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THE EXCHEQUER HAS taken in €26.7 billion in taxes during the first ten months of 2011, marking an 8 per cent (or €2 billion) increase on the same period last year.
The jump, although not as high as last month’s 25 per cent increase, is due mainly to the introduction of the universal social charge.
However, tax revenues are still €184 million, or 0.7 per cent, below target. This shows a dis-improvement on end-September figures, when the tax intake was 0.7 per cent ahead of expectations.
The Exchequer said it was expecting the shortfall because of the early payment of income taxes in April and July.
According to the figures published today, stamp duties recorded a 52 per cent year-on-year increase because of receipts from the Jobs Initiative pension levy.
Excise duties are also up marginally but VAT and corporation tax received fell in the year to end-October.
This is the fifth consecutive monthly fall in the VAT take, reflecting weak domestic demand. The category is now showing a shortfall of €383 million.
Corporation tax is about €109 million short of its target. November is the key month of the year for such receipts so the next figures published by the Exchequer will be the real indicator for the end-of-year outturn.
Expenditure
If capital and current spending is taken into account, expenditure was down 0.5 per cent or €176 million at the end-October.
There were significant “underspends” noted at the departments of Education & Skills, Agriculture and Social Protection. However, there were “overspends” in the Health and Justice departments.
The Exchequer deficit has blown up from €14.4 billion in the first ten months of 2010 to €22.2 billion in the corresponding period this year.
The €7.8 billion increase is mainly due to promissory note payments to Anglo Irish Bank, Irish Nationwide Building Society and EBS, as well as other payments relating to the July recapitalisation of the banking sector.
Between January and October, Ireland has spent €4.2 billion servicing its debt.
The Exchequer said excluding the amounts used to restructure the country’s banks showed a fall in the deficit by more than €1.8 billion.
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“Paul O’Brien is CEO of Plan International Ireland. He has been working in the INGO sector for over 35 years”
A professional Charitarian with his begging bowl, this does not take from the suffering of the people in Somalia, but these are the facts on famine from Our World in Data
https://ourworldindata.org/famines#long-term-trends-in-global-famine-mortality
@John Kennedy: A detailed article about the dire state in Somalia, written by someone with feet-on-the-ground experience and that is your only take from it? Nice person you must be.
@John Kennedy: How many people dying of famine is acceptable to you?
@John Kennedy: You really ought to try thinking before typing
@Diarmuid Hunt: Obviously no one wants to see people die of famine but the reality is that, due to climate change, there are large numbers of people now living in areas that can’t sustain them, so what’s the answer? As we are talking about hundreds of millions of people do we take in a couple of hundred thousand people (with little or no education or skills suitable to this country) and pay the required taxes to fund this or what would be your response Diarmuid as it’s easy to spout non platitudes?
@John Kennedy: It inspired me to donate to Plan International. He is absolutely right about simply giving money to people in need. That’s what they need to keep going. Not to trek from A to Z trying to access a voucher for something with five added layers of profit for ‘charitable’ companies.
@The next small thing: My response was to his post of our world in data showing the decline of people suffering from famine – I was not providing a solution but pointing out that posting this was of no benefit. You obviously know from your post that the question is a complex one and an answer of ah sure it’s better than the 1860′s isn’t adequate.
@John Kennedy: hope you can back up your potential “slanderous” post
Sad state of affairs the way wealth is distributed in this crap world.
Why is this under ‘Ukraine news’?
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