Brendan Griffin (Kerry South, Fine Gael)
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201. To ask the Minister for Finance if he will investigate the reason persons who had registered and paid the household charge did not receive their local property tax return forms; and if he will make a statement on the matter. [22407/13]

Michael Noonan (Limerick City, Fine Gael)
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A key aspect of the work undertaken by Revenue in the implementation of the Local Property Tax (LPT) was the development of a comprehensive register of residential properties in the State. The register was developed using data drawn from a range of sources including Revenue's own databases, the Household Charge database from the Local Government Management Agency (LGMA), Non-Principal Private Residence Charge data, Private Residential Tenancies Board data, information from the Department of Social Protection, and data from utility companies. As I previously indicated to the House, the Register was used to issue LPT correspondence to property owners. I am advised that there are a number of possible reasons why property owners who registered for and paid the Household Charge did not receive a LPT Return. These include:

- The version of the Household Charge database that was used to create the LPT Register was updated to January 2013. Properties which were added to the database after this date would not have been provided to Revenue. Revenue now has a more up-to-date version of the Household Charge database and will be using that to refresh the LPT Register in due course.

- The Household charge database included properties not liable for LPT - for example, bedsits - which were not added to the LPT Register.

- Where a property was identified as being in the ownership of a local authority or approved housing body, these were excluded from the general issue of LPT Returns to property owners.

- Returns were issued to the owner's address held on Revenue's system. In some cases this may have been different to the owner's address recorded on the Household Charge database.

- In some cases it was not possible to identify the relevant owner of the property from the Household Charge database. For example, in some instances the charge on a property was paid using a payment card in a different name, in which case the data supplied to Revenue was the payer's name, not the owner's.

Given the complexity of the process of developing the LPT Register from scratch through the matching of multiple data sources, it was always likely that in a small number of cases, people would either receive an LPT Return in error or, possibly not receive one at all. I am satisfied that the Revenue Commissioners forewarned taxpayers about this.

In particular, for those who had not received an LPT Return, Revenue has been highlighting in its extensive media campaign that as LPT is a self-assessed tax, in common with other self-assessed taxes certain responsibilities rest with the taxpayer even where they have not received a communication from Revenue.

I have also re-enforced that point to the House on a number of occasions, most recently in my replies to Parliamentary Questions Nos. 87 (20652/13) and 92 (20686/13) on 1 May, that liable persons who have not yet received a Return from Revenue must still self-assess the amount of LPT due, complete and file their LPT Return, and pay the tax due. They should contact the LPT helpline 1890 200 255 or they can login to LPT online at www.revenue.ie and file a return by clicking on the "I have not received a Property PIN" tab. There is good evidence that people are responding to the message.

The process of ensuring that the LPT Register is as accurate and complete as possible will be an ongoing one, given the scale of the task, and will continue beyond the online return filing deadline. I am satisfied that the continuing work of the Commissioners will ensure that all residential property owners are registered for the tax.