Second home owners cough up at last minute
Owners of second homes and holiday residences in Longford stumped up almost €100,000 just days before the Government's deadline on a new property tax kicked in, the Leader can reveal.
Approximately €111,800 was taken in by the Department of the Environment's Non-Principal Private Residence online payment system for second homes throughout the county in the days leading up to the September 30 deadline.
The flurry of payments made before the cut off point dwarfed the estimated €20,000 that was collected barely a week and a half earlier as hundreds of homeowners waited until the last minute before parting with the €200 annual fee.
Cavan County Council took in just under €200,000, Leitrim €149,000, Roscommon €172,800 while homeowners in Westmeath were the quickest to pay up with €254,200 being accounted for on deadline day.
Despite over €100,000 in additional income coming from the second home tax, financial officials believe many more have yet to settle their bills.
Latest budget predictions have set aside somewhere in the region of €300,000 in supplementary revenue before the end of the financial year.
Only last month, the Leader revealed a major cost cutting plan had been launched by department officials within the council in a bid to arrest a €2.6 million slide in its budget.
The wider economic downturn has seen local authorities' direct funding from central Government slashed by almost p100m in the supplementary Budget earlier this year although they are allowed to keep whatever funds they raise from the new tax.
For the moment however, senior figures are refraining from making any outlandish predictions on the issue.
"With regard to how much the Council is likely to realise from the payment of NPPR Charges it is a matter of speculation and I am not prepared to make any comment in that regard. The question of penalties being incurred will not arise until after October 31 and again I am not prepared to speculate with regard to what penalties are likely to amount to," the council's NPPR Co-ordinator Gerry Gillen said.
Email to a friend
Print this page
Looking for...
Featured advertisers
Jobs
Search for a job
Weather for Longford, Ireland
Sunday 05 February 2012
Today
Light rain
Temperature: 5 C to 8 C
Wind Speed: 9 mph
Wind direction: South west
Tomorrow
Light rain
Temperature: 5 C to 11 C
Wind Speed: 5 mph
Wind direction: North west
