Irish corporate tax receipts rose by 1% year-on-year in June, a key month when around one-fifth of the year's total is usually paid, pushing the overall tax take for the first half of 2026 up 4.8% year-on-year on an underlying basis.
A surge in corporate tax mainly paid by a small number of U.S. multinationals has driven Ireland's overall revenues to record levels in each of the past five years, contributing to big budget surpluses and funding large spending increases.
Most large companies pay the bulk of their corporate tax in Ireland in two payments, one in June and a larger amount in November, with the returns in the first key payment month a strong indicator for the second.
A 25% surge in corporate tax receipts last June was followed by a 36% jump in November.
The €7.5 billion received last month, which was more than Ireland collected in all of 2017, left corporate returns 4.7% higher for the year to date excluding the final tranche of one-off Apple NASDAQ:AAPL back taxes paid last year, the data from Ireland's finance ministry showed on Friday.
The ministry said the corporate tax outturn was in line with expectations for the year and that taxes overall were running 0.8% ahead of forecast. The other two main tax categories, income tax and VAT, were 6.7% and 7.5% higher at the end of June than a year ago.
The exchequer surplus for the first half of the year was €700 million with government expenditure increasing 6.9%.
The finance ministry expects to run a general government surplus of €9.2 billion or 2.5% of modified gross national income this year.