Revenue Commissioners
While County Tipperary home owners appear to have ‘accepted their fate,’ the counties of Galway, Laois, Dublin, Wexford, Kildare, Louth, Waterford, Cork, Limerick & Minister for the Environment Phil Hogan’s own county Kilkenny will all hold a national day of local protests against the new government levied Property Tax. Protests today in these latter counties will include the picketing of clinics of several Labour members of Dáil Éireann and County Council offices.
In a recent TV interview, the head of the Revenue Commissioners, Josephine Feehily correctly forecast foul-ups in attempting to collect this new local property tax & same appears to be borne out by today’s Independent newspaper, who report that a 15-year-old girl received a local property tax bill for a house where her parents currently pay the mortgage. Several similar incidents of teenagers & non house owners receiving demands, have also been reported in Tipperary.
These protests on the property tax appear to be fuelled, in particular, by the reduction of the number of houses eligible to claim exemptions, on the basis of being forced to inhabit ghost estates. Figures indicate that of 1,770 unfinished housing developments around the country, residents in only 421 will now not have to pay this new tax. Previously exempt houses have been reduced from 43,000 down to 5,000.
The Glenatore estate in Athlone, Co Westmeath, is nationally one estate previously exempt from the household charge, because of its building-site conditions and evident visual appearance of empty unfinished properties. This estate made headlines last year, when a male infant tragically died after falling into a pool of water, while chasing his dog. Now according to the Department of the Environment, this estate is no longer one of the 421 unfinished estates classified as being in a “seriously problematic condition,” despite the estate still remaining in a state of total disrepair, with the only work carried out being the erection of unsightly hoardings.
In Tipperary North & South, a total of 35 housing developments, sites, and buildings, published last Thursday, are either fully or partially exempt from this new Property Tax. Here in Thurles, sites listed as exempt are; Ashgrove near Clongower, a Croke Street partial development and Hayfield Manor on Bohernamona Road.
Figures to date appear to indicate that of the 1.6 million home owners liable to pay the levy; just over 7,000 have so far only completed tax forms and sent them back to the Revenue Commissioners.
In the words of the Ballerina & Japanese anime character, Princess Tutu, “May those who accept their fate find happiness; those who defy it, glory.“
Let’s look at a simple “impact” example on a range of modest incomes. Same is based on an average estate of 3 bedroomed semi-detached houses, all attracting a yearly tax of €450.
If we assess the impact on a person living in this estate earning €1000 a week, their Property Tax will be 0.87% of their income.
His neighbour with €600 a week will see 1.44% of their income absorbed by the tax.
Next door a person on €400 will lose 2.2% of their income while the household across the road on Job Seekers will see a massive 4.8% of their income wiped out by this tax.
A person on the State Pension will lose 3.9% of their income.
How anyone can pretend that such a tax is fair beggar’s belief as clearly the lower the income the higher the impact.