The underlying exchequer deficit more than doubled year-on-year to €4.2 billion for the first 10 months of 2025, largely as a result of cash transfers to two new sovereign funds, according to the Department of Finance.
The out-turn also excludes the windfall received by the public coffers after Europe’s highest court ruled late last year that US tech giant Apple owed the Revenue Commissioners back-taxes and interest totalling about €14 billion.
The exchequer recorded a headline deficit of €900 million for the 10-month period, compared to a surplus of €1.3 billion a year earlier, with the year-on-year comparison affected by higher Apple revenues in October, 2024, as the money started to be transferred from an escrow account.
Tax receipts, the main source of exchequer revenue, rose 3.2 per cent on the year to €78.8 billion. This was driven by a 6.3 per cent increase in corporation taxes to €19.4 billion, excluding money stemming from the Apple tax case.
RM Block
However, gross voted expenditure, the biggest source of spending, surged 7.7 per cent to €87.1 billion. Total expenditure came to €100.3 billion for the first 10 months.
The overreliance of successive governments on high corporation taxes from multinationals based in Ireland was underscored in a Department of Finance report published on Tuesday.
It said a fall-off in such receipts could lead to a decline in exchequer revenue over the next four decades, relative to the size of the economy.
More than 2,000 scenarios for Ireland’s long-term economic and fiscal outlook up to 2065, ranging from highly positive to very challenging, are included in the so-called Future Forty report.
Will Imagine’s big gamble double its customer base?
While the economy would continue to grow, albeit at a slower rate as 2065 approaches, total exchequer revenue is projected in the central scenario to fall from 34.5 per cent of modified gross national income (GNI) in 2025 to 31.6 per cent by 2065.
“Today’s figures are broadly consistent with the updated fiscal projections published as part of Budget 2026,” Minister for Finance Paschal Donohoe said. “Those projections, which I published on budget day, incorporated a substantial upward revision to revenues, mostly on corporation tax.
“However, as I have said many times, this remains a highly volatile revenue stream and elevated levels of receipts cannot be relied upon to continue indefinitely.”
The Minister noted that the Government has transferred some €16 billion of windfall tax receipts to two new sovereign wealth funds to date.
The corporation tax figure for October alone was €1.13 billion, up 165 per cent on the year.
”October’s figures tend to be driven by results in the pharmaceutical sector, with significant volatility in the October figures in recent years," said Peter Vale, tax partner at Grant Thornton Ireland. “However, with progress on pharma tariff negotiations [between the US and EU] last month, there will be hope that the impact on Ireland’s corporation tax receipts is less than originally feared.”
Meanwhile, income tax receipts for the first 10 months of 2025 rose by 4.1 per cent on the year to €28.7 billion, while VAT increased by 4.3 per cent to €19.1 billion.
Capital gains tax was lumpy, soaring 38.4 per cent to €696 million, as was capital acquisitions tax, which jumped 56.3 per cent to €653 million. Motor tax was the only declining segment, dipping 0.1 per cent to €803 million.
