Most Wexford farmers are exempt from the residential zoned land tax for now because Wexford County Council has not yet zoned the land within its remit.

Enniscorthy, Wexford town and New Ross east of the River Barrow have no zoned land around them visible on the maps.

The Department of Housing confirmed that Wexford is the only such example of this as its local authority requires a statutory land use plan to develop its local area plans. “So de facto, the land doesn’t have a zoning at the present time,” the department spokesperson said.

“Once the local authority undertakes the local area plan and that gets approval by the elected members, then it will have a zoning. It will be folded in by the local authority in their next iteration of the map, whenever they get around to doing that local area plan, but that’s a matter for Wexford,” he said.

It means that most farmers in Wexford will not be eligible to pay the land tax when it is first due in 2024 but instead could become eligible to pay from 2025 on.

Land tax map: find out if your farm is liable

Most Wexford farmers exempt from land tax

Farmers around Wexford’s main towns have not been included as eligible under the looming land tax for now but may well be in future.