Deferral of RZLT to Allow Exclusion of Farmland a Step Forward

IFA President Francie Gorman said the deferral of actively farmed land from the Residential Zoned Land Tax (RZLT), to allow time to develop a definition to exclude farmers, according to media reports this morning, is 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.  

IFA has raised the concerns of farmers at every opportunity over the last two year and it is a key priority in our pre-Budget submission.

IFA Farm Business chair Bill O’Keeffe 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,” he said.

Reiterating his call on the Government to remove all actively farmed land permanently from the RZLT, Bill O’Keeffe said the tax would cause a great deal of distress for landowners.