Written answers

Wednesday, 20 February 2013

Department of Finance

Property Taxation Exemptions

Photo of Willie PenroseWillie Penrose (Longford-Westmeath, Labour)
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To ask the Minister for Finance if he will outline in detail the categories of exemption from the property tax as recently set out in the Finance Bill 2013; and if he will make a statement on the matter. [9219/13]

Photo of Michael NoonanMichael Noonan (Limerick City, Fine Gael)
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The Finance (Local Property Tax) (Amendment) Bill 2013 provides for additional exemptions from the charge to Local Property Tax (LPT). It should be noted that the following information on the proposed exemptions is subject to enactment of the Bill.

Residential properties owned by a charity and used solely as residential accommodation in the course of facilitating recreational activities connected with its charitable purpose will be exempt from LPT. An example would be a residential property that is used to accommodate girl guides or boy scouts who take part in guiding and scouting activities. The charity must have been granted an exemption for tax purposes by Revenue to avail of the exemption.

An exemption will also apply to a residential property purchased, built or adapted to make it suitable for occupation by a permanently and totally incapacitated individual as their sole or main residence, where an award has been made by the Personal Injuries Assessment Board or a court or where a trust has been established specifically for the benefit of such individuals. In the case of adaptations to a property, the exemption will only apply where the cost of the adaptations exceeds 25% of the market value of the property before it is adapted. The exemption ends if the property is sold and the incapacitated individual no longer occupies it as his or her sole or main residence.

Residential properties that have been certified as having significant pyritic damage will be exempt from LPT for a temporary period of approximately three years. Regulations will be made by the Minister for the Environment, Community and Local Government stipulating how properties are to be tested to establish whether they have been affected by a significant level of pyrite-induced damage and providing for the issue of certificates by a competent person where this has been established.

I am advised by the Revenue Commissioners that once a certificate has been issued, an exemption may be claimed in respect of 3 consecutive liability dates. For example, where a certificate has been issued on or before 1 May 2013 the exemption will last until the end of 2015. If a certificate has not been issued before the first and/or second liability dates of 1 May 2013 and 1 November 2013, respectively, a liable person will have the option, where the certificate is issued on or before 31 December 2013, to retrospectively claim that one or other of those dates be the first liability date of the 3 consecutive liability dates. If such a claim is made on or before 31 January 2014, any local property tax that has already been paid in respect of one or both of those liability dates (depending on which date is selected) will then be refunded by the Revenue Commissioners.

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