Surge in Local Property Tax filings as deadline nears

Homeowners must provide fresh valuations, which will be used to calculate the annual amount to be paid for the next four years

Given the rise in home values from 2021, when the last filings took place, almost all homeowners will face a jump in their taxes. Picture: Laura Hutton

Revenue said over 1m Local Property Tax (LPT) returns have been filed by residential property owners so far ahead of Friday's deadline.

In an update, they said the returns are in addition to filing activity from large-scale multi-property owners, such as councils and approved housing bodies that have over 200,000 properties registered to them.

Homeowners have to provide fresh valuations, which will be used to calculate the annual LPT for the next four years. 

Given the rise in home values from 2021, when the last filings took place, almost all homeowners will face a jump in their taxes.

Revenue has a range of measures to take the payment from those who do not file a return. 

These include deducting the charge from salary or pensions, interest charges of 8%, and additional penalties.

Providing an update, Katie Clair, manager of Revenue’s LPT branch said: "As is the case with all significant filing deadlines, we are seeing increased activity within the LPT portal as we approach the filing deadline this Friday, 7 November."

The number of returns filed to date has almost doubled since last Wednesday and on Monday, the number of returns filed peaked at almost 80,000. 

"We expect daily filing rates to increase over the remainder of this week, and we will continue to monitor the functionality of the LPT system during this time."

On Monday morning, more than 35,800 people used the LPT online portal, and 35,300 of them successfully completed and submitted their return in one single session, Ms Clair said. 

Commenting on the additional supports being provided to property owners, Ms Clair added: “Our telephone helpline is incredibly busy, and we are answering approximately 5,500 calls a day. 

"To enable our teams to answer as many calls as possible, we opened our helpline over the weekend and are again extending availability of the helpline over the remainder of this week.

"We have also received over 70,000 items of correspondence, which we are working through as speedily as possible. 

"If you have submitted correspondence to us and do not receive a response ahead of the filing deadline, please be assured that we will be in touch and you will be able to file your return once your query has been dealt with.” 

Revenue’s LPT helpline an 01 7383626 is open from 9am to 8pm from Wednesday to Friday inclusive.

Further guidance on what property owners need to do ahead of the deadline, and how to complete an LPT return, is available at www.revenue.ie/lpt