Explainer: What is the Residential Zoned Land Tax (RZLT)?
The new Residential Zoned Land Tax (RZLT) will come into force in 2025 and is expected to impact many landowners, including farmers.
Land that will be identified and zoned under the tax is prepared by each local authority for their administration.
Landowners with eligible land will be charged the tax amount starting February 1, 2025.
The stated objective behind the tax, which was introduced in the Finance Act 2021, is to regenerate land that is identified as “serviced” and suitable for residential use or mixed use to increase housing.
A holding considered suitable for residential development will be serviced land — which means that it has access to necessary public infrastructure and facilities including roads, lighting and sewers.
Landowners will need to evaluate the tax owed for their own land — 3pc of its market value.
If they want an exemption for the zoning status, they can make a submission against the inclusion of their land on the map to their local authority.
If a landowner is not successful, they can appeal to An Bord Pleanála.
Local authorities have begun to publish annual draft RZLT maps, which include eligible land and those that have been exempted since February.
Fingal County Council has prepared their draft map of land considered to be in the scope of the tax since January.
Residential land that comes under the tax covers 3,519ha and mixed-use lands include 207ha.
Dublin City Council have said that submissions will be open from April 1 regarding the inclusion or exclusion of land from the final map of specific sites.
On May 31, they will open submissions again for rezoning requests. A final decision is expected later in the year.
Resolution
A spokesperson from the IFA said that they continue to work on finding a resolution for farmers: “We are engaging directly with these Departments with a view to finding a workable solution whereby all genuinely farmed land is exempt from this tax.”
“The President of the IFA raised the issue when he met the Taoiseach on February 22.
“At this meeting, the Taoiseach committed to having genuine farmers removed from this tax. IFA will use every opportunity to brief all politicians on the seriousness of this for impacted farmers.
“We held an open online meeting at the end of January where the Department of Finance and the Department of Housing outlined the new opportunity for affected landowners to apply to their local authorities to have their land removed from liability for this tax until April 1, and if they wish to have their land dezoned, they have until May 31 to apply for this.”