The new holiday home tax gives LA's the right to access utiliy bills Data Protection?

M

MANTO

Registered User
Messages
424
Ok, i dont have a second home but after reading the below article posted online @ www.independent.ie i feel as a consumer, our data protection rights are being over-ruled?

(on a personal view, if you can afford to have a second home i think you can afford to pay the €200)

Or am i exaggerating?



Utility bills check will enforce holiday home tax

"LOCAL authorities will be examining electricity bills to make sure owners of holiday homes pay the €200 'second home' tax announced yesterday.
New powers mean county councils will be given access to utility bills to see if power is turned off during the winter months -- suggesting that the homes are only used as summer residences.

And they will also be examining the voter register and land registry records to see how many people owe the tax."
 
Re: Data Protection being broken?

There are exceptions to the Data Protection Act, particularly in the area of taxation.

Voter register and land registry records are published records available to everyone and so are not a Data Protection issue.
 
Re: The new holiday home tax gives LA's the right to access utiliy bills Data Protect

Moved from Consumer Issues and Rights to Property Investment which is where the holiday home tax is discussed on AAM.


For what its worth I think its a bit of a moot point as another poster pointed out all you have to do is visit once a month and wash and dry some laundry. Also many rural holiday homes operate wells and filtration systems which back wash nightly or every second night consuming some electricity.

Land registry data is a matter of public record and I dont think any one can be stopped accessing the information so long as they pay the appropriate fees.

However, I have a serious problem with the use of the register of electors for tax purposes. I agree that the register of electors is a matter of public record but fundamentally opposed to its use for any other purpose than that of the right of the citazen to exercize their franchise. The RoE should not be allowed to be used by marketeers (its not) or revenue (it is at present). Anything which interferes with the franchise of the elector should not be allowed. I have heard of landlords who have asked tenants not to register for the vote as they were afraid the details may be used by revenue. This to my mind is outrageous.

aj
 
Re: The new holiday home tax gives LA's the right to access utiliy bills Data Protect

The Data Protection Act says that restrictions on the disclosure of personal data do not apply if the disclosure is required for the purpose of preventing, detecting or investigating offences, apprehending or prosecuting offenders or assessing or collecting any tax, duty or other moneys owed or payable to the State, a local authority or a health board.

So, the local authorities can request the data from the ESB, as I understand it, and ESB would be obliged by law to provide it.

However, nobody with a holiday home would dream of disconnecting the supply over the winter as there is a €100 odd disconnection charge and another €100 to reconnect it. It's cheaper to pay the two-monthly standing charges on the electricity bills even if no electricity is being used.

So, we must assume that the local authorities will enquire if the usage is near to nil over the winter months. The problem here is that due to the frequency of estimated readings - especially if the meter is located inside and the house is locked up - it would be impossible in many (most?) cases to state with any certainty that no electricity was used.

It would not be unusual for a holiday home to have its usage estimated from September to May, for example. It could be estimated at nil and the actual situation could be that the owner uses it at weekends. Or, it could be estimated at a few hundred units per period and nothing is actually being used.

That is not going to help the local authority.

And you can bet the ESB is not going to be happy getting requests to provide usage information to such bodies.

Regards,

Fnergg
 
You must log in or register to reply here.
Back
Top