Corporation tax increased by 18% last year to €28bn, according to the latest Exchequer Returns from the Department of Finance, reports RTE.
When €11bn, which has been raised so far from the Apple tax case, is included in corporation tax figures the total was €39.1bn.
But the Department of Finance has warned that Ireland can not continue to rely on the “exceptional” taxes from a small number of highly profitable multinationals to fund future spending, reports RTE.
The Exchequer Returns for 2024 show the Irish economy continues to perform strongly.
Income tax was up 6.6% on last year at €35bn which indicates the jobs market remains healthy.
Strong consumer spending was also indicated by the €21.8 billion in VAT collections, which were up 7.3% from 2023, and the €6.3 billion in excise taxes, which were up 12%, reports RTE.
When the €11 billion from Apple is taken out of the total exchequer surplus of €12.8 billion in 2024, the excess is €1.8 billion.
Last year’s total revenues, which included €11 billion from Apple, were €108 billion, up €20 billion in 2023, reports RTE.
Ireland faces a “high vulnerability” with regard to some tax payments, the Department of Finance said.
It added: “A small handful of large, highly profitable firms are not a sustainable tax base on which to build permanent spending commitments,” reports RTE.
The Department of Finance said: “The headline surpluses in prospect over the next number of years are highly reliant on ‘windfall’ corporate tax receipts,” reports RTE.
“The Irish economy has consistently proved its resilience despite nearly a decade of economic and geopolitical turbulence,” said Tom Woods, head of tax at KPMG. “Notwithstanding this, the current scale of geopolitical and economic uncertainty calls for substantial investment to address the national infrastructure deficit. It is critical that we use a portion of the tax surpluses to urgently tackle infrastructural challenges to secure current and future waves of business investment and position us for future economic and societal prosperity,” reports RTE.
Tell us your thoughts in the Facebook post and share this with your friends.
