Almost €40m was paid in residential zoned land tax (RZLT) from 1,800 returns as of Monday 9 June, Revenue has confirmed.

This is the first year an RZLT charge has applied on land that is zoned for development and deemed to be serviced. The owner must pay 3% of the self-assessed value of the land. Farmers had until 1 April to apply to their local authority to dezone land.

Irish Farmers Journal analysis showed that farmers applied to have some 370ac of land dezoned nationally. These landowners must still have filed a RZLT return in order to claim an exemption for 2025. The deadline for landowners to file an RZLT return was 30 May last, following a week’s extension.

County breakdown

Senator Victor Boyhan has gained a county-by-county breakdown of RZLT payments made up to 30 May.

It showed that over €11m had been paid by 531 landowners by that time, meaning that over two-thirds of the €40m total came in on the deadline day or just after it.

Over €4.16m, more than one-third of the total collected, came from Co Dublin. This sum came from only 44 plots or sites, an average of almost €100,000 per site.

The second highest RZLT tax return came from neighbouring Wicklow, with €983,855. In contrast, only two plots were registered in neighbouring Louth, with less than €3,700 paid.

Other counties where big liabilities were paid included Galway, €917,657, with two thirds of that coming from the city as opposed to the county, local authority area.

Yet 80% of the €722,969 paid in Cork came from the county council area. Kerry saw €702,975 raised from 19 plots, with 498,600 paid on 41 plots in Meath.

It will be the end of June before a county breakdown of the entire €40m paid in total is available from Revenue.