New Tax Introduced For Grave Openings

Dún Laoghaire-Rathdown County Council is the latest local authority to introduce a new tax on grave openings, a move that is being progressively rolled out across the State.

In a letter to funeral undertakers, the council sets out the charge for interment of an adult which it says has now risen to €868.28, inclusive of VAT, with effect from May 1st last.

The new charge is separate to the cost of buying a burial plot.

The letter indicates that the council has been required to charge VAT since measures in the 2010 Finance Act came into force in July 2010. The council said it had been digging into its own coffers to cover the VAT element itself up to the end of April this year.

Varying dates of the introduction of the VAT element have been experienced across the country. Like Dún Laoghaire-Rathdown, South Dublin County Council delayed the VAT introduction but only until January 2012. Fingal County Council said it had been applying the VAT rate “from the beginning”.

The increases follow price rises announced in recent months by a number of local authorities for burial plots – a move described by Eamon Timmons of Age Action Ireland as the only instance he knew of property prices going up.

(H)