Kevin Humphreys (Dublin South East, Labour)
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52. To ask the Minister for Finance if he will address an issue (details supplied) where the owner signed up for deferral of the local property tax but keeps receiving payment demands from the Revenue Commissioners to the wrong person; and if he will make a statement on the matter. [47377/13]

Michael Noonan (Limerick City, Fine Gael)
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I am informed by Revenue that a key aspect of the work it has undertaken in connection with the administration of Local Property Tax (LPT) has been the development of a register of residential properties in the State. The development of the Property Register required Revenue to extract and consolidate data from multiple Government and non-Government sources. In the case of jointly assessed spouses, the name of the person registered for Income Tax was used for the purpose of issuing LPT forms and notices. In the case to which the Deputy refers, the persons involved are jointly assessed under a common PPS number. The husband is the person registered for issue of forms and correspondence relating to other taxes and the address of the property in question has been used by him for tax purposes since 2006.

Revenue has further informed me that it will be necessary for the person in question to seek a separate PPS Number, provided by the Department of Social Protection, in order to change the liable person from her husband to herself.

In regard to the application for deferral, unfortunately Revenue’s scanning system did not record the application by the person in question correctly. This may have occurred because there were a number of differing entries on the Return and the system was not able to correctly identify the person’s preference.

However, direct contact has now been made with the individual concerned by a member of the LPT team and all the issues have been clarified and resolved to the person’s satisfaction. I am advised that the person in question, on the basis of the information supplied, has qualified and availed of the deferral option for 2013 through to 2016 inclusive, should their financial circumstances remain unchanged.