{"id":518796,"date":"2026-06-04T19:30:13","date_gmt":"2026-06-04T19:30:13","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/518796\/"},"modified":"2026-06-04T19:30:13","modified_gmt":"2026-06-04T19:30:13","slug":"income-tax-and-vat-take-surges-by-e2bn-on-2025-latest-exchequer-returns-show-the-irish-times","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/518796\/","title":{"rendered":"Income tax and VAT take surges by \u20ac2bn on 2025, latest exchequer returns show \u2013 The Irish Times"},"content":{"rendered":"

Employment and spending boosted taxes<\/a> in the first five months of the year, new figures show, but experts warn that rising costs are pushing businesses to a \u201ccliff edge\u201d.<\/p>\n

The Government<\/a> collected \u20ac49.2 billion in revenue in the year to the end of May, \u20ac700 million less than during the same five-month period in 2025, according to exchequer returns detailing State income and spending published on Thursday.<\/p>\n

Income tax<\/a> and VAT<\/a>, levied on consumer spending, together accounted for \u20ac27.85 billion of the total, some \u20ac1.9 billion more than the contribution from workers and shoppers during the same five months last year.<\/p>\n

Workers paid \u20ac15.6 billion tax on their pay over the five months, \u20ac1 billion more than during the same period in 2025. VAT climbed \u20ac800 million to \u20ac12.2 billion.<\/p>\n

Those figures show employment and spending \u201cholding up well\u201d said Alma O\u2019Brien, head of tax at advisers Azets Ireland<\/a>.<\/p>\n

But she cautioned that the Middle East conflict, which has sent energy prices soaring, could damage the Irish economy if it persists. <\/p>\n

[\u00a0Ireland\u2019s new savings scheme may have \u2018modest\u2019 impact on banks\u2019 income, Goodbody saysOpens in new window<\/a>\u00a0]<\/p>\n

Many small and medium-sized businesses (SMEs) face significant challenges posed by rising costs, she noted.<\/p>\n

\u201cWhile next month\u2019s VAT cut for the hospitality sector provides breathing room for some firms, more supports may be needed to avoid a cliff-edge scenario for SMEs in other sectors under pressure,\u201d O\u2019Brien warned.<\/p>\n

Corporation tax<\/a>, levied on company profits, rose \u20ac516 million in the year to the end of last month to \u20ac6.2 billion. That represented an increase of 9.1 per cent. <\/p>\n

Excise duty tumbled almost \u20ac100 million to \u20ac2.5 billion to the end of May. <\/p>\n

The fall could be due to Government tax cuts on diesel and petrol announced following widespread protests at soaring motor fuel price rises in April, a Department of Finance<\/a> statement said. Excise is collected on motor fuel, alcohol and tobacco.<\/p>\n

Government spending surged to \u20ac51.5 billion in the five-month period, the figures show, leaving the State nursing a \u20ac2.3 billion deficit on May 31st.<\/p>\n

Minister for Finance Simon Harris<\/a> argued the growth in income tax and VAT showed the success of the Government\u2019s strategy to protect jobs during uncertainty.<\/p>\n

Next October\u2019s budget will include tax cuts for workers, Harris hinted<\/a>.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Employment and spending boosted taxes in the first five months of the year, new figures show, but experts…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":518797,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":"","_share_on_mastodon":"0"},"categories":[73],"tags":[191313,79,8452,22779,18,19,5233,17,44,4520,24727],"class_list":["post-518796","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-business","tag-azets-ireland","tag-business","tag-corporation-tax","tag-department-of-finance","tag-eire","tag-ie","tag-income-tax","tag-ireland","tag-simon-harris","tag-tax","tag-vat"],"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"https:\/\/pubeurope.com\/@ie\/116693501598805512","error":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/518796","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=518796"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/518796\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/518797"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=518796"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=518796"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=518796"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}