A pre-Budget report by an influential Oireachtas committee has warned that any proposals around a new “Site Value Tax” should include a condition of a “differential treatment” on agricultural land in active use.
The Oireachtas Committee on Budgetary Oversight has set out a number of “recommendations and observations” which it hopes will contribute to Budget 2024 – including measures that could directly impact on farmers.
In particular, it recommends that any proposals around a new “Site Value Tax” – which would replace or operate alongside the current Local Property Tax (LPT) – must ensure that” complete,
adequate, and appropriate data regarding land values and land holdings be gathered in advance”.
However, the Irish Farmers’ Association (IFA) has also highlighted to the Budgetary Oversight that it strongly opposes the inclusion of agricultural land in any proposed Site Value Tax.
The IFA has stressed that proposals around a Site Value Tax “is a huge worry and could lead to the selling of farmland”. It has called for an exemption for agricultural land from the proposed tax which it said “would be beneficial to the sector”.
Land tax
Meanwhile, the Oireachtas Budgetary Oversight has also indicated that the new Residential Zoned Land Tax (RZLT) – which will come into force from next February on land that is zoned for residential use and has access to services such as water supply, roads and lighting – could be “subsumed into a Site Value Tax over time”.
“The committee is cognisant of the need for a coherent tax policy around land and property and for one that is not unnecessarily administratively burdensome, complex,” it added.
Budget 2024
Meanwhile, the Department of Finance has published the annual White Paper – which forecasts revenue and expenditure – ahead of Budget 2024.
It notes that in relation to capital receipts – which can include receipts from the EU and loan repayments – there was €710 million from the European agricultural guarantee fund (EAGF), which it detailed as the “repayment of loans advanced to the Department of Agriculture, Food and the Marine (DAFM)”.
The White Paper also said that for 2024, this figure will increase to €730 million.
In relation to capital receipts the government also received €164 million from the Brexit Adjustment Reserve (BAR).
This brings the total BAR funding received so far to €800 million out of a total €1.165 billion that was allocated to Ireland.
The remaining amount will be paid in 2025.