Almost 142,000 homes have been registered for the €100 household charge as the deadline approaches for those who wish to pay by direct debit.

Some 141,813 properties had been registered by 4pm this evening, raising a total of €14.2 million, the Department of the Environment confirmed. A total of 79 per cent of the payments have been processed online.

The Government expects to raise about €160 million from the charge this year but has already pledged to replace it with a property tax.

Tomorrow is the final date for setting up direct debits to allow householders pay the charge online in four €25 installments.

Householders have until March 31st to pay the €100 and failure to pay that date will result in penalties, on a sliding scale depending on how late the payment is made.

A late payment fee of 10 per cent will be added if the charge is paid within six months of March 31st. This will increase to 20 per cent after six months and to 30 per cent after a year.

Late payment interest of 1 per cent per month from the due date will also apply until the charge has been paid.

The Department of the Environment said people may choose to pay the €100 online by credit or debit card, or by cheque, postal order or bank draft at their local authority office.

Payment forms may also be downloaded from the householdcharge.ie website and sent by post.

Chair of the Household Charge Project Board Jackie Maguire warned that non-payment of the charge was an offence and that late payments would be subject to increasing fines.

She said information circulating online that residential property owners could “opt out” of the charge where they had not “given consent” to the law was incorrect.

Property owners were bound by the laws passed by the Oireachtas and they could not avoid those laws by “withdrawing consent” to them, Ms Maguire said.

Minister for the Environment Phil Hogan said anyone who had a preference for paying the charge in instalments should register online to do so either today or tomorrow.

There were some problems with the householdcharge.ie website this morning, but the Department of the Environment said it expected these would be addressed shortly.

The Campaign Against Household and Water Taxes said the fact that only 133,365 properties had been registered confirmed that “mass non-registration” was “entirely possible”.

It called on householders to maintain a boycott of what it said was “an austerity tax to benefit the bondholders and super wealthy”.