2019 WON’T BE TAXING.. Varadkar pledges house levy freeze until 2020
LEO Varadkar has vowed the property tax will not increase dramatically with the recent spike in house prices.
The levy has been frozen since 2016 and will not go up next year and the Taoiseach has further pledged we will not see shock surges in 2020.
Mr Varadkar said the Government is still working on what changes will be introduced in the next Budget.
He added: “The main thing we want to avoid is anyone facing a significant increase in property tax.
“I know people feel that because house prices have gone up a lot in the last four or five years that it means their property tax will go up by that amount.
“We are going to make sure that doesn’t happen. We want to make sure the amount of revenue collected by local authorities from property tax is roughly the same and that would mean making sure nobody faces a sudden increase in property tax.
“That would not occur until 2020 at the earliest in any case.”
However, Mr Varadkar said the Government will have to consider axing the levy exemption for new houses.
He added: “Anyone who bought a home in 2013, 2014, 2015 does not pay property tax.
“That is not fair because they benefit from the same local services as everyone else.
“That was done for a particular reason in 2013 to encourage increased housing supply but that is now going in the right direction. We need to consider that and it will bring in extra money for local authorities. The other thing we are certainly looking at is reforming the property tax to ensure all of the money you pay goes to your local authority.
“At the moment in urban local authorities and a few of the wealthier counties, about 20% gets diverted to less well-off counties and we think there is a better way to do that. “There would still need to be an equalisation fund to make sure those less well-off counties, particularly down the western seaboard, don’t lose out but I think people would prefer to see the tax they pay going to their own local authority.”
Rate of property tax diverted from urban councils to poorer areas
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