Not paid tax/nppr on property

So I am in a bit of a predicament, I bought a house in 2006 and when the credit crunch came I ended up unemployed for 11 months and dwindled down my life savings paying the mortgage whilst out of work. Rather than be a burden on the state and end up in arrears and eventually lose the property I got a job in a city in the UK and moved over on my own and without knowing anyone, tough at the time but it needed to be done.

After finally getting on my feet I would like to try and sort this mess out and get myself 'legit' in the eyes of the state as they have never come looking for payment on any of these items. Now I never paid NPPR, never registered with the PRTB and never paid income tax on the property (have a feeling this would be due to HMRC anyway) but had the property rented out all the time.

As I haven't got the cash (nor will a bank lend to me) to pay the exorbitant fee's, taxes (if applicable) and back charges I am in a quandary as to what to do. It seems I have 4 options available

1) Bury my head in the sand and hope for the best (it's worked so far so why not continue). Will I ever get caught and how ? Will the new property tax require sufficient disclosure of personal details etc ?

2) Try somehow to register for NPPR, PRTB, Property tax and cancelling my tax relief at source without raising suspicion i.e say I left the country last month. Will revenue twig this ? Is there even a point of registering for NPPR as they are getting rid of it soon although I do believe NPPR details are passed from the council to the revenue in case anyone is wondering.

3) Somehow borrow the money and pay all outstanding liabilities

4) Write off the house, default on the mortgage and never live in Ireland again.

Obviously I wouldn't like to have to do number 4 and it would be a last resort as I would eventually like to come back, work and contribute to the economy.

I did what I thought was the right thing at the time but it looks as though now I would have been better off defaulting on the loan and let the state prop up the nationalised bank for the losses incurred on it all whilst claiming benefits.

Advice please ?

Welcome to AAM

I dont think you should bury your head-the problem won't go away! You will not get advice here on how to avoid anything that is due. (Option 2 is making a false declaration and is, in itself an offence)

The non-registration with the PRTB is actually going to be the biggest contributor to your tax bill. (non registration means you cant write off the interest on the loan) So, unless you have loads of other expenses, practically all your rental income is taxable. If you don't have the knowledge to correct your affairs yourself, you will need to consult an accountant. In any event, I recomend you do consult one.

However, if your financial situation is already bad-i.e. Large outstanding mortgage, arrears, negative equity, other loans etc., you may be a candidate for Bankrupcy or a Debt Settlement Agreement in the UK. Much more information on your financial situation would be required to give a considered view on that.

To sum up, it's best to get your tax affairs in order, and then if you can't pay, consider your options. Revenue may accept installments.

I am sure others will post along the same lines as above, but hopefully you will get more advice on your overall debt situation and how best to proceed.

Best of luck with what ever you decide to do.

As above, the non-registration with the PRTB and inability to write off 75% of mortgage interest against income is going to be the biggest problem.

On top of the income tax, you'll have:

NPPR: As of this month, you'll owe €2,880 including penalties (yes, the penalties are severe for NPPR). This doesn't include the charge for 2013 and rises by €80 per month. By June, when this years charge is due, you'd owe a total of €3,320 if you haven't paid up by then.

Household Charge: This charge is now €130 and rises to €200 at the end of April - at which point, it's passed to Revenue to deal with.

PRTB: You'll need to register the tenancy which costs €90.

LPT: This falls due later this year and is based on the value of your house.


In summary, it appears that the amount owed will be approaching €4,000 before taking income tax and it's associated penalties into account. Hopefully, you cancelled mortgage tax relief at source when you rented the property. If not, that's a whole extra bunch of charges.

ronaldo said:

PRTB: You'll need to register the tenancy which costs €90.

Click to expand...

This will be €180 as its a late registration.

Hopefully, you cancelled mortgage tax relief at source when you rented the property. If not, that's a whole extra bunch of charges.

Click to expand...

Unfortunately, point 2 says this was not cancelled.

Not wanting to go off topic, but I would not be surprised if there are many others like this poster.

You need to do up the sums but option 3 is your best option as you have not told us the figures. If you do post figures than it may be that option 4 is what you need to do.

Option 1 will come back and haunt you.