The Revenue Commissioners will have the power to come in and inspect a home to assess its value for the property tax.

Property tax dodgers also face fines of €3,000 for deliberately failing to fill in forms properly or undervaluing their house, under tough new legislation.

The legislation to back up the new property tax, the Local Property Tax Bill, 2012 was published yesterday.

The bill says the Revenue will have the power to "enter on land and inspect the relevant residential property" to assess its value.

"The section obliges the person occupying the property to allow the authorised person inspect the property at all reasonable times. The Revenue Commissioners may provide the authorised person with information that is necessary to value the property," the legislation says.

The legislation also imposes a maximum fine of €3,000 on a homeowner who "fails to submit a return or fails to include all required information" having been told to do so.

A homeowner who "knowingly makes a false statement" to reduce the amount of property tax pay, will also face a maximum fine of €3,000.

When told by Revenue to provide information on who owns a house, anybody who fails to comply will be hit with a daily fine of €100.

Revenue will be drawing up a database of every house in the country, each of which will have an identification number.

Anger

Meanwhile, householders whose properties are affected by pyrite have reacted angrily to the Department of Finance's decision to include their homes in the property tax.

The Pyrite Action Group said that the inclusion of the damaged houses in the new tax added "insult to injury", while one affected homeowner told the Irish Independent she would "absolutely not" be paying the tax which is calculated according to the value of the property.

Irish Independent