Irish corporate tax receipts surge again in June

DUBLIN, July 3 (Reuters) - Ireland recorded another unexpected surge in corporate tax receipts in June, one of the key months when close to 20% of the year's company returns are usually paid, pushing the overall tax take for the first half of the year 3.4% higher than expected.

Ireland has collected record levels of tax in each of the last three years, driven by corporate receipts mainly paid by Ireland's hub of large foreign multinationals, and the finance ministry has pencilled in another 4.5% overall rise this year.

Taxes of just under 45 billion euros ($49 billion) were already 9.3% higher year-on-year at the end of June, finance ministry data showed on Wednesday.

That included 5.9 billion euros of corporate tax received in June alone, up 38% on the same month last year and more than double the amount collected in June 2021.

The June figures indicated that company returns in November - when even more corporate tax is due - "might be a little bit stronger" than expected, finance ministry chief economist John McCarthy told a news conference.

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

However McCarthy also cautioned that corporate receipts have been very volatile month-to-month. They fell 25% year-on-year in the first quarter, before the rebound in May and June left them 15.4% higher than the first half of 2023.

As a result, Ireland recorded an exchequer surplus of 3.1 billion euros in the first six months of the year, even as day-to-day government spending came in 3.3% or 1.5 billion euros above expectations after further overruns last month, the data showed.

The health department was primarily responsible for the overspend and Public Expenditure Minister Paschal Donohoe said he was finalising a plan with the country's health minister to ensure better budget management in the second half.

The finance ministry expects to end the year with a total budget surplus of 8.6 billion euros or 2.8% of national income, 6 billion euros of which will be transferred into new savings and sovereign wealth funds. ($1 = 0.9247 euro) (Reporting by Padraic Halpin; Editing by Emelia Sithole-Matarise and Jonathan Oatis)