More than 2,000 homes across the country were liable for the Vacant Homes Tax (VHT) in the 12-mont period ending October 31, 2024.
This week, Revenue published its headline results for 2024, which showed that 2,377 homes were liable for the tax with an estimated liability value of €1.6 million.
You may be liable for the VHT if you own a residential property and it was in use as a dwelling for less than 30 days in the 12-month chargeable period.
Tax
The Revenue results also show that 25,560 properties became “newly liable to Local Property Tax” (LPT) with a corresponding liability value of €7 million.
According to Revenue, a property is newly liable for LPT in 2024 “if it became occupied or suitable for use as a dwelling in the year ending November 1, 2023”.
This figure includes properties which are exempt from LPT, have deferred LPT and taxpayers who are engaging with Revenue but have not yet filed a return.
According to the headline results, €577 million was collected by Revenue in LPT for the period.
Also outlined in the Revenue data is the number of seizures and detections of marked fuel oil (green diesel) in 2024.
There were 12 commercial seizures of green diesel with a total volume of 156,960L. There were 366 detections, 109 vehicles seizures and 178 mobile accutrace analyser tests.
Commenting on these results, Revenue chairman, Niall Cody, said: “The Exchequer returns for 2024 were published showing receipts of €107 billion in taxes and duties. In addition, Revenue collected over €30 billion on behalf of other departments, agencies and EU member states.
“Timely compliance rates also remained strong across all taxes, notwithstanding the exceptional disruption which taxpayers have faced in recent years. This is testament to the importance that society places on voluntary and timely tax compliance.
Although the vast majority of taxpayers pay the right amount of tax at the right time, we remain committed to tackling tax and duty non-compliance in all forms.
“2024 saw a continuation of our work in managing risk, using a range of real-time data analytics and risk assessment programmes to ensure that our compliance resources focus on the non-compliant taxpayer,” he said.
During 2024, Revenue completed almost 311,000 audit and compliance interventions which yielded €591 million, and settled 256 tax avoidance cases yielding €46 million.
It also secured 20 criminal convictions for serious tax evasion and fraud and published 74 tax settlements in the List of Tax Defaulters.
Deadlines
“The deadline for payment of 2025 Local Property Tax (LPT) liabilities is fast approaching on Friday January 10, 2025,” Cody continued.
“Any property owner who has not yet made arrangements to pay should take this opportunity to contact Revenue and ensure they have met their obligations. Where a property owner has opted to pay their 2025 LPT by Annual Debit Instruction, the payment will be processed on March 2025.”
The Residential Zoned Land Tax (RZLT) will also come into force later this year and will apply to land which is zoned and serviced for residential use.
Local Authorities will publish the revised map for 2025, showing land that is within the scope of RZLT, by January 31, 2025 and Revenue’s RZLT registration portal will also open at that time.
“The first RZLT returns and liabilities will be due in May 2025 and Revenue will support landowners as they try to understand their pay and file obligations,” Cody concluded.