Fears elderly will forego food to pay property tax

Age Action is concerned that older people will go without food and heat in order to pay the property tax.

The charity is urging older people to opt for a deferral of the payment rather than suffer hardship.

Deferral arrangements have been made by Revenue where there is an inability to pay and certain conditions are met.

The deferred amount, including interest at a rate of 4% per annum, attaches to the owners’ property and has to be paid before the property is transferred or sold.

Around 11% of the population is aged over 65, a figure which is set to increase by 22% by 2041.

Age Action spokesman Eamon Timmins said many older people owned their home but no longer had an income that would allow them to pay the property tax. “There are a lot of older people who are worried about the tax and we lobbied quite hard to get an exemption for those people,” he said.

Older people can qualify for a full deferral if their gross income for the year is unlikely to exceed €15,000 for a single person or a widow/widower and €25,000 for a couple.

“We would urge people to consider that [option] rather than causing themselves great hardship,” said Mr Timmins.

A partial deferral is also available for an individual with an income of €25,000, or €35,000 or less for a couple.

“We lobbied for the specific circumstances of older property owners to be recognised so they would not have to make difficult decisions, like not paying for fuel or medication, in order to pay the tax,” he said.

“I know that older people don’t want to leave a liability behind them after they die but they should not create great hardship for themselves because there is an option to defer it.”

Mr Timmins also urged Revenue to accept that older people paying the tax would find it more difficult to make an accurate valuation because they did not have access to a computer.

Social Justice Ireland director Sean Healy said that while a property tax should have been introduced years ago, he felt that the tax should have been based on the value of the site, not the private residence.

He said he was disappointed that no connection was made between the tax and ability to pay, and believed that had serious consequences for people on welfare and low incomes.

“There should have been some capacity for adjusting for ability to pay when the legislation was being drawn up,” he said.

“We think that the way it has been done has been quite crude and is problematic for people who don’t have resources.”

The Society of St Vincent de Paul said any tax system had to take account of people on social welfare and in low-paid employment.

Spokesman Jim Walsh said a balancing approach needed to be taken to protect vulnerable people.