Richard Boyd Barrett (Dún Laoghaire, People Before Profit Alliance)
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185. To ask the Minister for Finance if he will address a matter regarding local property tax in respect of a person (details supplied); and if he will make a statement on the matter. [9823/17]

Michael Noonan (Limerick City, Fine Gael)
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Section 13 of the Finance (Local Property Tax) Act 2012 (as amended) provides that the owner of a relevant residential property on the 'liability date' is liable to pay the Local Property Tax (LPT) charge for that year. The 'liability date' is always 1 November in the preceding year, for example 1 November 2016 is the 'liability date' for 2017. The only exception in this regard was the 2013 'half year' where the 'liability date' was 1 May 2013.

In circumstances where a relevant residential property is sold after the 'liability date', the vendor remains liable to pay the tax for the following year. This remains the case even if the sale is completed before the start of the calendar year. During the conveyancing process associated with a property sale it is normally the case that LPT obligations are finalised between the vendor and the purchaser before the transaction is completed.

The person in question was correctly liable to pay the 2017 LPT charge on the Ballybrack property because she was the 'liable person' on 1 November 2016. However, there was no statutory obligation on her to pay the 2017 LPT charge on the Shankill property because the vendor of that property was still the 'liable person' on 1 November 2016.

Revenue is not aware of why the person opted to pay the 2017 charge on the Shankill property or why the statutory requirements in respect of the charge were not administered in accordance with the LPT legislation. It may be that an agreement was reached between both parties during the conveyancing process that the person (as purchaser) would meet the 2017 payment on behalf of the vendor.

However, any such arrangement was a matter between both parties and Revenue was not in any way involved. The question of whether the 2017 liability on the Shankill property should have been paid by the purchaser (the person in question) or the vendor is a matter between both parties to resolve and on that basis it is not possible for Revenue to offset the 2017 payment to a future LPT liability in the manner suggested by the Deputy.