Ireland's Tax Statistics 2021

In Ireland, more than €93.3 billion in taxes was collected in 2021.  Figure 2.1 shows the split between the main tax heads. Almost a third of these taxes were income taxes (€28 billion). Value Added Tax (VAT) was the next largest tax revenue, with almost €17 billion of VAT paid in 2021. Corporation tax revenues were €15 billion and there was €12 billion paid in PRSI. The remaining revenues include excise duties and property taxes.

The proportionate breakdown of the main taxheads over time can be seen in Figure 2.2. In 1995 corporation tax revenues accounted for 8% of total tax revenues compared to 16% in 2021. Income tax revenues were 28% of revenues in 1995 and this decreased between 2000-2010 before returning to approximately 30% of total tax revenue from 2015 onwards. VAT as a proportion of all revenues has decreased slightly in more recent years.

Taxes are classified according to the European System of Account (ESA) 2010 framework. This is the harmonised methodology used by all European Union Member States. This framework groups taxes into the categories:

• Taxes on Production,
• Taxes on Products,
• Taxes on Income,
• Other Taxes,
• PRSI and other contributions.

More detail on the classifications is available in the background notes. Figure 2.3 presents these groupings over time. Taxes on Income which includes income tax and corporation tax has been increasing steadily since 1995 and since 2006 has been by far the largest category of revenue. Taxes on Products has also been steadily increasing since 1995 – although at a slower rate than the taxes on income. The impact of the financial crisis in 2008 and the COVID-19 pandemic in 2020 can be seen in this graph, both of these events impacted taxes on income and taxes on products.

Taxes are paid to a number of different ESA sectors, (see Table 2.1).  The majority of taxes are paid to the central government sector with revenues of €79 billion in 2021. Local government tax revenues of €1.5 billion which is mainly commercial rates. PRSI of €12billion which is paid paid to the Social Insurance fund. Taxes are also paid to the rest of world with €735 million paid in 2021. This includes over €500 million in customs duties which Member States collect on behalf of the EU. For more details on sectors please see the background notes.