REVENUE has announced that it will extend the working hours of its Local Property Tax (LPT) helpline in order to facilitate calls in the run-up to the deadline this week.  

Home-owners are required to file the LPT returns by Sunday 7 November, with the agency saying they received over 12,000 calls a day in the last week. 

The LPT Helpline will now operate from 8am to 8pm tomorrow and Thursday, up from 9.30am to 4.30pm. Revenue will assess the need for further extensions later in the week if the demand for the service remains high.  

As of last Thursday, only 30% of those eligible for filing returns for LPT for 2022 had done so, leaving the agency with enormous volumes of queries to deal with ahead of Sunday’s deadline. 

In order to file for LPT Return, owners need to value their property, submit the information and indicate on it how they will pay their LPT for 2022.  

Homes that were residential properties on the date of valuation, 1 November 2021, are eligible for LPT. Those who are required to register would have received correspondence either by letter, their ROS inbox or in ‘My Documents’ in myAccount on the Revenue website.

This message contains a Property ID and PIN, which is needed to complete the form. 

As it is a self-assessed tax, owners need to estimate the value of the property as it was on 1 November. This figure will determine how much LPT has to be paid for the years 2022 to 2025.  

Revenue warns that you are liable for LPT even if you do not usually live in the property. As well as this, you are required to pay the tax even if you sell the property after 1 November 2021. If you have never paid LPT before due to your house being built in the last 8 years since the last valuation period, you must still pay it now as per the value on 1 November.

There are a number of exemptions to the LPT, including homes with defective concrete blocks and pyritic damage, but property owners are still required to submit an LPT Return by the closing date. 

Phone lines for the LPT Helpline have been particularly busy in the morning from 9:30 am and 11.30 am, with Revenue also saying that 1,600 people tried to call them during out of office hours. As a result, they are asking property owners to call back later in the day if they can’t get through.