Dissatisfaction over Local Property Tax
COUNCILLORS were advised at Monday’s meeting that Wicklow County Council’s income stream has been seriously impacted by Covid as they set a date for the considering the Local Property Tax (LPT).
It was thought properties built since 2013 but exempt from the LPT would be included last year. When that didn’t happen, the expectation was they would be included this year. However, the elected members were informed on Monday that those particular properties still remained exempt from the LPT.
Cllr Edward Timmins stated: ‘ The way the fund is set up is a joke. The problem is using the same fund for the housing figures. It means no matter what we do with the property tax, we still have to pay a chunk for self-financing.’
Cllr Joe Behan said: ‘It’s an accountancy trick – I have no doubt that is exactly what it is. It’s not perpetrated by the Council staff, but rather by successive Governments. Even if you added on the houses that never paid since 2013, we still aren’t going to benefit. Peoples’ pockets are being emptied to pay this tax and our resources are too stretched to make a difference to people and where they live. Make no doubt – it is being set up for an increase next year. Last year we were told there were exceptional circumstances and it was a once-off. The members are being asked to go along with this complete fraud of the Wicklow taxpayers.’
Cllr Pat Fitzgerald described the LPT as a ‘con job’ and questioned why homes built since 2013 still weren’t being included.
‘Houses built since 2013 still haven’t paid any property tax, and on top of that there is the equalisation fund which sees money collected in Wicklow go elsewhere. The more we get, the more is taken from us.’
Cllr John Snell said: ‘It was an unfair tax when it was introduced and it is an unfair tax today. We thought there would be changes so the people who paid nothing started to. Now we are being told that won’t happen. There are people with homes valued at up to a million and they haven’t paid anything in property tax. Other counties reduced their own LPT, while money raised here was sent out to help their services. It’s an absolute sham on a national level.’
Cllr Tom Fortune stated: ‘We need to get our five TDs into a room. We need them to stand up and be counted in this.’
A special meeting on the LPT adjustment factor takes place on September 21, when the members can set an adjustment factor within the range of plus or minus 15 per cent of the basic rate, or leave it as it is.