Revenue’s online property tax guide ‘confusing’

THE Revenue’s property tax website is confusing and adding to the distress of homeowners, a County Clare TD has said.
Deputy Timmy Dooley expressed concern about flaws in the valuation of homes in some areas listed on the website and has called for political leadership to sort it out.
The Revenue’s Local Property Tax, Property Valuation Guide, uses shading to indicate what valuation band homes fall into.
The site only takes into account location, type of accommodation and whether or not it was built pre or post 2000. Size, condition and facilities are not taken into account in the guide.
Two apartments side by side on Lower Market Street in Ennis, according to the Revenue’s site, could be in different valuation bands based on the boundary system used. Users of the site then have to go to a different webpage to find out what property tax rates apply to the different valuations.
“The confusion created by glaring discrepancies on the property tax website is just adding to people’s exasperation. The buck ultimately stops with the Government who created this plan and gave extensive powers to the Revenue Commissioners to collect the tax. Therefore, it is the Government who must ensure that any problems in the rollout of the tax and the communication of what’s involved are sorted out,” Deputy Dooley stated.
“There is a genuine sense of fear and exasperation about the Government’s decision to slap a new tax on the family home during an escalating mortgage and personal debt crisis that has still not been tackled. People who are already deep in negative equity, who feel they cannot afford their mortgage and household bills as it is and who feel that nothing has been done to support them, just cannot understand how they are expected to pay even more charges on their home at this time,” he added.
“We saw the chaos the Government created last year by failing to communicate properly with the public over the Household Charge, failing to consider people’s ability to pay and using bully tactics to force people into paying. So far, it seems that they have learned nothing from this and, instead, are just forging ahead with a deeply unfair plan that’s causing great confusion and distress among homeowners,” Deputy Dooley concluded.
The Revenue acknowledges on the website that it provides “a guide to average market values of properties in a given locality and offers an indicative valuation band for properties depending on type, age and location. It does not provide market values for individual properties.”
It is based on the market value of properties sold since 2010 in the area, adjusted for average price movements in the interim.
Property website Daft.ie launched a “more detailed Local Property Tax calculator” on Tuesday. Its calculator allows users to input more information regarding their property than the Government’s own Revenue.ie calculator, including the number of bedrooms and bathrooms and a property’s type, to provide an alternative tool for home owners estimating the market value of their properties.
Commenting on the launch of the alternative calculator, Daft.ie economist, Ronan Lyons said, “Because this model includes measures of size, it is more specific than the guidance provided by the Revenue Commissioners. Nonetheless, there are many factors beyond location, type and size that affect property values, such as its age, the size in square metres of the floor area and the site, its building energy rating and the general condition of the dwelling. Thus, this figure should be taken as an indication only.”