Shoppers on Wicklow Street in Dublin, Ireland, Thursday, March 28, 2024.
Bloomberg | Bloomberg | Getty Images
In 2024, Ireland’s budget surplus will be about 7% of revised gross national income, mainly due to the majority of the €14 billion ($14.5 billion) in back taxes. apple The money flowed into the Treasury, the Treasury said on Monday.
Ireland had expected a surplus of about a third of that level before the European Court of Justice in September ordered Apple to pay back taxes over past illegal tax treatment, leading to an overall government surplus of 21.9 billion euros last year.
Ireland initially expected to withdraw 8 billion euros in back taxes this year, but by the end of December, nearly 11 billion euros had flowed into the state treasury, pushing corporate tax revenue to increase by 63.9% annually in 2024 to 39.1 billion euros.
Excluding Apple funds, underlying corporate tax is about 28 billion euros, lower than the 29.5 billion euros forecast by the Finance Ministry in October, but still well ahead of the record 23.8 billion euros in 2023.
Ireland’s corporate tax revenue, largely paid by US companies, has grown nearly sevenfold over the past decade, fully independent of the Apple ruling and giving the government some of the healthiest public finances in Europe.
This allowed ministers to increase total government spending last year by 9.5%, or 9 billion euros.
