Irish 2025 budget surplus tops forecast at 3.7% of national income

DUBLIN, Jan 6 (Reuters) - Ireland recorded a budget surplus of 12.4 billion euros ($14.5 billion) or 3.7% of modified gross national income in 2025, the finance ministry said on Tuesday, above the 3% it had forecast in October after a further surge in corporate tax revenue.

It marked the fourth successive year Ireland has collected far more money than it has spent. The government plans to invest 6.5 billion euros of last year's surplus into sovereign wealth and savings funds, increasing their value to 24 billion euros.

Irish corporate tax receipts, which are mainly paid by a small number of highly profitable U.S. multinationals, have rocketed from under 6 billion euros per year a decade ago to 33 billion euros in 2025.

That was almost 1 billion euros more than expected by the finance ministry in its October forecasts and represented year-on-year growth of 17.2%, excluding a 14 billion-euro back tax bill paid by Apple in late 2024 and early 2025. 

Overall tax revenues were 9% higher on the year, stripping out the Apple funds, having also been boosted by a 4.3% year-on-year increase in income tax and 5.1% rise in VAT, the other two main tax categories.

The additional revenue allowed ministers to increase total government spending by 5.5% year-on-year, down from 9.5% in 2024 and a similar annual average since 2019. 

The government last month pledged to limit increases in government spending to an average of 6% per year for the rest of the decade.

($1 = 0.8540 euros)

(Reporting by Padraic Halpin; Editing by Kirsten Donovan)