Irish Finances Sink Further Into Red Though Targets Expected To Be Hit
by Jason Gorringe, Tax-News.com, London
06 November 2003

It is now thought that Irish Finance Minister Charlie McCreevy’s budget forecasts may come in on target despite a 2.1 billion euro budget deficit for the first ten months of the year, which was revealed by the Department of Finance on Tuesday.

Whilst tax returns for October increased, figures show that the deficit in that month rose to 2.16 billion euros, up from 1.8 billion euros in September. This time last year, the Exchequer recorded a shortfall of 439 million euros.

The Finance Minister has predicted a shortfall of 500 million euros this year, and economic experts at Davy Stockbrokers remain confident that this target will be met, pointing out that after ten months, returns are running a relatively small 199 million euros under government estimates.

Total tax revenues increased to 24.2 billion euros from 23 billion euros in 2002, whilst VAT returns also recorded a healthy rise to 7.9 billion euros from 7.2 billion euros last year. The strong housing market also accounted for a strong rise in stamp duty revenues which hit 1.42 billion this year, against 958 million euros in 2002.

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