Dessie Ellis (Dublin North West, Sinn Fein)
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29. To ask the Minister for Finance the reason the Revenue Commissioners have seen only a 3% rate for deferrals and exemptions from the local property tax compared to the 15% rate predicted by his Department at the introduction of the tax. [16063/14]

Michael Noonan (Limerick City, Fine Gael)
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I am advised by the Revenue Commissioners that the most recent Local Property Tax (LPT) data published by them is available on the Commissioners website at: . This covers statistics for both 2013 and 2014 (to February 2014).

As indicated in the Revenue Commissioner s statistics, there are about 18,700 properties where deferrals have been claimed and around 28,300 claims for exemptions among the returns processed to date. These equate to about 1.2% and 1.8% of properties returned respectively.  These figures are primarily based on claims submitted by property owners in their LPT returns.

As the Deputy notes, earlier forecasts predicted that the level of deferrals and exemptions could be substantially higher. These figures were estimated prior to the implementation of LPT. While considerable effort may have been put into initial estimates of possible levels of exemption and deferral, the impact of the actual exemption and deferral provisions could not be accurately determined until the returns process has been completed.

It should be noted that deferral is a personal choice issue for property owners and some, although they meet the conditions of deferral, may opt to pay the tax if their means allow it.  Consequently, even if the number of potential eligible cases were known in advance with accuracy, it would not have been possible to estimate the number that would actually apply for a deferral.

Revenue estimates that the compliance rate for 2013 is currently at 93%. It may be the case that some property owners have not claimed an exemption on the misapprehension that they are automatically entitled to one. Indeed, these properties may well account for a significant share of the current non-compliant group.  It is important for property owners to be aware that they must apply for exemption from LPT as it will not be granted automatically and the Revenue Commissioners advise that this has been a key part of their communications message since the introduction of the tax.