Government is looking to resolve the looming possibility of active farmers being hit with Residential Zoned Land Tax bills ahead of the planned introduction of the tax in 2025.

The vacant land tax’s start-date was pushed out in Budget 2024 to allow for the issue to cleared up before bills begin issuing to landowners, Minister for Public Expenditure Pascal Donohoe told Fine Gael members attending a special party conference last Saturday.

Minister Donohoe acknowledged that a “small number” of farmers may have had land zoned as residential under local authority development plans without these farmers’ having sought the re-zoning of their land or having plans to develop the land. Most of these farmers are located around the edges of towns and villages, he said.

“I know this is an issue, Minister [for Finance] Michael McGrath who I work with closely with knows it’s one too, and we are putting a lot effort into that issue now for the next few months to see how we can crack it,” according to Minister Donohoe.

Utilities

The minister stated that it was not the tax’s objective to tax farmland, but rather to tax parcels of land with access to utilities which is under the ownership of speculators or developers.