Willie Penrose (Longford-Westmeath, Labour)
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65. To ask the Minister for Finance the reason a person (details supplied) in County Westmeath who furnished instructions to the Revenue Commissioners to deduct the property tax on a weekly basis from their State pension and who notwithstanding the aforesaid instruction, which was furnished within the appropriate time period has now received correspondence from the Revenue Commissioners indicating that payments of the local property tax has not been in line with the payment commitment they made notwithstanding that they provided instructions that same was to be deducted from their State pension; if this matter will now be rectified, particularly in view of the health circumstances of this person; and if he will make a statement on the matter. [47433/13]

Michael Noonan (Limerick City, Fine Gael)
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I am informed by Revenue that the difficulty in relation to the Local Property Tax (LPT) payment preference in this case arose in the first instance due to the person in question selecting two different payment options. When filing her LPT Return on 15 May 2013, the person selected both “deduction at source” from her Department of Agriculture, Food and the Marine pension and payment through a service provider. It is acknowledged that the ‘duplicate’ payment options should have been identified during the validation process that uploads the taxpayer data to the Property Register, and referred to an operator for manual correction. Unfortunately this did not happen in this case, which resulted in the LPT Register failing to capture the preferred payment option. As a result the instruction to commence deduction at source was not activated. This processing error also resulted in a reminder letter issuing to the person in question indicating that no payment option had been selected.

Revenue has confirmed to me that LPT Branch has written to the person in question outlining the cost implications of commencing deduction at source at this point of the year. The letter includes a direct line phone number that the person can use to contact a member of the LPT team to discuss the issue further. On receipt of confirmation from the person that she is happy to progress with deduction at source, that payment option will be implemented.

Finally, while any processing error is unfortunate, Revenue has assured me that the vast majority of returns and payments received in regard to approximately 1.59 million properties have been accurately recorded on the Property Register and that the error rate is very small in the overall context of the scale of the 2013 LPT programme.

Michael Healy-Rae (Kerry South, Independent)
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66. To ask the Minister for Finance the position regarding the payment of property tax in respect of a person (details supplied) in County Kerry; and if he will make a statement on the matter. [47475/13]

Michael Noonan (Limerick City, Fine Gael)
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I am advised by the Revenue Commissioners that LPT provides for a range of payment options and property owners can choose the one that best suits their particular circumstances. I am advised that no matter how the LPT charge for 2013 was paid, property owners can choose any of the available options to pay their 2014 liability and can decide whether to pay the tax in full or to spread payments over the course of 2014.

Property owners can:

- Spread their payments evenly throughout 2014 by way of direct debit or deduction from salary, pension or Government payment (direct debits commence on 15 January 2014);

- Spread their payments by making regular payments, weekly or monthly, throughout 2014 at service providers listed (An Post, Payzone and Omnivend);

- Pay in full by Single Debit Authority (like a cheque) which will be debited by Revenue on 21 March 2014.

There is no requirement on any property owner to pay their LPT for 2014 before 1 January 2014. The only action a property owner is required to take now is to decide on their payment method for 2014 and submit the payment instruction to Revenue by the relevant due date (which is 7 November 2013 for paper filers, or 27 November 2013 for on-line filers) and this is clearly stated in the letters recently issued by the Commissioners.

There are also options to fully or partially defer the payment of the tax and full details are available at www.Revenue.ie.

In this specific case mentioned by the Deputy, I am informed by Revenue that the person submitted the LPT1 Return clearly indicating Band 2 (valuation €100,001 - €150,000) as the appropriate valuation band for his property and €112 as the liability and he made a payment for that amount in respect of 2013. There is no record of any further correspondence from this person in relation to the valuation submitted. A letter was issued by Revenue on 18 October 2013, detailing a liability of €225 for 2014, based on the Band 2 valuation for the full year, and requesting a payment method in respect of this amount.

Finally, I am also advised by Revenue that if the person has overpaid his Local Property Tax (LPT) through an error or mistake, he should write to LPT Branch, PO Box 100, Ennis, Co Clare clearly setting out how the overpayment arose and providing supporting documentation to explain the need to decrease the value of the property in question. Supporting documentation includes professional valuations or house price surveys for the area or details on recent sales or advertised house prices in the area.

Once the relevant documentation is received, LPT Branch will make direct contact with the person. If the 2013 liability is found to have been overpaid it will be possible to allocate the excess against the 2014 liability or to make a repayment of the overpaid tax.