Local services and property tax

Sir, – I was surprised that your editorial ("Analysis: Where will extra €1.1bn for departments come from?" December 5th) on property tax did not address the real issue.

This tax, entitled Local Property Tax (LPT), is designed to raise funds for local services. In other jurisdictions such taxes are known as rates or council taxes. In the UK this tax is the liability of the occupier who is the beneficiary of the services. In France, as I understand it, the tax is divided 50/50 between the occupier and the owner. Our LPT ensures that tenants, whether private or local authority, do not pay anything for these services.

Our basis for assessing LPT is currently “market value” whereby a three-bed semi in Dublin is liable to a higher tax than a detached much larger house in the Taoiseach’s constituency in Mayo.

Then to add insult to injury, part of the overtaxed Dublin owner’s payment is hived off to other local authorities.

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A very simple solution to this obvious inequity is that all houses are assessed on a rate per square metre. This simple change would spread the tax equally across the population. And rates are a tax-deductible expense in business.

However, we have decided that this does not apply to private landlords.

I am sure that Dublin voters will take this injustice into account when voting in the next election. – Yours, etc, SEÁN BURKE Clonskeagh, Dublin 14.