Farm Tax Act, 1985

Charge of farm tax.

9.—(1) There shall be charged, levied and paid for each year, beginning with such year as may be prescribed, in respect of every taxable farm a tax to be called farm tax.

(2) (a) Subject to paragraphs (b) and (c) of this subsection and to section 21 of this Act, farm tax in respect of a taxable farm for any year shall be paid by the person who stands entered as the occupier of the farm in the relevant classification list or classification lists on the date on which the rate of farm tax for that year is prescribed under subsection (4) of this section to the local authority or local authorities in whose functional area or functional areas the farm is situated.

(b) Where, on the date on which the rate of farm tax for any year is prescribed as aforesaid, two or more persons (whether as joint tenants, tenants in common or otherwise and whether or not they or some of them are connected with one another) stand entered in the relevant classification list or classification lists as the occupiers of a taxable farm and none of them is a person to whom a part of the farm is apportioned under section 3 (2) of this Act, those persons shall be jointly and severally liable for the payment to the local authority or local authorities in whose functional area or functional areas the farm is situated of the farm tax payable in respect of the farm for that year.

(c) Where, on the date on which the rate of farm tax for any year is prescribed as aforesaid—

(i) two or more persons stand entered in the relevant classification list or classification lists as the occupiers of a taxable farm,

(ii) one or more of them is a person or persons to whom a part or parts of an agricultural land holding constituting the farm is or are apportioned under the said section 3 (2), and

(iii) one or more of them is or are not a person or persons to whom a part or parts of the holding aforesaid is or are apportioned as aforesaid,

the person or persons referred to in subparagraph (iii) of this paragraph shall be liable (jointly and severally if there is more than one such person) for the payment to the local authority or local authorities in whose functional area or functional areas the farm is situated of the farm tax (if any) payable for that year in respect of so much of the farm as is not apportioned as aforesaid.

(3) Where a taxable farm is situated in the functional area of more than one local authority, such amount of the farm tax payable in respect of the farm as is calculated by reference to the adjusted acreage of the part of the farm situated in the functional area of any such authority shall be paid to that authority.

(4) (a) Farm tax shall, subject to section 10 of this Act, be paid in each year in which it is payable by virtue of subsection (1) of this section in respect of taxable farms at such rate as may be prescribed for that year per adjusted acre of the adjusted acreages standing entered in respect of the agricultural land holdings, or parts of such holdings, constituting the farms in the relevant classification lists on the date on which the rate of farm tax for that year is prescribed under this subsection.

(b) (i) Notwithstanding paragraph (a) of this subsection, there shall be prescribed under that paragraph for the first year for which farm tax is payable by virtue of subsection (1) of this section a rate of £10 per adjusted acre as the rate of farm tax and there shall be prescribed under that paragraph for any year for which farm tax is payable as aforesaid (other than the first such year) a rate of farm tax that bears the same proportion to £10 as the estimated level of farm incomes in the immediately preceding year bears to the estimated level of farm incomes in the year 1985.

(ii) In this paragraph “the estimated level of farm incomes”—

(I) in relation to the year 1985, means the income arising from self-employment, and other trading income, in agriculture for that year as estimated by the Central Statistics Office and published in the Irish Statistical Bulletin issued by that Office for the month of June in the year 1986, and

(II) in relation to any other year, means the income arising from self-employment, and other trading income, in agriculture as estimated by the Director of the Central Statistics Office and furnished in writing to the Minister before the end of that year or as early as may be in the year immediately following that year.

(5) Where the total adjusted acreage of a taxable farm consists of a number of adjusted acres and a fraction of an adjusted acre, there shall be paid in respect of the fraction farm tax of an amount bearing the same proportion to the rate of farm tax on one adjusted acre as the fraction bears to one adjusted acre.

(6) References in this section and in section 11 of this Act to the person who stands entered in a classification list or classification lists as the occupier of a taxable farm, or part of a taxable farm, are references to the person who stands entered in that list as the occupier of the agricultural land holding, or part of such a holding, constituting that farm or that part of a farm or, as the case may be, to the person who is the occupier of an agricultural land holding, or part of such a holding, referred to in section 3 (2) (ii) of this Act constituting the taxable farm, or part of the taxable farm.

(7) A person and an adjusted acreage shall be deemed, for the purposes of this Act, not to stand entered in a classification list on a particular date unless the local authority concerned has been notified under this Act of such entry on or before that date.