Terence Flanagan (Dublin North East, Independent)
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262. To ask the Minister for Finance the reason an additional transaction fee of 1.49% is allowed to be charged on credit card payments of local property tax; and if he will make a statement on the matter. [41726/14]

Michael Noonan (Limerick City, Fine Gael)
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I am advised by Revenue that the charge to which the Deputy refers has been reduced to 1.1% with effect from 1 October 2014.

The charge, which is applicable to all credit card tax payments to Revenue including Local Property Tax (LPT) and arrears of Household Charge (HHC), is passed to the taxpayer as provided for by Section 960EA (inserted by Section 79 of the Finance Act 2011 (No. 6 of 2011) of the Taxes Consolidation Act, 1997. The charge is set at a level that covers the fees payable to the two parties that are necessary to provide the service, i.e. the merchant acquirer and the technical connection support.

The rate of charge is calculated under the terms of a Local Government Management Agency (LGMA) tender process for Public Sector payments and is open to being varied according to the value/volume of transactions being processed by the service providers.

Revenue has advised me that the rate reduction from 1.49% to 1.1% is possible due to the increased value/volume of credit card transactions from people who are opting to meet their tax liabilities by that payment method.

Finally, Revenue has also advised me that there is no charge passed to taxpayers who opt to meet their tax liabilities by debit card.