THE REVENUE COMMISSIONERS are using Google Maps to work out the value of homes liable for Local Property Tax.

The chairman of the commission Niall Cody told the Public Accounts Committee yesterday that the application allows Revenue avoid physically attending the houses to assess the value.

He said that the maps had come in handy.

“We were looking at an area in South Dublin where there was one property that was six bands below the street.

Then you can focus in and you found it was a mews house in the back garden of one of the houses, totally out of proportion with all the rest of them and perfectly reasonable.

The tax, which drew controversy when it was introduced, has raised over €1 billion for the Exchequer, Cody said. He added that it now has a compliance rate of 96%.

Revenue has taken the tax from the salaries of 140,000 people and has issued 600,000 warning letters, referring 1,000 cases to Ireland’s sheriffs.

A further 47,000 homes have no owner identity, but Cody believes that some of these are duplicates.

Cody said that establishing the system was a complex undertaking.

Read: Couldn’t get through to the property tax helpline today? This is why…

Read: Revenue took property tax from wages of 68,000 people who didn’t pay