Department of Finance<\/a> blamed the drop on statistical base effects following an \u201cexceptionally\u201d strong August last year.<\/p>\nIt also noted that on a cumulative basis, corporate tax receipts amounted to \u20ac18.2 billion so far this year, up \u20ac1.9 billion on the same period last year. <\/p>\n
But Mr Donohoe said the figures \u201cprovided a reminder of the vulnerability in our corporation tax base\u201d.<\/p>\n
While the fall last month \u201chad been anticipated after a very strong August last year, corporation tax is now only marginally ahead of 2024 (when once-off receipts from the recent Apple tax ruling are excluded),\u201d he said.<\/p>\n
The August exchequer returns incorporate Apple\u2019s end-of-year tax payment as the iPhone maker\u2019s financial year ends in September.<\/p>\n
The company is the State\u2019s largest tax payer. Apple\u2019s main Irish arm paid <\/b>\u20ac8.17 billion in corporation tax last year.<\/p>\n
The latest exchequer figures indicate the Government collected \u20ac64.1 billion in tax revenue overall for the eight months to the end of August, \u20ac4.4 billion or 7.3 per cent up on the same period last year, leaving the public finances in relatively good shape going into next month\u2019s budget.<\/p>\n
On a cumulative basis, income tax receipts to the end of August were 23.2 billion, up 4.7 per cent on the same period last year while VAT receipts at \u20ac15.2 billion were ahead by 4.8 per cent.<\/p>\n
\u201cOther revenue streams, particularly income tax and VAT receipts, have been performing steadily and are broadly in line with expectations for this point in the year, reflecting the underlying strength of our economy,\u201c Mr Donohoe said.<\/p>\n
He has previously signalled that the budget would be framed around a \u20ac9.4 billion spending and tax package.<\/p>\n
The latest figures gave rise to an exchequer surplus of \u20ac3.2 billion.<\/p>\n
On the spending side, the department said gross voted expenditure stood at \u20ac68.6 billion for the eight-month period which was \u20ac5 billion (7.8 per cent) ahead of the same period last year. <\/p>\n
Planned expenditure for this year is now expected to amount to \u20ac108.7 billion, \u20ac3.3 billion more than set out in Budget 2025.<\/p>\n
In a post on X, the Irish Fiscal Advisory Council (IFAC) said current spending is up 6.1 per cent so far this year. <\/p>\n
\u201cSpending is rising quickly in education, children and justice, with those combined areas seeing spending up 7.5 per cent. Budget 2025 only set out growth of 2.5 per centfor these areas,\u201d it said.<\/p>\n
\u202fPeter\u202fVale, tax partner at Grant Thornton Ireland, noted that after exceptionally strong corporation tax receipts in July, \u201cthere was a big fall in the August numbers compared to the previous year\u201d.<\/p>\n
\u201cThe figures again underline our dependence on such a small number of companies for such a large portion of our receipts,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n
\u201cWhile year to date corporation tax receipts are marginally ahead of 2024, the unpredictable nature of the monthly figures may make it challenging for the Government to plan ahead of Budget 2026,\u201d Mr Vale said.<\/p>\n
\u201cUnfortunately, corporation tax figures for the critical months of October and November will come too late for Budget deliberations,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Minister for Finance Paschal Donohoe has warned about the dangers of relying on high levels of corporate tax…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":41261,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[73],"tags":[10471,79,22779,18,19,17],"class_list":{"0":"post-41260","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-business","8":"tag-budget","9":"tag-business","10":"tag-department-of-finance","11":"tag-eire","12":"tag-ie","13":"tag-ireland"},"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"","error":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/41260","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=41260"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/41260\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/41261"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=41260"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=41260"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=41260"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}