Parliamentary Question for the Minister for Finance (Michael Noonan TD)
For WRITTEN ANSWER on 11/02/2014
To ask the Minister for Finance if the liability for local property tax in respect of a person (details supplied) in County Cork will be reviewed taking into account that they do not own some of the properties which the Revenue Commissioners have stated for part of their LPT liability; and if he will make a statement on the matter. [6311/14]
I am advised by Revenue that a key aspect of the work undertaken in regard to Local Property Tax (LPT) was the development of a comprehensive register of residential properties in the State. During the compilation of the Property Register some matching difficulties were encountered when consolidating the various data sources, and in certain instances the linkage of properties to relevant owners was done incorrectly. As part of its comprehensive LPT communications strategy, Revenue clearly stated that errors in the compilation of the Property Register were inevitable given the scale of the task, and requested that anybody who was linked incorrectly to a property should immediately contact the LPT Helpline to avoid unnecessary compliance interventions.
In regard to the specific case to which the Deputy refers, I am informed that the person in question failed to inform Revenue that he was not the liable owner of the property which was incorrectly linked to him, despite receiving notifications on the issue in respect of both the 2013 (March 2013) and 2014 (October 2013) filing dates.
However the person did finally make contact with the LPT Helpline on 31 January 2014 and on foot of his conversation with the customer service agent the Property Register was updated to correctly reflect his property details.