Oireachtas Joint and Select Committees

Tuesday, 11 June 2019

Committee on Budgetary Oversight

Local Property Tax Review: Discussion

Photo of Paschal DonohoePaschal Donohoe (Dublin Central, Fine Gael)
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I take a different view. A tax code should have the ability to tax assets appropriately. The LPT has got the balance right between having a broad definition of what wealth is and being able to tax it in a progressive way. The more valuable one's home, the higher one's payment. I would have hoped to see that principle of progressivity supported by the Deputy. Ireland is one of the few countries in the world that, prior to the introduction of the LPT, had no property-related form of tax. We see from what has happened with property taxes elsewhere that the first point of revaluation is the most challenging because it normally comes after a period of property price growth, which is what we are facing.

On the question of how we tax people who might be profiting from property development, that was the basis of our decision to increase stamp duty on commercial property. Measures like this go some way to ensuring that those who might profit from commercial development, in particular, make a larger contribution to the delivery of public services.