Councillors vote to maintain Local Property Tax reduction

South Dublin Councillors agree to cut Local Property Tax by 15%

Councillors in South Dublin County Council voted on Monday to reduce the Local Property Tax (LPT) by 15%. The changes will be made to bills issued in early 2019.

County Councillors, who have the power to adjust the rate by plus or minus 15% each year, voted 27 – 8 at the September Council meeting to make the decision to adjust the rate by the full 15% rate. The decision to reduce the basic rate of LPT will be funded through the discretionary element of the LPT allocation and will reduce that element of funding from €6,322,286 to €1,580,572.

The Council’s LPT allocation for 2019 is €25,289,144 representing 80% of the LPT income of €31,611,431 that it is anticipated will be collected in the South Dublin County administrative area in 2019. The remaining 20% is paid into an equalisation fund to assist other local authorities.

The Local Property Tax (LPT) became effective from 1 July 2013 and is an annual self-assessed tax which is applied to the market value of residential properties.  The charge is administered by the Revenue Commissioners and the proceeds are accounted for as exchequer funding in the national Budget.  An amount equivalent to annual LPT receipts is assigned to the Local Government Fund by the Minister for Finance and distributed to local authorities by the Minister for Housing, Planning, and Local Government.