Farmers will be “reassured” today (Tuesday, August 20) by the government’s decision to delay the Residential Zoned Land Tax (RZLT) according to the president of Irish Cattle and Sheep Farmers Association (ICSA).
The government has confirmed that the implementation of the RZLT will be deferred for one year to ensure active farmland will be excluded.
Sean McNamara said that the ICSA had “consistently opposed including actively farmed land in this tax” and that the move by the government was “encouraging and provides much-needed reassurance to concerned farmers”.
The tax was to be applied from 2025 at a rate of 3% of the land’s market value and is aimed at increasing housing supply by activating zoned and serviced residential development lands (including mixed-use lands) for housing.
According to McNamara it was “always deeply unfair to expect farmers to pay a 3% tax on land they are actively farming, especially when the land’s value has been artificially inflated”.
“Farmers who are committed to farming their land should have the right to continue doing so without the threat of financial ruin,” he added.
The president of the Irish Farmers’ Association (IFA) Francie Gorman also said that the deferral of the RZLT to allow for the exclusion of farmers is “a step forward”.
RZLT
Meanwhile Senator Victor Boyhan, a member of the Oireachtas Committee on Agriculture, Food and the Marine, has welcomed the deferral of actively farmed land from RZLT.
He believes an upcoming general election “has clearly brough this contentious issue to the fore”.
“Farmers and growers are demanding absolute clarity on this issue well in advance of casting their votes at election time.
“The agricultural vote is powerful, understandably farmers will seek to leverage their vote for reform of the RZLT – this decision is a long time coming but better late than never,” Senator Boyhan added.
Sinn Féin
However, Sinn Féin’s spokesperson on Finance, Pearse Doherty, today criticised the government’s latest decision on the RZLT and described it “as a boon for land hoarders in the midst of a housing crisis”.
“The government’s decision to delay a land tax that is aimed at land hoarders who are sitting on land that should be developed to build much needed housing is a disgraceful one.
“Let’s be clear – this is a direct result of this government’s abject failure over the past three years to exempt actively farmed land from this tax,” the Donegal TD said.
Deputy Doherty also highlighted that when the Minister for Finance first introduced the legislation for this tax he warned “of the impact the tax would have on farmers and agriculture if agricultural land was captured by this tax”.
According to the Donegal TD last year he also raised the issue again.
“I called on the Minister for Finance to exempt agricultural land from the tax – protecting farmers and allowing the tax to be introduced to tackle land hoarding and ensure that homes could be built in communities right across the State.
“Instead, the government did nothing and delayed the tax for another year as their housing crisis deepened”.
“That the government has again delayed this tax for another year is a boon to land hoarders and will only deepen their housing crisis,” Deputy Doherty said.