Almost 20,000 self-employed people face hit on income tax bill for failing to pay property tax

Almost 20,000 self-employed people have taken a hit on their income tax bill for failing to pay the Local Property Tax.

Self-employed people who do not paythe property tax incur a surcharge of up to 10% on their total income tax bill. This potentially leaves them with significantly bigger penalties for non-compliance than PAYE workers, whose unpaid tax can be deducted directly from income.

Revenue figures, made available to The Sunday Business Post, show that to date 18,900 income tax surcharges have been levied on self-employed people for failure to pay the property tax.

“The local property tax is the only tax where this applies,” a Revenue spokeswoman said.