Budget to see residential zoned tax with 'carve out' for farmers, according to O'Gorman
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The Residential Zoned Land Tax (RZLT) must come into effect in the upcoming budget with a “carve out” for farmers, Roderic O’Gorman has said.
The Green Party leader said he discussed the matter with Finance Minister Jack Chambers over the weekend, describing it as a “good discussion” and he is “confident” the issue will be resolved.
“I’m confident that we will see a carve out for farmers who are currently farming and wish to continue farming their land,” Mr O’Gorman.
“But at the same time, ensure that at this year’s budget, we see a tax on land hoarding implemented and ensure that where people have land that’s zoned, that’s serviced, that they either build on it themselves or allow somebody else to build it. Because the scale of the housing crisis is too great for us to just allow that land to stay idle.”
Mr O’Gorman said that work is currently underway at the Department of Finance and within the Office of the Attorney General on the matter.
A row broke out among the coalition parties last week over a plan to defer the RZLT, following concerns being raised by Mr Chambers that the tax could hit active farmers.
The tax itself is set to hit landowners at a rate of 3% of market value of any land that is earmarked for housing development.
The Green Party took aim at Fianna Fáil in the wake of the decision to defer the tax, with one party source saying that the Fianna Fáil had made “more of an election decision than a policy one”.
However, Mr O’Gorman rejected the notion that the Green Party was climbing down over the matter by agreeing to a carve out for farmers, saying that it was never the intention of the tax to hit active farmers.
“We in the Green Party were disappointed to see that [tax] deferred last year and we think it’s really important that that tax is implemented from this year’s budget.”
Taoiseach Simon Harris welcomed the fact that proposals are being worked on that would allow for a decision to be made ahead of the budget, saying the Cabinet would consider it.