€174 Million Collected to Date

According to Revenue's LPT preliminary update published at the end of July, approx. €174 million has been collected in LPT and a further €60 million has been agreed under phased payment arrangements. A total of 1.58 million LPT returns have been filed with Revenue. Taking into account local authority housing and based on an estimated register of 1.96 million properties, the LPT compliance rate is an average 89%. A breakdown of the LPT compliance by local authority shows that the main cities have lower than average compliance. This breakdown together with further details on Revenue's recent LPT activity is published on the Revenue website.

Parliamentary Questions Clarify a Number of Issues

Among his responses to Parliamentary Questions on LPT last month, the Minister for Finance clarified that if a homeowner has genuinely overpaid their LPT, section 26 of the LPT Act 2012 (as amended) provides that a claim for a refund of the tax overpaid may be made to Revenue. Revenue will issue detailed guidelines later in the year setting out the procedures to be followed in the cases where there may be an overpayment of LPT.

The Minister also confirmed that single debit authority (SDA) payment option is equivalent to an electronic cheque. Where a homeowner opted to pay LPT in respect of 2013 by means of SDA, the instruction is limited to that particular payment and does not automatically carry over into 2014. According to the Minister where a person wishes to avail of the SDA option to pay LPT in respect of 2014 he or she will be required to complete a new mandate. Revenue are expected to remind all taxpayers of such requirements in due course.

In his other responses to Parliamentary Questions the Minister confirmed that it is not possible to make payment of LPT by Standing Order. Such a payment method is risky from an Exchequer viewpoint and the Minister will not be asking Revenue to extend the current payment options. Arrangements for claiming a LPT exemption in respect of pyrite were also clarified by the Minister.

The full range of Parliamentary Questions on LPT is published on the Revenue website.

Tax Clearance Certificate Applications

Revenue issued a notice that the conditions for Tax Clearance will not be met where LPT Returns and/or payments are outstanding. Additionally where the LPT payment method chosen is not fulfilled Tax Clearance Certs will not issue. This is because outstanding LPT Returns and liabilities are taken into account for tax clearance purposes under section 1094 and section 1095 of the Taxes Consolidation Act 1997.

LPT Property History

Property owners can view details of their LPT Property History by logging onto the LPT on-line system at www.revenue.ie using their Property ID, PIN and PPSN or tax reference number. Owners can also provide access to this facility to their solicitors or agents.