An analysis by Revenue of corporation tax returns last year has revealed that the proportion paid by just ten multinationals rose to 57%.
Last year the amount of corporation tax collected by the State rose by 48% to €22.7 billion. This year, it is forecast to rise again to over €24 billion.
Last year the top ten multinationals located in Ireland paid a lot more tax on their profits.
It had been believed that the top ten firms paid just over half of all corporation tax. Today’s figures reveal that the concentration of tax paid by the top ten has increased to 57%.
Corporation tax has now almost doubled since 2020 and represents 27.5% of all tax paid. It has comfortably replaced VAT as the second largest source of tax.
In a statement, the Minister for Finance Michael McGrath said: “We have to avoid the mistake of building up permanent expenditure and taxation commitments on the back of receipts that could prove to be temporary.”
The Minister is expected to publish a paper shortly on the options surrounding a new public investment fund to save some of the windfall of corporation tax.