Almost a quarter of eligible property owners have not filed a Local Property Tax (LPT) return following the passing of last week’s deadline, according to Revenue.
It said returns in respect of over 1.5 million properties have been treated as filed, representing about 77 per cent of the expected number of properties liable for LPT for 2022.
Until a return is filed, Revenue will charge property owners on the basis of the valuation they estimated in the letters sent out individually to each property owner.
That valuation may be too high, in which case homeowners will lose out until they engage. If it is too low, they have a responsibility under the self-assessment procedure to accurately value their properties and pay the resulting charge.
About 91 per cent of returns were filed online, while exemptions were claimed for 11,800 properties, and deferrals claimed for 9,300 properties.
Payment methods chosen were: annual or monthly direct debit (50.3 per cent), credit or debit card (28 per cent), deduction at source (11.1 per cent), service provider (9.6 per cent), and cheque or cash (1 per cent).
About 11 per cent have recurring payment options in place that will rollover for 2022 in respect of 220,000 properties whose owners have yet to file their return.
Revenue confirmed it had received more than 70,000 items of correspondence from property owners in respect of their 2022 LPT obligations in advance of the extended filing deadline of November 10th.
It acknowledged that all queries received are currently being processed and reassured these property owners that they will be treated as having complied with their LPT obligations on time, provided they file their return “promptly as soon as their query is resolved”.
While the return filing deadline has passed, Revenue said it was “evident that property owners are still making their best effort to file their returns”, with Revenue staff in the LPT branch handling almost 10,000 calls made to its helpline over last Thursday and Friday.
“For all other property owners who did not file their LPT return by the extended deadline, Revenue reminded them that they still have an obligation to do so and strongly encouraged them to file their return immediately,” Revenue said.
Revenue also noted that the due date for payment of the 2022 LPT for those property owners who do not have a payment option in place is January 12th.
Property owners who wish to benefit from any of the phased payment arrangements available or the annual debit instruction, which is payable on March 21st, need to file their return “as soon as possible” so that the necessary arrangements can be put in place.
Revenue said the quickest and easiest way to submit an LPT return is online via myAccount, ROS or the LPT online portal.
Preliminary analysis has shown that the property owners who have not yet submitted their LPT return mainly fall into two distinct categories.
Firstly, property owners with recurring payment arrangements in place. While these recurring payment methods will continue to apply for 2022, without submitting the completed return, property owners “have not met their legal obligation”, it said.
The second group are property owners with no recurring payment arrangement in place.
“These property owners have not met their LPT obligations for 2022 and are required to submit their LPT return now and pay or make arrangements to pay their LPT liability for 2022 as soon as possible but no later than January 12th,” Revenue said.
