11/05/22

IRELAND: Top ten corporation tax payers paid 53% of 2021 total.

As published on rte.ie, Wednesday 11 May, 2022.

The top ten payers of corporation tax collectively paid 53% of the total last year or €8.176 billion, new figures from Revenue show.

It represents a further increase on the 51% recorded in 2020 and the 40% recorded in 2019.

Corporation tax receipts totaled €15.3 billion in 2021, up €3.5 billion from €11.8bn a year earlier.

22.6% of all net tax receipts last year came from corporation tax, making it the third largest tax head.

Receipts from small businesses increased by 80% during the year, when compared to 2020.

Payments from large companies rose 25% to €12.9 billion or 84% of net receipts, while medium enterprises saw their tax payments jump 45%.

Overall, Revenue said the returns show that for many companies, profitability increased significantly in 2021.

The largest contributions came from the manufacturing, admin and support services sector, ICT, finance and insurance and wholesale and retail, Revenue said.

More than 2.4m people were employed in companies in 2021, the tax collector said, and collectively they contributed €21.4 billion in income tax, USC and PRSI payments.

The ongoing reliance on the multinational sector is clear in the data, with such firms accounting for €12.3 billion in corporation tax, 32% of employment and 53% of employment taxes.

The data also includes corporation tax returns from 2020, which show gross profits at Irish registered firms totalled just under €200 billion, with a taxable income of €110 billion.

However, of 183,900 returns filed for that year, 78,700 reported no trading or non-trading profits.

While €211.9bn in losses were carried forward into the year, up 1% on 2019.

The data also shows that the effective rate of corporation tax for 2020 was 10.6%.