Denis Naughten (Roscommon-South Leitrim, Independent)
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210. To ask the Minister for Finance the cost of establishing and maintaining the paper based local property tax system; the potential savings of a fully automated system; and if he will make a statement on the matter. [47915/14]

Michael Noonan (Limerick City, Fine Gael)
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I am informed by the Revenue Commissioners that the introduction of Local Property Tax (LPT) was the largest extension of the self-assessment system in the history of the State, with a customer base of over 1.3 million property owners.

With regard to the Deputy's request for the cost of establishing and maintaining the paper based LPT system, the Commissioners have confirmed that the paper based aspect of the LPT system is so integrated with the rest of the LPT system that it is not possible to provide a disaggregated figure for the Deputy.  Most of the costs - namely IT developments, salaries, outsourced contact centre, advertising, printed material and postage - incurred in establishing and maintaining the LPT system would have been incurred regardless of whether dual paper and online systems were developed and operated.

I am further informed, however, that certain charges can be specifically attributed to the paper based system and these relate primarily to the production of the 2013 paper LPT1 form, the 2014 LPT1A (Payment Instruction) form, the scanning by an out-sourced third party (Billpost, a subsidiary of An Post) of paper forms submitted by property owners and the processing of cheques submitted with these forms. The Commissioners have confirmed that these costs amounted to approximately €520,000 for 2013.  I am advised that relevant costs for 2014 are not yet available but are likely to be significantly less than the 2013 figures, as will be seen from the figures below.

In Revenue's public information campaign, the online filing option has been strongly promoted as the easiest way to file and pay and the success of this campaign is reflected in the number of owners who are using the online LPT facility on the Revenue website.  In addition, the Deputy will be aware that any person who owns two or more properties is obliged to file electronically and Revenue provides a telephone based e-filing service for those property owners who do not have the capacity to file electronically themselves.  I am informed that 77% of all LPT returns for 2013 were filed using the online LPT filing system and the balance of 23% were paper returns. For 2014, about 90% of those who were required to select a payment method completed their transaction online and the indications for 2015 payments so far are consistent with this figure.

While it is stated Government policy to move to online service provision, in view of the range of property owners who may not be currently "e" enabled and need the paper filing option to make their LPT Return and payment, I would not be in favour of moving to a fully automated LPT system at this point in time.