‘The numbers have gone mad’: How our corporate tax take is built on shifting sands

Budget 2023

As Paschal Donohoe unveiled his Summer Economic Statement last week, it was clear that he regards our swollen corporate tax receipts as an artificial and unreliable way of augmenting the national finances

Paschal Donohoe trod carefully as he presented what was, on the face of it, a very positive Summer Economic Statement last week.

While recognising the healthy condition the public finances were in, due to larger than anticipated corporate tax receipts, the Minister for Finance also warned that the volatility of that revenue was a risk that could not be ignored.

“I want to underline that these are corporate tax receipts that are highly concentrated in …