€0.5m bonus for City Council

Date Published: 30-Oct-2009

A late rush of payments of the new €200 levy on second homes in time to avoid incurring penalties has boosted the coffers of cash-strapped Galway City Council to the tune of more than half a million euro in just four weeks.

The deadline for payment of the new ‘Non-Principle Private Residence’ (NPPP) tax was the end of September and the Council had received €665,500 by that date, which equated to payments on 3,328 ‘second homes’.

The deadline was September 30 but homeowners liable for the levy, which is self-assessed, were given a ‘period of grace’ of one month before penalties for non-payment of the tax kicked-in.

In the four weeks since the deadline, the Council has been inundated with payments from hundreds of Galway residents who are liable which has brought a much-needed €503,100 extra revenue, which equates to €200 on a further 2,515 homes during the ‘grace
period’.

The total number of levies paid to the local authority to date is 5,843 generating a revenue stream of €1.168million.

A spokesperson for the Council yesterday said it had originally budgeted to raise an estimated €1.3 million from the tax, which would mean around 650 have not yet paid up and are, as of this Saturday October 31, liable for a €20 penalty for every month the levy has not been paid.

However, calculations previously carried out by this newspaper based on Census figures suggest there could be anything up to 15,000 liable for the new levy and therefore the Council could actually be missing out on a further €1.6 million new revenue.

“As and from October 31, anyone who is liable for and who hasn’t paid the Non-Principle Private Residence levy incur a rolling penalty of €20 per month for every month the €200 is not paid. We want to reiterate penalties of 10% (€20) each month apply,” she said.

The spokesperson added it has access to the Private Residential Tenancies Board, ESB and Revenue database to determine who is liable for the tax and there are provisions within the law to pursue through the courts anyone who is noncompliant.

City Councillor Padraig Conneely has called for the extra money to be ring-fenced for the 58 people with mobility problems in the city who are on a waiting list to have improvement works carried out on their Council homes. However, yesterday the City Manager reiterated that the money could not be used for this purpose and had to be used to balance the revenue Budget.

Mr MacGrath said he would bring forward a report to the November Council meeting on the extent of the waiting list and to prioritise the more needy cases.