Building a Residential Property Tax from Scratch: The Irish Story
Ireland’s centuries-old residential property tax was abolished in 1978. Although new versions of the tax followed, only to be terminated a short time later, by the beginning of the 21st century Ireland was an outlier in the developed world in not having a recurrent tax on residential properties. After many commissions and reports, much debate, political opposition and popular resistance, not to mention the role of the international financial community in the form of the International Monetary Fund (IMF), a new local property tax was introduced in 2013. The design, administration and implementation of the Local Property Tax (LPT) was made more challenging by economic circumstances of the time that included the 2008 financial crisis, a property crash, the bank guarantee, an international bailout and years of austerity.
On May 25, 2022, IMFG Visiting Scholar Gerard Turley presented on the story of Ireland’s new residential property tax, covering the background and country context, design features, implementation, and reform lessons.
Speaker: Dr. Gerard Turley is an economist and lecturer based at the National University of Ireland Galway, and manages the www.localauthorityfinances.com website.
Moderator: Dr. Enid Slack is the director of IMFG and one of Canada’s foremost experts in municipal finance.