Property speculator pays levy 190 times

Despite nearly half the country boycotting the household tax, one property speculator paid 190 times — with a cheque for €19,000.

The payment is the biggest so far received by the Local Government Management Agency, which is responsible for collecting the levy, and covered 190 dwellings.

The agency’s chief executive, Paul McSweeney, said officials were receiving several forms a day registering upwards of 50 properties at a time as they worked through a backlog of 235,000 forms posted in or handed over to local authorities.

“We are coming across forms that contain more than one property, having on each day a single digit number of forms that contain 50 or more properties, and in one case, a form with 190 properties and a cheque for €19,000 in it.”

About 8,800 registrations have been made online since the deadline passed last weekend, and all late payers will receive an €11 penalty on top of the €100 charge.

In total, 886,000 properties have been registered for the tax — 636,000 of them online, with 154,000 coming through the post and another 81,000 handed in at local authority offices.

“We expect the number of properties that have registered to grow — there are people out there who have a significant amount of property,” Mr McSweeney told RTÉ.

So far, only 13,833 of those registered qualified for a waiver on the grounds of living in a ghost estate or being in receipt of mortgage interest supplement.

Despite the mass boycott of the €100 charge and severe criticism over the Government’s information campaign, Mr McSweeney said his agency’s handling of the situation had been “excellent”.

Opponents of the house tax have questioned the Government’s claim that just under 1.6m properties are eligible for the charge.

They insist that the census shows about 1.8m such properties in the State, meaning that the backlash against the charge has been even greater than the Government has so far reported.

The penalty remains at €11 for the next six months, and increases incrementally from that point.

Critics of the tax, such as Socialist TD Joe Higgins, have called for non-payers to hold firm, as they say it is unrealistic for the Government to make law-breakers out of 800,000 people.

The flat rate charge, which was planned as a €160m revenue raiser, is to be replaced next year with a range of payments based on property size.

Environment Minister Phil Hogan has drawn widespread criticism for his handling of the rollout of the charge which was marred by a confused information campaign on how the tax could be paid.

Even ministers have conceded that “mistakes” were made regarding the introduction of the tax.

The Government has denied that councils with low payment levels will be “punished” with financial penalties.