Farmers are being reminded by the Department of Housing that they have less one month left to ask their local county councils to dezone farmland from a new land tax set to be levied from 2024 onwards.

An Irish Farmers Journal analysis of local authority maps has shown that some farmers with no intent to develop housing their lands could be left with annual bills in the thousands if they miss this dezoning deadline.

The residential zoned land tax will apply at a rate of 3% of the land’s market value, with this 3% rate set to be levied by local authorities each year from 2024 onwards under the Department’s plans.

Farmers whose land is currently marked as eligible for the new tax can make a submission to their county council stating their reasons for thinking that their land does not meet the criteria set under the new tax.

These criteria include being include being zoned in a local authority development plan and being sufficiently serviced or capable of being sufficiently serviced to support the building of houses.

Draft maps have been published by local authorities and you can check if your land has been zoned here.

The deadline for making such submissions is 1 January 2023 and the first bill will be due on 23 May 2024.

Push for exemption

The IFA recently made a submission to TDs on the select committee on budgetary oversight calling for farmland to be exempted to the new rules.

The committee agreed unanimously to allowing genuine farmers a full reprieve from the bill. However, the legislation has not yet been changed to reflect this view.

Minister for Agriculture Charlie McConalogue had previously said that about 8,000ha of farmland could be hit with the new tax.