John Paul Phelan (Carlow-Kilkenny, Fine Gael) | Oireachtas source

I move amendment No. 5:

In page 7, between lines 23 and 24, to insert the following:"(9) Where the valuation of a relevant property on the valuation list is amended pursuant to section 28 of the Act of 2001 or a new relevant property is included on the valuation list on foot of a valuation carried out pursuant to that section, the rating authority concerned may amend the amount of the rate calculated under subsection (2)or levy a rate, or both, as the case may be, in respect of the relevant properties.

(10) Where a rate has been levied in respect of a relevant property in any local financial year and the liable person to whom a rates bill has been given under this section ceases to be the owner or occupier, as the case may be, of the relevant property before the end of that year and has not paid the rate so levied, such owner or occupier shall be liable to pay that portion of the rate levied in respect of the period during which he or she remained the owner or occupier and the remaining portion of the rate shall be levied on any subsequent liable persons on a pro-rata basis.

(11) In this section⁠—

"Act of 2001" means the ;

"valuation list" has the same meaning as it has in the Act of 2001.".

Amendment No. 5 modernises the rates collection process in two ways. Currently rates are levied on properties that exist on the valuation list on the date of the making of the local authority budget. This means the addition of new properties or amendments to the valuation list during the year are not effective for rates until the financial year following the making of the next budget. Amendment No. 5 allows for additions and amendments to the valuations to become effective immediately for rating purposes. It is now proposed that a new or revised valuation will trigger a new rates liability to reflect the new or revised valuation. Amendment No. 5 also provides that where a person commences the occupation of a relevant property or becomes entitled to be the occupier of a relevant property after 1 January in any year, a local authority may levy a charge for the remaining period of the year on a pro ratabasis. Again, this is a new initiative. Where it occurs, the local authority shall adjust the charge levied on the person in occupation on 1 January. The current position is that the person in occupation on the date of the making of the rate is liable for the entire year. It is now proposed that the local authority shall adjust the rates bill issued to the person who is in occupation on 1 January or after 1 January where there was more than one previous occupier in that year, and such that the charge for the full year is apportioned between the different occupiers on a pro ratabasis. This is a fairer system of levying rates. The current situation, where the occupier on the date of the making of the rate is liable for the whole year, is outdated and unfair and derives from a time when commercial occupation did not change frequently. As Members will know, that is not necessarily always the case at present. The new method is a more equitable and modern method of levying commercial rates where occupation changes in a rating year.

The amendment is also a technical amendment to clarify that the reference to "Act of 2001" in section 4 of the Bill refers to the Valuation Act 2001 and the reference to "valuation list" has the same meaning as in that Act.

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