Tax clock starts to tick for owners sitting on Laois housing land
Laois County Council maps could end up with Revenue Commissioners
The countdown is on in Laois which will see the Revenue Commissioners tax property owners who are sitting on land which could be turned in to badly needed housing.
Laois County Council says the Government’s Housing For All plan proposed a new tax to activate vacant land for residential purposes as a part of the Pathway to Increasing New Housing Supply.
The Residential Zoned Land Tax was introduced in the Finance Act 2021 and the council says the process to identify land to which the tax applies is now underway and the tax will be payable from 2024.
"The objective of the tax is to activate land that is serviced and zoned for residential use or mixed use, including residential use, in order to increase housing supply and to ensure regeneration of vacant and idle lands in urban locations. These locations have been identified within statutory land use plans as being appropriate locations for housing and they have benefitted from investment in the key services to support the delivery of housing," says the council.
The local authority says the process has two parts:
- Identification and mapping of the land in scope for the tax. This is undertaken by local authorities through the publication of draft and supplemental maps.
- Administration of the tax, which is to be undertaken by the Revenue Commissioners from 2024 onwards.
The Council has now prepared a draft map of the land considered to be in scope for Residential Zoned Land Tax.
The council says submissions can be made by the public on the draft map from November 1st 2022 until January 1st 2023. These submissions can challenge the inclusion of particular lands on the draft map on the basis that those lands do not meet the criteria set out within the relevant legislation; the date on which the land is considered to meet this criteria; or can request a change of zoning.
During the draft map stage, the council adds tath submissions can also identify additional land which appears to meet the criteria and so falls into scope and which may be placed on the supplemental map.
A supplemental map will be published on 1 May 2023 identifying additional land considered to be in scope as a result of a change of zoning, servicing or where the local authority becomes aware of the fact that land, which didn’t appear on the draft map, may meet the criteria for being in scope, such as where this has been identified during submissions. The supplemental map will also be on public display and open to submissions which may challenge the inclusion of additional land on the map.
The local authority says land appearing on both the draft and supplemental maps, as amended to take into account the outcome of submissions made in respect of the land on these maps, will be included on the final map of land in scope for the tax in the local authority area to be published on 1 December 2023.
"This land will be subject to the tax unless it is exempt as a residential property, as outlined above," it says.
The draft maps are available online at https://consult.laois.ie/ and at the Offices of Laois County Council, County Hall, JFL Avenue, Portlaoise, Co. Laois.
Any interested individuals or parties may make submissions in respect of land on the draft map. This is dealt with in further detail below.
Submissions on the draft map may be made in one of the following ways: