Irish government makes record profit from tax on second homes
Irish government makes record profit from tax on second homes
Local authorities look set to gain revenue with a tax on second homes in the Republic of Ireland, according to Irish newspaper The Independent.
The annual €200 tax, payable to local authorities by owners on their second homes, has yielded €180m in revenue, an excess of €80m, since its introduction in September 2009. The Department of the Environment says that owners of 320,000 properties (of which one fifth were located within Dublin) have paid. This is equivalent to average revenue of €68m a year – 70% above the expected level. The tax is payable to local authorities according to the property’s location and help fund services directly.
In 2009 the tax was paid on 323,365 properties, giving a yield of €68.7m. In 2010, the tax was paid on 320,766 homes, yielding €66.9m. This year, €47.7m has been paid on 238,720 homes. The total has now far outstripped expectations of the likely revenue when the tax was first introduced, which was set at just €100m. An astonished spokesman freely admitted to underestimating the number of second homes that would be eligible.
The Department’s own figures show that the majority of the homes are located in Dublin, which accounts for 43,397 or 18.18%, followed by County Cork at 7.86%, Fingal at 4.87%, Kerry at 4.91%, and Donegal at 4.61%.The lowest number of second home payments originated from Monaghan, with 1,683 or 0.71%, followed by Longford at 0.83%, Offaly at 0.89%, Laois at 0.90%, and Leitrim at 1.01%. An online payment facility at nppr.ie encourages owners to make a timely payment and avoid a monthly late payment surcharge of 10%. An owner who misses their annual payment will owe €200 for their current year, plus an accumulated €240 in fines, leading to a total of €440. Worse off still are those who fail to comply with the tax, who will incur a fine of €2000. Owners whose properties are leased to tenants under the local authority’s Rental Accommodation Scheme are exempt from this tax.
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8 July 2011
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