The Finance (Local Property Tax) (Amendment) (No. 2) Bill provides that no payment can be deducted from a property owner until the commencement of the calendar year to which the liability relates.
Spokesperson on Finance Michael McGrath has said: "The Government is entirely to blame for this fiasco which is seeing people being charged now for property tax that isn't due until next year.
"We are bringing forward legislation to give Fine Gael and Labour TDs the opportunity to end the confusion for homeowners who received letters from the Revenue Commissioners in recent days.
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"It's clear that Revenue was implementing legislation as enacted by the Government. The flawed legislation, which was rushed through the Dáil, stipulates the liability and filing dates in November and as a result people opting to pay by credit and debit cards are being charged now for next year's property tax.
"Our legislation, the Finance (Local Property Tax) (Amendment) (No. 2) Bill, amends the Local Property Tax law to ensure that people only have to pay the tax in the calendar year in which it is due and not before. The fact of the matter is this is a problem of the Government's own making and if they are serious about making sure no one has to pay next year's property tax in the remaining weeks of 2013 they will accept this legislation and ensure it is passed into law.
"If they don't wish to make the change for the current year, they should at least ensure this amendment is adopted for next year or else we will have a repeat of this year's debacle all over again."
(CD/JP)
