Property tax deadline looms for one million who paid lump sum

People who have not yet paid their local property tax (LPT) for 2015 or signed up to pay via monthly direct debits or employee deductions have been urged to make contact with the Revenue Commissioners before Wednesday’s deadline for payment.

The 625,000 homeowners who paid last year’s tax by direct debit or through deductions from their wages do not have to do anything as their payments will be processed as normal. They will not have received any correspondence from the Revenue and nor should they expect any.

However more than one million people paid the LPT last year in one lump sum – by a single debit authority, debit card, credit card, cash, cheque or postal order or through regular cash payments – and they have until Wednesday to either make a new payment or advise the Revenue of their intention to make a single debit authority payment, which will be deducted at the end of March.

Most of those who this week’s deadline affects would have already been contacted by the Revenue and the letters they would have received will contain their property IDs and pin numbers, along with a confirmation note detailing the amount due for 2015.

This amount depends on the value declared for the property on May 1st, 2013, and the tax rate applying to a property for 2015. The LPT rates have changed for those living in one of the 14 local authorities that announced reductions in their LPT rates last year. Those savings range from 1.5 per cent to 15 per cent and the Revenue has said it will make the changes automatically.

County boundaries

It has however warned people to check the rates for their local authority area because county boundaries and postal addresses are not always aligned and there may be situations where the LPT rate is incorrect. If a local authority assigned to a property needs to be changed, owners can let the Revenue know online or contact the LPT helpline.

Anyone who owned a residential property on November 1st last year is liable for LPT for 2015.

Even those who sold a residential property after November 1st are liable to pay LPT on the property for 2015 if the sale went through before the end of 2014.

The Revenue has said if people make an effort to engage with it before Wednesday they will be deemed to be compliant.