Social charge sees tax take beat target
Revenue for the first eight months of the year continued to be slightly above forecast, but August returns were weaker than expected.
Department of Finance figures show that in total €20.5 billion was collected in taxes — €204m, or 1%, better than expected for the year to last month.
A leap in income tax by 25% — largely due to the USC imposed by the Fianna Fáil-Green government in the last budget — pushed the tax take up by €1.6bn, or 8.3% on the corresponding period last year.
VAT was €229m below expectations as consumers continued to steer clear of purchases. The partial reduction of the levy in July is not expected to be reflected in official figures for some time.
In the first eight months, corporation tax was €67m, or 4%, above target, while excise duties were €62m (2.1%) ahead of target.
Government spending was 1.5% below target.
The deficit hit €20.4bn during the first eight months of the year — up from €12.1bn on the corresponding period last year.
The bulk of the rise was due to the public cash pumped into the banks, amounting to €7.5bn to help them meet capital targets, and a further €3.1bn in promissory note payments to Anglo Irish Bank, Irish Nationwide and EBS.
The full tally for servicing the country’s debt up to the end of August increased €800m on 2010.
The figures emerged as the EU declared that Ireland was on track to meet the obligations of its bailout programmes. The European Commission, European Central Bank and the International Monetary Fund expressed satisfaction with the way Dublin was dealing with the austerity measures imposed on it. A statement fro the EU Council stated: “During their visits to Dublin in the first half of July the three institutions noted that the Irish programme was on track, with the respective authorities meeting important programme milestones and demonstrating their commitment to addressing underlying weaknesses in public finances and the financial sector and as regards competitiveness.”
The upbeat assessment allowed the EU Council to release the next €7.5bn of financial assistance.
