An analysis by Revenue of corporation tax returns last year has revealed that the proportion paid by just ten multinationals rose to 57%.
Last year the amount of corporation tax collected by the State rose by 48% to €22.7 billion. This year, it is forecast to rise again to over €24 billion.
Last year the top ten multinationals located in Ireland paid a lot more tax on their profits.
It had been believed that the top ten firms paid just over half of all corporation tax. Today's figures reveal that the concentration of tax paid by the top ten has increased to 57%.
Corporation tax has now almost doubled since 2020 and represents 27.5% of all tax paid. It has comfortably replaced VAT as the second largest source of tax.
Revenue's analysis shows that corporation tax paid increased across almost all sectors of the economy. However, there was a marked increase in manufacturing.
The amount paid by this sector, which includes chemicals, pharmaceuticals and ICT manufacturing rose by 128% to just over €10 billion and accounts for 77% of the overall increase in corporation tax paid in 2022.
Foreign-owned multinationals accounted for €19.6 billion or 86.5% of all corporation tax paid.
Irish multinationals paid €928m, or 4.1%, while non-multinationals paid €2.1 billion, or 9.4%.
This was based on a 29.65% increase in trading profits in 2022 in companies across all sectors.
The top ten corporate tax paying companies paid just over €13 billion last year.
According to Revenue, this same group of ten companies paid €7.8 billion in 2021 and five years ago, in 2018, they paid just over €4 billion. In other words, the corporation tax they paid has more than tripled in five years.
77,136 companies paid corporation tax last year.
63,647 paid between €1-€40,000. There were 171 companies which paid over €10m.
Using 2021 data, Revenue found that there were 159 foreign multinationals with corporation tax liabilities of over €8m.
These companies employed 111,546 people.
The pay bill came to just over €7.4 billion which meant an average annual salary of just over €66,000.
They paid €1.85 billion in income tax, €362m in USC and €981m in combined employer and employee PRSI contributions.
They also paid just over €1 billion in VAT.
Speaking at the Oireachtas Budgetary Oversight Committee this evening, the Minister for Finance said a scoping paper would be published in the next couple of weeks setting out the Government's thinking in relation to a long-term savings vehicle for the windfall receipts.
Michael McGrath said the figures published today by Revenue highlight not only the growth in corporation tax receipts but also the concentration of where they are coming from.
He said there would be a serious risk to the public finances if the Government were to use the potentially temporary receipts to make permanent spending commitments.
"So we won’t be doing that," he said.
"We are not saying that these receipts are going to fall away overnight. But there is certainly a risk."
He added that the growth will be flat around 2024 and 2025, when the impact of the OECD BEPS tax changes will kick in.
"But that does just all underline for me the importance of being careful, being cautious with these receipts," he said.
"We believe they are not going to last forever."
He said the exact relationship between the existing Rainy Day fund and the new fund has to be worked out and one option is to subsume the existing one into the new one.
Mr McGrath also told the committee that the economic backdrop would shape and determine the budget for next year.
"Where will we be come the Autumn in the context of inflation, what will be the situation with the war in Ukraine, where are we on energy prices, where are we in terms of monetary policy, the impact that has, the cost of living pressures generally for households, for businesses?" he asked.
- additional reporting Will Goodbody
