM). Revenue will notify the DAFM once this option is selected on the LPT return and certain information is provided on the return.

Revenue's FAQs provide more detailed information on the LPT for farmers.

For social welfare recipients – as for employees and farmers, social welfare recipients liable to pay LPT can opt for a phased payment over the period July to December 2013 or make one single payment. This option must be selected on the LPT return and by completing required information. Deduction of LPT from a DSP payment cannot reduce a DSP personal rate payment to less than €186 per week therefore recipients must ensure that they have sufficient weekly payments to cover their LPT.

Further information on LPT payments for social welfare recipients including the deferral option is covered in the Revenue's FAQs.

Deferring Payment of Local Property Tax

Guidance on deferring payment or part payment of Local Property Tax and examples illustrating how deferral will operate is available on the LPT section of the Revenue website. Also available is the LPT2 Return form which is required where deferral is claimed under one of the categories; Personal Representative of a Deceased Person, Personal Insolvency and Hardship Grounds. Where deferral is claimed based on Income Threshold the LPT1 Return form should be used.

Ghost Estates

Revenue in a press release last month addressed the matter of LPT exemption for homeowners with properties in “ghost estates”. It was noted that Revenue “has no role in relation to the designation of properties as exempt from LPT on the grounds that they are located in an unfinished housing estate”. A list of estates that qualify for exemption from the LPT is contained in Statutory Instrument S.I. No. 91 of 2013.