THE LATEST EXCHEQUER FIGURES have revealed that the government’s tax receipts for the first ten months of the year was 1% ahead of schedule.

The figures, published by the Department of Finance this afternoon, showed that the country had raised €24.7bn in tax revenue for the ten months to October 31 – 1% ahead of its target of €24.46bn.

Corporation tax lay a full 22% ahead of the targets set at the end of the year, having brought in €2.62bn – well ahead of the Budget target of €2.15bn.

Customs had also performed better than anticipated, raising €190m – €24m (14.2%) more than had been expected. Capital Gains Tax had brought in €10m more than expected, yielding €133m in the ten months.

The tax figures were dragged downward by income tax, however, which – as the largest chunk of the exchequer’s tax revenue – had yielded €8.622bn in the year to date, 4.1% down on the government’s target of just under €9bn.

The figures also showed that the government’s income tax yield to October 31 was 6.3% down on that of last year, while almost all of the government’s various avenues of raising revenue had also shown receipts down on the same period of last year.

VAT was down 5.7% on last year’s take, at €8.446bn; corporation tax was down 7.3%, while Capital Gains Tax was down a massive 43.2%.

The government’s deficit on the current account stood at €11.67bn for the ten months to October 31, virtually unchanged on the same months last year, with the cuts in revenue being offset by lesser public spending.