Pearse Doherty (Donegal, Sinn Fein)
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60. To ask the Minister for Finance why a person (details supplied) was issued with correspondence detailing the local property tax owing in respect of a local authority property owned by Donegal County Council; why a sum of €111.96 was subsequently deducted from this person's employment pension; how the person's personal public service number was obtained in this instance; and if he will make a statement on the matter. [9112/16]

Michael Noonan (Limerick City, Fine Gael)
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I am advised by Revenue that a key aspect of the work undertaken during the implementation of Local Property Tax (LPT) was the development of a comprehensive Register of residential properties in the State. The Register was developed using data drawn from a range of sources including Revenue's own records.

Given the scale of the task it was inevitable that a relatively small number of property records would be incorrectly associated with specific individuals. Where such errors occurred tax payers were advised to contact Revenue as soon as possible to have the record amended.

Regarding the case to which the Deputy is referring, the person in question was incorrectly linked as the liable person to the Local Authority property during the development of the Property Register. The link was created on foot of data extracted from her PAYE records.  Revenue was not made aware of the 'liable person' error or any change of address for the person over the intervening years. As a consequence LPT correspondence, including a notification of deduction at source from her occupational pension in respect of the 2013 liability, continued to issue to her.

In September 2015 Revenue became aware of a change of address for the person and that her PPSN was amended from an old format number to a new number. Revenue amended her information on the Register, which resulted in her receiving LPT correspondence to her new address. It was on foot of this correspondence that the Deputy's office made contact with the LPT team on her behalf.

As soon as it was verified that the person was not the 'liable person' in respect of the property Revenue updated the Property Register to reflect the correct situation and recently refunded €111.96, which was deducted from her occupational pension, to her.