Madam, – The idea of forcing people who paid stamp duty on exorbitant property prices over the past 10 years to now start paying annual property taxes seems to me preposterous. For many this stamp duty is being paid back on a monthly basis having being incorporated into the mortgage.
In the current climate it does not seem unreasonable to replace a once-off stamp duty with an annual property tax; but to expect those who have already forked out hundreds of thousands in stamp duty (in some cases for ridiculously overpriced houses) to pay this annual tax, is simply not fair. – Yours, etc,
Madam, – I am writing in relation to the proposition of “property tax” being imposed on homeowners. I act as a letting agent for many hard-pressed landlords who have not only suffered declining rents, but have also been targeted with the cost of extra legislative property requirements and duty changes that are essentially property taxes in disguise.
Apart from the newly introduced property levy of €200 per property, Brian Lenihan also reduced the interest write-off against tax from 100 per cent to 75 per cent earlier this year. This is essentially a property tax by stealth which goes unnoticed by the media and commentators alike and will cost recent landlords an average of about €1,500 per annum.
Landlords are viewed as being people of means, however to my mind this portrayal is archaic. The majority of landlords that I deal with are people of average income who bought property in the height of the boom as a pension. They are struggling in this economic downturn like so many others. When interest rates increase many landlords will be unable to meet their bank commitments with the current burden of taxation – let alone further taxes.
Despite the Commission on Taxation’s recommendation of the imposition of property tax, I hope that Mr Lenihan considers this group’s plight. Pressurising the property sector is not in the interests of the general population and downward pressure on asset values will not pay dividends in this economy. – Yours, etc,