Q I inherited a cottage in the west of Ireland from my late aunt five years ago but I’ve been living in Australia the whole time. I never rented it out because it needs a lot of work done to it and I didn’t want the hassle of being a non-resident landlord. I read that the vacant homes tax has been increased. I don’t really know how to go about organising a refurbishment of a property in Ireland from Australia, so I was thinking of just putting the cottage up for sale in its current condition. Would this enable me to avoid paying a vacant homes tax?