Ireland still sees 2016 tax take almost 2% above target

[DUBLIN] Ireland still expects to collect almost 2 per cent more tax than expected this year despite waning outperformance in recent months, the country's finance ministry said on Saturday.

Ireland's tax take was as much as 4 per cent ahead of target by the end of May but slower than forecast growth in some parts of the domestic economy cut that to 1.5 per cent at the end of September, data published earlier this week showed.

In an up-to-date forecast, the ministry said it expected the tax take to finish the year 1.9 per cent ahead of target, the same outturn it saw the last time it updated the figures in June.

The outperformance will be driven for a second successive year by a surge in corporate tax receipts from Ireland's large cluster of mainly foreign firms which the finance ministry sees coming in 14 per cent ahead of expectations for a record return, it said in its annual pre-budget publication.

It also sees income tax returns, the largest tax category, recovering from slower than expected growth in recent months to finish the year 1 per cent ahead of target, while VAT receipts, the second largest, will come in almost 2 per cent below target.

The updated figures, released ahead of Tuesday's budget for 2017, showed that if there was no policy changes next year, the state's tax take would grow by 5 per cent year-on-year, a similar increase to this year's expected outcome.

The government plans to bring in a modest package of tax cuts and spending increases for next year totalling around 1 billion euros (S$1.5 billion), with two-thirds of the expansion going towards public expenditure.

REUTERS