Corporate tax above target by €3bn in 2 years

For a second successive year corporate tax revenues have risen steeply, but Government officials and ministers are not letting on to the sources of the bounty.

The exchequer returns for December were released yesterday and complete the picture of the tax and spend figures for 2016.

Despite the traditional festive focus on Vat and excise duty, tax revenues, and cross-border and online shopping after the Brexit-driven plunge in sterling, there is no disguising that corporate taxes collected from multinationals have soared again.