Property tax inquiries on rise as owners wrestle with self-assessment

Latest figures suggest that comparatively few people have fully engaged with the property tax, but the past week will have encouraged Ministers.

Only 5 per cent of people who have received formal notification of the tax have so far filed returns, but there is evidence of a pickup in engagement. The numbers who have made returns have more than doubled since last weekend.

The deadline for sending in paper returns is May 7th, while the deadline for filing online is May 28th. As of last weekend, 15,237 forms had been filed online, with 10,145 paper returns. Figures released yesterday, however, showed something of a spike with 36,888 forms filled out online and 23,068 paper returns. There is still a long way to go – a total of 1,193,154 letters have been issued, including those through the online system, covering 1,351,289 different properties.

Members of the public have made a significant number of queries about various aspects of the tax. There have so far been 64,294 calls to Revenue’s designated helpline.

This is a considerable jump from the figures last week, which showed that 35,846 members of the public had contacted the helpline. More than 9,612 calls came on Thursday of this week – the highest volume of calls to date on any one day.

Part of the reason for the rise in returns filed and calls to the helpline that day could be attributable to the news on Wednesday that the European Commission was unhappy with the self-assessed nature of the tax.

In an internal report reviewing Ireland’s performance under the four-year international bailout, commission staff raised concerns that some homeowners could undervalue their properties.

Revenue’s website for valuing property has received 804,826 hits to date - up from 751,679 last week.

A spokesperson for Revenue said last night they were asking property owners to engage “reasonably and honestly” with the process.

“This is a self-assessed tax, which means that you assess the value of your property having regard to the guidance available, your knowledge of the property, and the local area.

“Their self-assessment will be accepted. The band system means you don’t have to be precise and Revenue does not expect people to pay for a professional valuation.”