Eoghan Murphy (Dublin South East, Fine Gael)
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160. To ask the Minister for Finance his views on correspondence (details supplied) regarding payment of the property tax. [54225/13]

Michael Noonan (Limerick City, Fine Gael)
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I am informed by Revenue that in accordance with the Finance Local Property Tax Act 2012 (as amended), LPT for 2014 is payable on or before 1 January 2014. I am also advised that liable persons wishing to pay their 2014 LPT by cheque could do so by attaching the payment to their LPT1A Payment Instruction and returning it to Revenue by 7 November 2013. Alternatively, they could send the cheque separate to the LPT1A Payment Instruction on or before 1 January 2014.

Liable persons are also afforded the opportunity to pay their 2014 liability by Single Debit Authority (SDA), which is like an electronic cheque. SDA is a safe, cheap and user friendly method of paying LPT and it also provides liable persons with an extended payment date to 21 March 2014.

Because SDA is an online replica of a cheque that operates in exactly the same way as a ‘traditional’ cheque, it would not make sense from an IT development perspective to provide a ‘tick box’ system as a confirmation method for manual cheque payments.

Revenue has also confirmed to me that SDA is one of the preferred payment methods being used by taxpayers to meet 2014 LPT obligations and there is no demand to develop a ‘tick box’ solution along the lines suggested.

In regard to debit/credit card payments, as I have previously informed the House in respect of 2014 LPT payment options, any property owner who chose to pay in this manner was given an extended filing deadline to 29 November (from 7 November). However Revenue clearly indicated that such transactions would be processed immediately because that is the nature of card payments and Revenue has no discretion in this regard. Revenue has been very consistent in this message and the issue has been covered extensively on its website and in all public pronouncements and media releases.

In regard to the specific instance to which the Deputy refers, from the details supplied there seems to be a misunderstanding on how credit/debit card transactions differ from SDA. Finally, Revenue is most anxious to investigate the circumstances of the call to which the person in question refers. All of The LPT agents are trained to a very high standard and all calls are recorded as part of the quality assurance process. If the Deputy provides Revenue with details of the date and approximate time the call was made to the LPT Helpline, the phone number used to make the call, and the name address of the person in question, its operatives will identify the agent in question and will ensure the quality issue is fully addressed.