Paschal Donohoe (Dublin Central, Fine Gael) | Oireachtas source

Amendment No. 5 would require the Minster for Finance of the day to prepare and lay a report within three months of the passing of the Finance Bill on the revenue that would be raised by abolishing the local property tax and applying a graduated non-principal private residence tax starting at €1,000 for a second home, rising to €2,500 for eleventh and subsequent homes.

Earlier this year, I implemented significant reform of the local property tax and it is entering its final phase of being implemented. Since its introduction, the charging structure for the local property tax has included a higher rate for properties valued above €1 million, the revised system continues to apply a higher rate above €1.05 million, and a third rate to properties valued above €1.75 million. This approach increases the progressivity of the tax by increasing the effective rate on the highest value homes. This is a tax that has yielded €3.6 billion since its introduction in 2013.

Revenue publishes statistics relating to local property tax on a regular basis. I note the annual statistics report includes information in respect of ownership of multiple properties. For instance, in 2020 this report indicated there were around 177,000 property owners with two or more properties covering 559,000 properties.

Using these published Revenue figures and applying the rates of tax in the amendment, the estimated yield would be approximately €700 million from the measures proposed here. This compares to the estimated local property tax yield in 2022 of approximately €530 million.