HOMEOWNERS HAVE UNTIL 5pm today to submit the valuation on which their Local Property Tax (LPT) will be based.

The tax applies to all residential properties in the country and homeowners are obliged to submit a return on the basis of the value of their home as of 1 November.

The government announced changes to the tax earlier this year in order to account for the sharp rise in house prices in recent years.

Over half of homeowners have no change to their LPT charge, but just over a third of people have seen an increase. The changes will apply for each year from 2022 to 2025.

The deadline was moved to today from Sunday 7 November as Revenue reported “extremely strong” return filing rates across the country.

The tax agency says the quickest and easiest way to submit a Local Property Tax return is online via its ‘myAccount’ or ‘ROS’ services or via the LPT online Portal.

It said 93% of property owners who have already filed their LPT return have done so online. 

The local property tax webpage suffered an outage yesterday as today’s deadline approached.

Those visiting the site were met with the message: “Revenue online services are currently unavailable”. The issue was resolved a short time later.

As a self-assessed tax, Revenue requires homeowners to value their properties themselves. 

The structure of the tax is based on 20 valuation bands, so property owners don’t have to value their home to a specific amount (unless their property costs more than €1.75 million).

To help find out which band a property falls into, Revenue has created a valuation tool on its website, which allows users to submit their Eircode to find their property and select it on a map. Users will then be given a price band for their address.

This tool is intended as a guide only. Revenue has told property owners that they should consider the specifics of their property and assess whether its value falls within the band for their area – for some, the value may actually be less than what the tool says.

The LPT can also be paid via the Revenue website, or by using a paper form (more details are available here.)

It can be paid in a single payment or over the course of the year in instalments. Payments will commence from January 2022. The last date for paying in full is 12 January. Monthly direct debits will start on 15 January and continue on the 15th of every month.

“We’ve seen very strong filing rates. We would urge anyone who has yet to file their LPT return to do so today ahead of the 5 o’clock deadline,” said Katie Clair, head of Revenue’s LPT branch, speaking today on Morning Ireland.

The majority of property owners have their payment methods already set up — by direct debit, or deduction at source through salary or pension etc., and Clair said that this can make them more likely to miss the deadline.

“The key message is, even though your payment method will roll over and continue into 2022, you’re still required to file your LPT return,” she said.

“You will not have complied with your LPT obligations unless you file your return, and you should do that today by 5 o’clock.”

Some 1.2 million property owners have filed already, and the LPT helpline received more than 16,000 calls.

Additional reporting by Zuzia Whelan