The Revenue Commissioners has said it will not challenge people valuing properties lower than its own guidance in an online valuation tool to be used for calculating local property tax.
Homeowners must resubmit valuations on their properties by the start of next month as part of the first revision of the local property tax regime since it was introduced eight years ago.
There is a online tool on Revenue’s website showing suggested guidance for different valuation bands that homes fall into. However, it features a number of discrepancies, including valuation differences of up to €87,000 applying to similar houses in some Dublin neighbourhoods, in some cases on the same street.
A Revenue official said it was only intended to be used by homeowners as “guidance” for the self-assessment tax and that Revenue would not challenge a valuation if they picked one valuation band lower than that assigned to their area.
Keith Walsh, principal officer in the Revenue's statistics and economic research section, said there would be "no penalties or extra suspicion" of people picking one valuation band lower.
“Just because you go down a valuation band doesn’t mean we’re going to be on to you justifying your valuation,” he said.
Revenue would only challenge individuals where the valuation was considerably out of line with valuations in their area – for example, a smaller mews house in an area with mostly higher value properties – and only then ask to show how they reached that particular value.
Tool analysis
An analysis of the online tool reveals it shows different valuation bands for similar houses in parts of Dublin including on different sides of Ludford Drive in Ballinteer, and for two roads in Glasnevin with similar houses – St Michael's Road and St Malachy's Road.
The guidance for some Dublin streets was also sharply lower than valuations of properties recently sold on the open market on Rathgar Road and Vernon Avenue in Clontarf.
Mr Walsh said the online tool was prepared “as an anchor or frame” based on the best available data to Revenue and reflected property price developments since 2013 so that it does not rely solely on recent transactions.
He said that when the bands were introduced in 2013, about 80 per cent of property owners either stayed within the valuation guidance or went up or down just one band on the Revenue’s guidance .
The fact that just 15,000 properties out of two million had been revalued in the last eight years showed that property owners “have done a good job valuing their properties, he said.
“Use the map to help you determine the value of your property but don’t use the map in isolation,” he said. “Look at other sources like the property price register or your local estate agents and then use your judgment: you know your house better than your neighbour’s.”
