Deferral of Residential Zoned Land Tax to Allow Exclusion of Farmers a Step Forward – IFA
IFA President Francie Gorman has called the deferral of actively farmed land from the Residential Zoned Land Tax a step forward. “This has been causing unnecessary stress and huge worry among many farm families throughout the country who were due be impacted by this unaffordable taxation measure next February,” he said.
“Farmers should never have been included in this tax. Expecting farmers to pay 3% of the value of their land in an annual tax that bears no relation to the income earning potential from the land is wrong. In effect, it would force farmers to sell the land,” he said.
Reiterating the call on the Government to exclude farmland from the Residential Zoned Land Tax, IFA Farm Business Chair said: “Our position remains that farmland should be excluded, and we will continue to campaign for that. An IFA delegation will meet the Minister for Finance Jack Chambers on the farm of our county chair in Mayo this morning and another delegation will meet Minister Darragh O’Brien in north Dublin. The issue will be front and centre at both meetings”.
“We have always emphasised the critical importance of excluding all actively farmed agricultural land from this unfair and punitive tax measure which, without a deferral, is due next February,”
Further emphasising the IFA’s position on the tax, Mr. O’Keefe said that farmed land needs to be permanently removed from the tax as its implementation would cause great distress for landowners.
