Irish Tax Revenues On The Up

by Jason Gorringe, Tax-News.com, London

07 February 2012

Irish tax revenues were up 17% last month, with January's receipts representing just over 10% of the annual Budget 2012 target.

The latest Irish Exchequer statement shows that revenues of EUR3.67bn (USD4.8bn) were generated in January, 2012, an increase of EUR533m on the same month last year. This, according to the Finance Department, is broadly consistent with expectations.

A significant year-on-year increase was seen in income tax revenues. EUR1.26bn was collected last month, a 27.7% improvement on January, 2011's figure of EUR987m. The Department puts this down in a large part to the full year impact of the income tax measures implemented in Budget 2011. These include the Universal Social Charge (USC), charged on gross income. The measures did not benefit tax revenues in January 2011, as the bulk of income tax receipts paid into the Exchequer in January relate to earnings and employment in December.

Corporation tax receipts were up 276.3%, at EUR271m. The Department states that it should be borne in mind that approximately EUR250m in corporation tax receipts which were originally due for payment in December, 2011 were not received into the Exchequer account until January, 2012. This explains the leap in takings.

January is generally the biggest month of the year for value-added tax (VAT) receipts, with revenues relating to the traditional busy pre-Christmas November/December trading period included in the receipts. VAT figures increased over January, 2011 by 3%, at a total of EUR1.73bn. Excise duties, the last of the “big four” tax-heads, recorded a 2.7% year-on-year increase in January.

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