Elderly person living in care home facing hefty bill under new tax

A local councillor has said there has to be ‘goodwill’ for farmers actively working their land when Residential Zoned Land Tax (RZLT) kicks in next year writes Paul O'Malley.

The RZLT will see landowners facing an annual three percent payment on the market value of value earmarked for housing and the tax, which was due to kick in this year, was recently deferred until next year by Government.

At last week’s Claremorris-Swinford area meeting, Cllr Patsy O’Brien said the Council should be pro-development but there needs to be consideration for those actively farming land has been earmarked for the RZLT.

“There has to be goodwill for the people who have actively farmed their land when it comes to RZLT. I know of one case of an elderly person living in a care home who can’t make a decision on this and yet could be hit with a bill of €6,000,” he said.

“We should be pressuring the government to do something about this.”

Cllr Gerry Murray said land supply needs to improved at a time of a national housing crisis.

“There was a bank of land in Claremorris we wanted zoned residential during the County Development Plan talks was serviced and had access to lighting and sewerage and that was shut down,” he said.

“We have to turn on the tap and increase the land supply. In the middle of a housing crisis, any landbank that is serviced and has sewerage and lighting should be on the table.”