Third of homes valued below €200k for property tax

MORE than 30% of homeowners rated their properties low in value when submitting property tax returns and will pay just €90 a year in tax, new figures show.

Revenue yesterday released provisional statistics showing that nearly 80% of people have filed a property tax return on their home.

The deadline for the self-assessed Local Property Tax was extended to November 10 after panicked homeowners crashed the Government website.

Property tax returns for 1.57million properties have now been filed, out of roughly two million homes, meaning some 400,000 homeowners did not meet the deadline.

Of the 79% who did submit the property tax valuation, 89% paid the sum required.

High levels of payment compliance might be related to the fact a third of properties were valued in the lowest tax bracket.

This means close to 430,000 properties were assessed by their owners at under €200,000, even though house prices have surged by 12% in the past year.

Another 295,000 properties were valued at under €262,500, requiring their owners to pay €225 in tax.

In total, 730,000 properties were valued in the bottom two price brackets under €262,500.

The proportion of properties valued under €200,000 is the same as the level reported in early November when speculation grew that homeowners had deliberately undervalued their homes to reduce their property tax.

However, Revenue says it will not overturn valuations that are honestly made with supporting documents.

A spokesperson for Revenue previously told the Irish Daily Mail ‘there were not a lot of people undervaluing their home’.

If a self-assessment is significantly lower than valuations for similar properties in the area, Revenue said it would ‘engage’ with property owners and ask them to show proof.

If the owner did not cooperate or make an honest assessment, Revenue has ‘a range of enforcement options available’.