{"id":613532,"date":"2026-09-03T21:46:24","date_gmt":"2026-09-03T21:46:24","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/613532\/"},"modified":"2026-09-03T21:46:24","modified_gmt":"2026-09-03T21:46:24","slug":"record-e66bn-in-tax-collected-in-first-eight-months-of-2026-the-irish-times","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/613532\/","title":{"rendered":"Record \u20ac66bn in tax collected in first eight months of 2026 \u2013 The Irish Times"},"content":{"rendered":"

Government<\/a> spending is rising more quickly in percentage terms than tax<\/a> receipts even as a record \u20ac66 billion was collected in tax over the first eight months of 2026.<\/p>\n

Tax receipts are 6.2 per cent in advance of the same time last year when the 2025 impact of the Apple tax<\/a> case is stripped out. Current spending is 8 per cent up on last year. <\/p>\n

The \u20ac66 billion of tax collected in the first eight months of 2026 strengthens the Government\u2019s hand as it plans for next month\u2019s budget<\/a>.<\/p>\n

Corporation tax<\/a>, an area of concern as it is concentrated around a small group of multinationals, generated \u20ac2.8 billion in August, up almost \u20ac700 million on the same month last year, the latest exchequer returns on Thursday show.<\/p>\n

On a cumulative basis, receipts from the business tax came to \u20ac17.8 billion for the eight-month period, up 8.3 per cent year on year.<\/p>\n

The August exchequer returns incorporate Apple<\/a>\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. It paid $17.1 billion (\u20ac14.6 billion) in tax in Ireland last year but a significant part of that total included money from the Apple tax ruling in 2024.<\/p>\n

Minister for Finance Simon Harris<\/a> said the latest exchequer figures reflected the fundamental strength of the economy and a labour market \u201cthat has been running at full capacity for the last 4\u00bd years \u2013 the longest stretch of full employment in the history of the State\u201d. <\/p>\n

He promised the Government would deliver a budget \u201cthat makes work pay\u201d while keeping the \u201cpublic finances on a sustainable path\u201d.<\/p>\n

The exchequer numbers indicated that a total of \u20ac66.3 billion was collected across all tax channels between January and August, up \u20ac2.2 billion (3.4 per cent) on the same period last year.<\/p>\n

However, when one-off receipts arising from the Apple tax case are excluded, total tax receipts were up on last year by \u20ac3.9 billion (6.2 per cent).<\/p>\n

Government coffers were also buoyed by strong income tax<\/a> receipts which, on a cumulative basis, generated \u20ac25 billion, \u20ac1.8 billion (7.7 per cent) in advance of last year. Strong income-tax receipts reflect a buoyant labour market with a record 2.8 million people employed in the Irish economy.<\/p>\n

August is not a VAT<\/a>-due month and receipts were \u201caccordingly modest\u201d, the Department of Finance<\/a> said, but cumulative receipts from the sales tax came to \u20ac16.3 billion, in advance of last year by \u20ac1.1 billion.<\/p>\n

Gross voted current spending for the period came to \u20ac64.9 billion, up \u20ac4.8 billion (8 per cent) on last year and marginally above profile.<\/p>\n

The Government is already forecasting overruns in departmental budgets of \u20ac700 million this year. But the Irish Fiscal Advisory Council<\/a> has warned these could stretch to \u20ac850 million and beyond.<\/p>\n

Much of the overrun stems from an overspend in health and comes amid suggestions the budgetary allocation for hospitals this year remains at the 2025 level despite increased demand.<\/p>\n

\u201cStrong exchequer receipts create room for action as Government finalises Budget 2027, but measures must be disciplined and targeted,\u201d Orla Gavin, head of tax at KPMG Ireland<\/a>, said.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Government spending is rising more quickly in percentage terms than tax receipts even as a record \u20ac66 billion…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":613533,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[5],"tags":[14617,936,5168,72,24463,1398,1523,61,60,10297,18040,70,5066,11757],"class_list":["post-613532","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-business","tag-apple-tax","tag-apple","tag-budget","tag-business","tag-corporation-tax","tag-department-of-finance","tag-government","tag-ie","tag-ireland","tag-irish-fiscal-advisory-council","tag-kpmg","tag-simon-harris","tag-tax","tag-vat"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/613532","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=613532"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/613532\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/613533"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=613532"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=613532"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=613532"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}