Owners of second homes who have just paid the new residential property tax now face a €200 bill before the end of June.
Almost 89,000 payments have been made to date to local authorities in respect of the €200 tax on second homes due for this year.
Some €17.8 million has been collected to date for the 2013 Non-Principal Private Residence (NPPR)charge, which is based on the ownership and status of a property as of March 31st.
A total of €49.7 million was raised through the charge in 2012 by the payment deadline of June 30th.
A spokesman for the Department of the Environment indicated, however, that it appeared the bulk of the due payments seemed to arrive in the final 10 days before the deadline in previous years.
Payments were made in respect of 248,258 properties last year.
The charge was introduced in 2009 and applies to all residential property not in use as the owner’s sole or main residence.
It is payable to the local authority in the area where the house is situated rather than to the Revenue Commissioners.
The charge, which covers the house from the period of March 31st until the end of the year, must be paid by June 30th.
It ceases on January 1st, 2014. Next year, owners of one or more houses will pay the so-called Local Property Tax on each house instead.
Of the payments received for 2013 to date, €3.3 million was collected by Dublin City Council and €1.4 million by Cork City Council.
Fingal County Council, DonegalCounty Council and Dún Laoghaire-Rathdown have collected over €900,000 each so far for 2013.
As an indication of the payments that may yet fall due, Dublin City Council collected €13.5 million in total from the charge last year, while €5.8 million was collected by Cork City Council. More than €3 million was collected in each local authority area of Fingal, Donegal and Dún Laoghaire.
Local authorities may, under the legislation, prosecute those who do not pay and late payment fees also arise if payment is not made by the due date.
Unpaid charges and fees will be a charge against the property concerned for 12 years after fees concerned became due and must be discharged in full before a transfer or sale of the property can be completed.
The NPPR online payment system experienced delays in the processing of payments due to what the website described as “technical difficulties”.
It said it expected these difficulties to be fixed by today, Thursday, and regretted any inconvenience caused.
Over €3.2 billion has been raised from the charge since its introduction.