Irish economy in good shape with tax €2bn ahead

RTE Business:

The latest Exchequer figures from the Department of Finance show that tax receipts are running 2 billion ahead of target so far this year, boosted by the booming property market.

Last month Finance Minister Brian Cowen said that tax receipts for the year would come in €2.3 billion ahead of targets for the full year.

Spending is running just €346m behind target, compared to a figure of €1.2 billion this time last year, and the Government has collected €33 billion in tax so far this year.

But it is not the country's workers who are paying it, it is house buyers and businesses with stamp duties running €836m above target and capital taxes €444m ahead of targets. Both of these taxes reflect the strong property market.

Vat receipts are 239m ahead of the figure forecasted in January, income tax is running 147m ahead of target and corporation tax is 213m ahead for the ten months to end of October.

Chief economist of Ulster bank Pat McArdle said that if revenue continues to overshoot at this pace, the will be €2.4 billion, not the €2.2 billion that the Minister predicted in mid-Oct when he unveiled his new pre-Budget Outlook for 2007.

'In fact, there is a good chance that the overshoot will be substantially greater than €2.4 billion. About a quarter of all tax revenue comes in in the last two months as the self-employed file and pay. While many will have slaved to meet the end-October filing date, they will usually have dated the cheque 31 Oct with the result that it is not booked by Revenue until early November', he said.

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