Property tax like ‘new year bombshell’
As the Government stood firm and refused to offer any softening of the impact of the tax, money experts urged people with restricted finances to plan ahead for the shock of having to find the extra funds.
The Money Advice and Budgeting Service (Mabs) said the increased financial pressure would fall at the worst time of year and called on people not to be caught out. With the tax coming in this July, the first full-year demand will fall next January.
“People’s budgets are already stretched at that time of year and there is no increase in incomes coming along anytime soon, particularly for people on low incomes, so this will put extra pressure on people,” said a Mabs spokesperson.
The finance department tried to counter the backlash over the January demands by stating that people could pay by installments, and pledged there would be no extra surcharge for spreading the tax across the year.
“The poor will be the ones paying by instalments,” said the Mabs spokesperson.
Fianna Fáil’s Billy Kelleher said installments would act as cold comfort.
“This will be a new year bombshell for people. This time next year and every January after that people will receive a full year’s tax demand.
“This tax bears no relation to people’s ability to pay, so installments will just mean that people have to spread what they sacrifice to pay it every month, rather than making a bigger sacrifice in one go,” he said.
Under the scheme, home owners will self-assess their property’s market value and place it in varying bands ahead of paying between 0.18% to 0.25% of the value of the dwelling.
Council dwellings will be placed in the lowest rating under the initiative, a fact which prompted Fianna Fáil senator Thomas Byrne to say there were TDs living in local authority houses and it was an “anomaly” that they would be in the cheapest band.
“The fact that they are on a very high salary is not taken into account, only the fact that they are living in council houses. It’s certainly unfair if their property tax is only €2 a week added to their rent,” he said, without naming the TDs.
Sinn Féin TD for Dublin North West, Dessie Ellis, said he was a local authority tenant and therefore not liable for the temporary €100 household charge.
Sinn Féin said none of the party’s other TDs were local authority tenants. Fianna Fáil also said that none of its TDs were renting their homes from local councils.
Public Expenditure Minister Brendan Howlin defended the tax and accused Fianna Fáil of hypocrisy in its opposition to the charge as the initiative had been first agreed with the troika by the last government.
