The household charge must be paid by Mar 31. Late fee exists but ultimately the fine is €2,500 says Kya deLongchamps
Late payment incurs a charge of 10% (within six months), 20% (within 12 months), or 30% (more than 12 months) of the fee.
To date, 6,000 to 10,000 households have paid the charge without protest delivering up their PPS number
MARCH 31 is the registration and payment cut-off for the mandatory household change, due from every homeowner in Ireland. It’s a controversial payment, deemed by some commentators a stealth tax and a step too far towards a range of new taxes planned to appear in the next two years. Payment is being conducted online through the Government-sponsored website www.householdcharge.ie.
You must register your household for the charge, which is payable until March 31, so it’s a two-step process. You register and then pay, either in full or in instalments, by direct debit. To date, 6,000 to 10,000 households have paid without protest, delivering up their personal public service number (PPSN) and addresses and paying by one of several means, including direct debit. In the last month some 30,000 households had registered online.
There’s an air of halting apology throughout the household charge website, including the reminder that "the EU/IMF Programme of Financial Support for Ireland commits the Government to the introduction of a property tax for 2012. We are one of the last countries in Europe that does not fund local services through local, property-based charges". So our demands as a community are fuelling the need for the charge?
This talk will either soothe or enrage, depending on your life circumstance, but late payment or non-payment won’t prevent the introduction of property tax from next year. Those against the charge say it’s a slippery slope from the charge to future punitive taxes, and that there is little or no return in services.
The household charge, the website says, "is an interim measure" to meet out obligations to the EU/IMF Programme. The friendly registration process can only be a prologue for imposing full property tax. It’s telling that you create an "account" and are deemed a customer when registering with the site. Of course, when full property tax arrives we are all easily traced, sitting in stationary lumps of concrete with an ESB connection, and, as for water, one turn of the stop-cock and you’re all dried up. There really is no escape — or is there?
Opponents of the charge include several determined Socialist and Independent TDs and local councillors. Their favoured occupation, when not drumming up support for meetings throughout the country, is posting and re-posting declarations made, back as far as 1994, by Enda Kenny damning property charges as a "vampire tax". Brave and probably sincere words, slung over the lectern long before we were clobbered by the stark realities of the economic recession and tense expectations from a highly involved set of financial supervisors poised over us in Brussels. The anti-lobby says the household charge is a statutory act not a law. To agree to such a statute, you have to pay, so by paying you become complicit in the introduction of property tax.
Thus far, the official response, at Householdcharge.ie, is to politely steer clear of addressing non-payment, but the legislation does allow for a fine of €2,500 for non-registration. This would involve court proceedings and those lobbying against the charge, and future property and water charges, argue it would be all but impossible to pursue non-registration on a mass scale.
Still, €2,500 is a big number and likely to intimidate many home-owners toying with the idea of standing firm. No Household Tax, the campaign centre for many opposing the charge, suggests waiting until a couple of weeks before registration is due on Mar 31. They say in their FAQs "at that time you will, hopefully, see that we have enough non-payers to defeat the Government and to stop them from robbing you and your household".
This appears a reasonable stance for anyone caught in the crossfire of argument, but keen to protect their family from onerous fines. Householdcharge.ie says that the late fee, to apply in the case of a household charge, be:
* not later than six months after the due date and 10% of the amount outstanding;
* later than six months and not later than 12 months after the due date, is 20% of the amount outstanding; or
* later than 12 months after the due date, is 30% of the amount outstanding.
They also say that charges against the house for late or non-payment of household charges will delay any transfer of the property. That’s an argument unlikely to set many families, tied to negative equity and not moving house any time soon, shaking in last year’s scuffed shoes. Still, it’s worth keeping in mind if the anti-charge movement really takes off with significant non-payment across the country.
As the campaign against the charge has gained momentum, it has become bundled with the building rage against a planned charge for local authority water. Minister for Justice Alan Shatter said there would be attachment orders made to the Household Charge Act, which would allow local authorities to deduct the charge from salaries or social welfare payments. Currently, the legislation for this does not appear to exist and let’s hope such draconian measures will never be taken for this or any future charges and taxes on property.
You can find out more about the nationwide campaign against payment of the household charge, including details of meetings in your area, at www.nohouseholdtax.org or locall 1890-989 800. For those content to register and pay, today’s sidebar includes everything you need to know to get started.
How to Pay the 2012 Household Charge
AN online system — www.householdcharge.ie — is in place to enable home owners to pay the household charge by credit card/debit card.
In addition, home owners can make the payment by cheque, postal order, etc through the post to the Local Government Management Agency who operate a bureau and administer the charge on a shared service/ agency basis for all local authorities. Payment will also be accepted in the offices of your County/ City Council, details from householdcharge.ie.
If you’re already paying the non-private principle residence charge of €200, you are still liable for the household charge on the property of a further €100. If there are four flats in one house, each residential unit is liable, making the full payment due by the owner of the house €400. Landlords, not tenants, are liable.
There are exemptions including local authority housing and households taking place in shared purchase schemes where the authority still retains part ownership of the house.
Anyone receiving mortgage interest supplement or waiting for possession of an unfinished house in a development may also be entitled to a waiver or exemption. You can find a full list of these exemptions on the site.
Each household is asked to pay the household charge by Mar 31 or where a person opts to pay the household charge in instalments, the direct debit mandate must be set up by Mar 1.
* www.householdcharge.ie. Tel: 1890-357357 or 01-2224000 or email to support@householdcharge.ie.
a d v e r t i s e m e n t
This appeared in the printed version of the Irish Examiner Saturday, February 11, 2012
