Irish corporate tax growth slows sharply after August dip

DUBLIN (Reuters) -Growth in Irish corporate tax revenues slowed to a trickle in August after a sharp monthly dip that the finance ministry said was due to exceptionally strong returns a year ago distorting the year-on-year comparisons.

Ireland's tax take so far this year is still higher than expected but the decline in corporate revenues in August to 2.1 billion euros ($2.5 billion) from 3.7 billion euros a year ago cut the overall underlying growth rate to 4.4% from 7.5% in July.

Ireland has collected record levels of tax each year since 2021, primarily due to huge increases in corporate receipts paid mainly by a small number of foreign multinationals.

The finance ministry expected corporate receipts to fall a touch this year but instead they were running 14% or 1.8 billion euros higher at the end of July. That slowed to 1.1% at the end of August.

While company returns have been volatile month to month in recent years, officials have said that a surge seen in June could bode well for receipts in November - when around a quarter of the year's corporate tax is paid.

Most large companies pay the bulk of their corporate tax in Ireland in two payments, one in June and a larger amount in November.

Income tax revenues shot up by 10.6% year-on-year or 274 million euros in August after posting modest growth in the previous two months, the data from the finance ministry also showed on Wednesday.

The recent tax hauls have handed Ireland the healthiest public finances in Europe and allowed it to boost government spending so far in 2025 by 7.8% or 5 billion euros, 0.7 percentage points more than budgeted for.

($1 = 0.8542 euros)

(Reporting by Padraic Halpin, Editing by Alexandra Hudson)