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Administrative issues stop some welfare recipients paying property tax

The problems relate to those who had chosen to pay through social welfare reductions but were not eligible.

A ‘SMALL NUMBER’  of people who chose to pay their Local Property Tax through reductions in social welfare payments are yet to make any payment because of administrative issues.

According to the Revenue Commissioners, the problems occurred when a number of property owners either selected the wrong social welfare payment type, selected a social welfare payment where reductions at source did not apply or were found not to be in receipt of any social welfare payment.

The information came to light last month in response to a Dáil question put to Minister for Finance Michael Noonan by Fianna Fáil’s Michael McGrath.

McGrath was asking about a Department of Social Protection facility put in place to allow customers, when making arrangements with revenue, to choose to pay their property tax over an extended period from their social welfare payments.

Noonan said that in cases where the wrong payment was selected, it was subsequently corrected and deduction at source in these cases should have already commenced.

He added however that in the other two cases mentioned above, the Revenue Commissioners contacted the property owner for it to be corrected, advising them to select an alternative payment method for the property tax. According to Minister Noonan however, in a “small subset” of cases, this has not yet occurred:

The commissioners also advise that, where operational and administrative issues have arisen, they have been addressed on a case by case basis, and there may be a residue of cases where deduction at source from social welfare payments has not yet commenced as these are currently being worked by Revenue.

15,500 property owners

Noonan confirmed that approximately 15,500 residential property owners opted to pay their property tax obligations by way of a deduction at source from a social welfare payment.

This represented a  total liability of €2.26 million in 2013 with the minster confirming that latest figures showed that approximately €720,000 had been collected by revenue to date.

The Minster also said that up to the end of August, just over €21 million had been spent on setting up the operations of the Local Property Tax. The Department of Public Expenditure and Reform last December made a provision of €25.9 million in 2013 for its’ implementation.

Read: Over 75 per cent valued homes at less than €200,000 in property tax return >

Read: People who overpaid property tax to get details on how they can claim refunds >

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19 Comments
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    Mute Anthony Agusta
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    Oct 15th 2013, 3:50 PM

    Great. Looking forward to ”quarterly service charges” rising.

    100
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    Mute Lucinda Dalton
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    Oct 15th 2013, 3:53 PM

    Yep. Anything charged to the banks will simply be put back on the customer. They need to find more creative ways to get a few quid out of the banks.

    Likewise raising th the price of cigs. It’s the cigarette companies they should go after – target their finances directly. Hurt them directly.

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    Mute Carcu Sidub
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    Oct 15th 2013, 3:55 PM

    Yes double taxiation is a wonderful thing

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    Mute Neil Murphy
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    Oct 15th 2013, 3:56 PM

    When you tax an entity it always gets passed on to the consumer one way or another. There will be no way of reclaiming money from the banks. The best we can do is seek alternatives to the bailout banks.

    23
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    Mute Graham--
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    Oct 15th 2013, 4:25 PM

    So this levy has an end date, but the “temporary” USC does not?

    26
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    Mute Carcu Sidub
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    Oct 15th 2013, 4:34 PM

    Are you only coping on to that now?

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    Mute Graham--
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    Oct 15th 2013, 5:42 PM

    Well, ye know, it just happened like

    7
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    Mute Little Jim
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    Oct 15th 2013, 4:48 PM

    The banks slashed the interest rates on deposits last week, all of them, my Boi account has gone from 1.75% to 0.03%.
    It’s almost as if they knew what was in the budget in advance.
    But of course that wouldn’t be possible now, would it?
    Any journalists going to investigate?

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    Mute joanne
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    Oct 15th 2013, 6:13 PM

    Iris journalists don’t investigate just regurgitate!

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    Mute Jim Jameson
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    Oct 15th 2013, 4:18 PM

    total funding for the six banks by the ECB and the Irish Central Bank came to about €150 billion;

    150 million x 2 years x 6 banks = ?

    16
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    Mute Jim Jameson
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    Oct 15th 2013, 4:19 PM

    oh and that was up to 2011, Its not counting this year.

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    Mute harpurlee
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    Oct 15th 2013, 4:18 PM

    Dont know why banks were levied they will just add a bit more on and pass it on to customers

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    Mute Carcu Sidub
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    Oct 15th 2013, 4:31 PM

    Because under law a levy is not a tax so in Government La La land world they can claim they did not raise tax.

    Meanwhile in the real world we know this is a Governmemt tax as it will be paid by the people through higher bank charges.

    13
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    Mute Niall Mullins
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    Oct 15th 2013, 5:32 PM

    Open a bank account in Turkey. They’re paying up to 15% (depending on the bank, and there are plenty to choose from) interest on all deposits, access to your money whenever you want and citizenship not necessary. I sh*t you not. It does obviously help to have contacts though.

    10
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    Mute Michael G O'Reilly
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    Oct 15th 2013, 5:43 PM

    Wow! We should all move to Turkey !!

    3
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    Mute Niall Mullins
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    Oct 15th 2013, 5:58 PM

    Don’t have to live there either Michael and they’re outside the control of Europe. I’m lucky enough to have some business contacts there and they put their strong economy down to Arab investment. Worth having a look at. I’m just back from Istanbul and the amount of investment there at the moment is staggering.

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    Mute Niall Mullins
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    Oct 15th 2013, 6:01 PM

    Above comment was meant as a reply to your’s Michael. Ghost in the machine methinks.

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    Mute Michael G O'Reilly
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    Oct 15th 2013, 5:41 PM

    I presume that our esteemed minister for finance added a clause prohibiting the banks from simply raising customer charges to make the money they will need to pay this ???? I don’t think !

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    Mute Mary Kavanagh
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    Oct 15th 2013, 6:25 PM

    Surely they mean “levy on bank customers”?

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    Mute Ger Quinlivan
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    Oct 15th 2013, 6:21 PM

    The banks will just pass it on to all of us like the snake in the grass serpents they are.

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    Mute Nick Ryan
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    Oct 15th 2013, 9:13 PM

    Wonderful piece of stealth taxation. I’d say the banks are devastated

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    Mute Stephen McMahon
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    Oct 15th 2013, 5:35 PM

    Passing it on to customers in 3, 2, 1

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    Mute John Scott
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    Oct 25th 2013, 5:41 PM

    how can working people avoid the banks when most people are payed direct into the bank and u have to pay to pay to get ur money out. is it not about time we said no we want cash we are going backwards.

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