User:rorynoonanDate:13/03/2013Time:09:02:17Edition:13/03/2013Wedwedecho130313Page:1Color:
EE - V1
WEDNESDAY, MARCH 13, 2013
EDITION NO. 34,858
Serving Cork for 120 years
RRP: e1.50
Crossing the road costs extra e135 Two sides of street, two house taxes
WHEN can crossing the road cost you €135? If your property tax assessment is based on the Revenue Commissioner’s on-line calculator, that’s when. Terraced houses on one side of part of Cathedral Road in Gurranabraher have been valued as being worth less than €100,000 by the Revenue Commissioner’s online calculator. But across the road, almost identical houses have been put into a higher band, with an estimated value of between €100,000 and €150,000. If householders accepted that valuation, they’d have to pay €225 in property tax each year — a significant increase on the €90 due each year on houses in the lower band. The property tax is based on 19 bands of house values, which go up on €50,000 increments. While it’s up to each householder to assess themselves for the tax, the Revenue Commissioners has given a rough estimate of the value of different types of houses in different areas. But the on-line calculator has been criticised as being too crude. It does not take house size or condition into account, and several significant anomalies have been discovered. Revenue’s response is that it is only giving guidelines to property owners, and it is not providing strict valuations on individual properties. However, in Gurranabraher, local Sinn Féin councillor Thomas Gould fears the different valuations will lead to confusion, and he fears that some
Councillor Thomas Gould (third left) with local residents Maurice O’Neill, Noreen O’Connell and Karl Mullan on Cathedral Road, where houses on opposite sides of the road have a valuation difference of €50,000. Picture: David Keane.
By MARY SMITHWICK Politics Editor
householders, particularly older people, will end up over-paying the tax. Cllr Gould said that while householders can and should use their own valuations, he fears that many ordinary householders are nervous of the system and would not challenge the Revenue’s initial estimate of value. “It’s a self-assessed tax, and many people are nervous of it,” he said. Cathedral Road resident Maurice O’Neill said that he would be valuing his house at €85,000, no matter what his assessment from the Revenue Commissioners is — but he fears older neighbours will simply accept what Revenue tells them. It’s believed that some of the boundaries for the estimation of house values have been based on electoral districts, leading to the anomalies.
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13.03.13 Recommended retail price €1.50
Cheltenham fans with Mr Ed outside O’Driscoll’s of Douglas. ● Pages 2, 3, 34 and 38. Picture: Denis Scannell
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