IF THE LETTERS that make their way into our questions and answers postbag are anything to go by, confusion still reigns over the Non Principal Private Residence (NPPR) €200 fee.
Even this week there have been queries from landlords who have only just heard (through the media, landlord chat, the ether) about the tax, only days before the September 30th deadline.
Recurrent questions include: is my holiday apartment in Spain liable? (no, because it’s abroad); if I don’t rent out my second house, do I still have to pay? (yes); and how much information do I have to give about myself (quite a deal).
The otherwise excellent www.nppr.ie payment and information website adds to the confusion when it comes to late payment.
Liable second homeowners who don’t pay up will incur a €20 per month fine. But what does “late” mean?
According to the site “the late payment fee will apply to all payments made after 31 October 2009”. Though wouldn’t you be a late payer if you ponied up the cash on October 1st?
The Commission on Taxation’s suggestion of a property tax doesn’t help either, in that if it comes in, presumably the NPPR will go out, so there have to be some people out there with second or even third homes who are wondering if they might ultimately get away with it if the NPPR is eventually scrapped.
