Dinny McGinley (Donegal South West, Fine Gael) | Oireachtas source

I thank the Deputy for raising this matter. Unfortunately the Minister for Finance and the Minister of State at the Department are unavailable as they are outside the country. The Finance (Local Property Tax) Act 2012 sets out in detail how the tax is to be administered and provides how a residential property is to be valued for local property tax, LPT, purposes.

LPT is a self-assessed tax and as the Minister for Finance, Deputy Noonan, has advised the House on many occasions, it is a matter for the property owner in the first instance to calculate the tax due based on his or her assessment of the market value of the property. For the purposes of LPT, values for properties under €1 million are organised into valuation bands, with an initial band up to €100,000 followed by bands of €50,000 between €100,001 and €1,000,000, so owners will not be required to provide a precise value for their property.

The Revenue Commissioners have prepared valuation guidance which, together with the owner's knowledge of a property, will assist him or her in assessing its value. This guidance should be used together with other sources of information including the Property Services Regulatory Authority's property price register, property sections of newspapers, information from local estate agents and property websites. When using Revenue's valuation guidance, property owners should consider the specifics of their property and if they feel that the guidance does not indicate a reasonable valuation, they should make their own assessment.

In the absence of a national residential property valuation system, the valuation guidance developed by Revenue is designed to help property owners in self-assessing the market value of their property by giving them average indicative values for their area. The guidance is based on sales in the past three years and provides a benchmark to help people consider whether their property is more or less valuable than the average in an area. This guidance will be helpful in the majority of cases, but there are always properties in an area which differ from the average.

Surprise has been expressed in some quarters at the fact that the valuation guidance does not accurately reflect the market value of a specific unique property. However, the valuation guidance explicitly states, "This service provides a guide to average market values of properties in a given locality and offers an indicative valuation band for properties depending on type, age and location. It does not provide market values for individual properties".

Revenue has made the guidance as simple as possible, and users need only know their property's type, age and location. The Revenue valuation guidance website combines two aspects. These are a simple point and click option to get an average valuation for an electoral district, and an interactive map showing relative valuations across electoral districts.

I will take this opportunity to explain briefly how property owners should use the Revenue guidance. The Revenue guidance may show the average valuation band for a semi-detached property in a particular location is between €350,000 and €400,000. If an owner of a two bedroom semi-detached property knows the majority of semi-detached houses in the area have three bedrooms, then the owner can reasonably expect the Revenue guidance to reflect the value of a three-bedroom property. This could offer a basis to adjust the valuation of the property downwards from the guidance average.

It is important to re-iterate that the Revenue guidance does not claim to value every house. Using the guidance requires a property owner to make an assessment based on his or her knowledge of the house, the neighbourhood, the house types and any factors he or she feels are relevant, as well as combining the Revenue guidance with the property price register and any other appropriate sources of information available.

Revenue's valuation guidance has been peer-reviewed and favourably endorsed by commentators who are very familiar with the property market. Those who are sowing seeds of confusion regarding the valuation process are not being helpful to the generality of taxpayers, who as Revenue point out, are tax compliant. Revenue's view is that its guidance will provide the correct valuation band for nearly half of all properties in an area and will be within one band either way for a further 40% to 45% of properties.

It is also clear that a substantial number of people disagree with misinformed claims about the Revenue online guidance, as it is being used extensively by the public. Up to Tuesday this week, in excess of 868,100 hits were recorded on the site and more than 188,400 users either opened the valuation guidance from the Revenue website or saved it to their computer.

Revenue has also provided for those who do not use the Internet by preparing paper copies of the indicative valuation band for each property type in every electoral district in the country. These are available from Revenue public offices and the major Citizens' Information Centre offices. Copies were also made available at briefing sessions held by the Revenue Commissioners in Leinster House for Oireachtas Members and their staff.

I agree people should not automatically pay the Revenue estimate. The estimate, as Revenue has consistently stated, including in newspaper advertising this week, is only relevant if the property owner does not file and return. Credit should be given to the owner's knowledge of the property market and his or her ability to work out a reasonable valuation for the property, certainly within €50,000 bands. The level of public debate on property valuation suggests that most people are engaging with the local property tax, have a good general sense of the value of their property, and are carrying out research to enable them to do their self-assessed return. I welcome this.

Revenue's press release on Tuesday, 16 April, stated 130,802 LPT returns have already been filed by property owners who, in the majority of cases, have made their own assessment of the valuation band for their property. This clearly shows people are following the self-assessment principles and making their best assessment of the value of their property.

Revenue's website cites additional sources to help in the valuation process, such as other property websites and information from local estate agents and newspapers. While the latter sources quote asking prices which tend to be higher than final prices, these should nonetheless help the property owner get a general idea of property values in their locality which can be used in conjunction with the other sources of information available.

In the context of a self-assessed tax, I am completely satisfied that Revenue's online valuation guidance is fit for purpose, that Revenue has been very clear about its scope and purpose, and that it performs at least equally well, if not better, than other sources of valuation guidance available. I am confident the valuation guidance will be useful for the majority of property owners in assisting them to value their homes, and that using this source and the other sources to which Revenue points, as well as the property owner's knowledge of his or her property, provides the basis for this self-assessment to be honest and reasonable.

I have no difficulty with opposition to this tax, or indeed to any other tax, but I am concerned some media commentators, some professionals in property-related businesses and, unfortunately, some politicians are creating confusion by making claims that are simply not true. I remind the House the local property tax is provided for in legislation passed by the Oireachtas, and I encourage Members to assist constituents in meeting their legal obligations.

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