Borrisokane landowners 'very concerned' about proposed land tax

A NUMBER of landowners in Borrisokane are facing bills from Revenue of thousands of Euro if a proposed new land tax is brought into play, a recent meeting was told.
Cllr Michael O'Meara told the February meeting of Nenagh Municipal District that there are five or six landowners in Borrisokane who could be adversely affected if a new tax, called the Residential Zoned Land Tax, which comes into effect in 2024, is brought into play against them.
“This new tax could adversely affect Borrisokane and Nenagh in the North Tipp area,” he commented. “People are very concerned about it. It's like the poll tax of the 1980s. It's tax by stealth and is completely unfair.
“There is no viable market for this in North Tipp. The tax is appropriate in the big cities but not in rural areas like our part of the world.
“It’s creating a lot of anxiety for people as it will impose substantial costs, of many thousands of Euro, on them.
"As I say, it's appropriate in the big cities or the very large towns; because the objective of the tax is to activate land that is serviced and zoned for residential use in order to increase housing supply and to ensure the regeneration of vacant and idle lands in urban locations.
“The five or six people in the Borrisokane area tell me they are very worried that their agricultural land could be rezoned residential under this proposed scheme. This would mean that land which at the moment has a market value of €10,000 to €15,000 per acre would have a 3% tax placed upon it by Revenue. The proposal to roll out this tax on a nationwide basis should be scrapped as it's nonsensical when applied to a lot of the nation. It's using a sledgehammer to crack a nut.”
Ger Darcy agreed. “The tax on large urban areas makes sense as it will strongly encourage landowners to increase the housing supply on their land but in places like Borrisokane the demands are not there. What we are talking about here is just not going to work.”
A member of the Council's planning department pointed out that his Department is “currently actively considering the Residential Zoned Land Tax.”
Cllr Joe Hannigan pointed out that it would be very unfair to tax landowners for land which would be rezoned residential even though they didn’t want it rezoned residential.
“This is a very serious issue for people who will be caught,” said Cllr O'Meara. “This has to be taken up at a national level with the Oireachtas members. It is a classic example of some civil servants thinking this is going to be a great idea, when in fact it might work in the Big Smoke but it won’t work down here.”
Cllr Hannigan pointed out that there was no consultation before the tax was annnounced.
The IFA has pointed out that the Residential Zoned Land Tax (RZLT), was introduced as part of the Finance Bill 2021 "to activate land for development to increase housing supply. The IFA is strongly opposed to the inclusion of land which currently forms an integral part of existing farm operations within the RZLT. Irish farm families are private landowners who utilise land for food production, often spanning multiple generations. They have not caused or influenced the current housing crisis. They are not building speculators or developers withholding land from residential development so should be exempt from the RZLT like they were for the Vacant Site Levy, the predecessor to the RZLT. Currently however, there is no exemption made for farmed land within the RZLT."