Homeowners overpay tax because they fear Revenue

Some Westmeath homeowners are so afraid of Revenue inspectors coming after them that they are overpaying their property tax.

That’s according to Cllr Ken Glynn, who says that in recent weeks he has been inundated with inquiries from confused homeowners.

While the deadline for postal registration was May 7 and homeowners have only until May 28 to register online, the Fianna Fáil man says a lot of people, particularly the elderly, are still in the dark about how much they have to pay.

“I’m amazed by the level of confusion out there. Some people have received no letters, while other people have received higher values than their next door neighbours. A couple living in a Mullingar estate received a category 3 valuation (putting the value of their home between €150,000 and €200,000) when all of their neighbours received the correct category 1 valuation (less than €100,000).”

The Revenue Commissioners have stated that even if homeowners do not receive correspondence with an estimated value of their property, they are obliged to register it and self-assess its valuation.
Cllr Glynn says it’s vital that those who haven’t received correspondence register online before the deadline, otherwise they will be penalised.

“People should go online to the property price register or go into their auctioneers to get a value before registering to get an idea of what their house is worth,” he said.

If a homeowner has received a valuation from the revenue that they don’t agree with, they can self-assess before they register, but if they wait until after they sign up they are locked into it until the end of the current three-year cycle that begins this year.

Cllr Glynn says that such is the level of confusion out there that some homeowners are paying over the odds.
“People are worried that the revenue will come after them if they don’t accept the over inflated valuation,” he said.
A survey for myhome.ie released yesterday (Monday) found that 57% of property owners are unhappy with the assessment they received from Revenue, and in addition 42 per cent of respondents said they intend to go with a lower figure than advised by Revenue.

Only 22% of the 1,500 respondents to the survey said they agreed with the introduction of the tax; 60% opposed it and 18% were undecided.

Some 23% of respondents listed estate agent valuations as the source for valuing their houses, while 18% said they were using a neighbour’s assessment, which indicates that residents in some neighbourhoods are agreeing a joint approach.

The fact local councils will be allowed to increase the property tax by up to 15% from September next year has been highlighted in the media in recent days, but five per cent of respondents in this survey said they were opposed to local authorities being given more powers to set rates; 44% were in favour of such a move.
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