Paschal Donohoe (Dublin Central, Fine Gael)
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I thank Deputy Boyd Barrett for his question and his long-standing interest in the matter. I will deal with some of the different issues the Deputy raised there. We have a fundamental difference in that the Deputy believes that taxation should be applied to the gross trade profits a company can make and he has made that clear to me on a number of occasions whereas the argument I have tried to make to the Deputy is that tax should be levied on their taxable income. I believe the different deductions that are in place, for example, with regard to capital allowances and to trading losses, are legitimate features of how we tax enterprise whereas the Deputy believes they are ways of reducing the tax that companies, in particular, larger companies, pay. That is the difference between the figures the Deputy and I have exchanged with each other, and then our views regarding tax policy for large companies.

In terms of the assumption we have regarding an increase in corporate tax for next year, we are expecting a further increase in the profitability of corporate taxpayers next year but, of course, we will review all of those figures again in April. As the Deputy will be aware, we do it twice a year, in April and October.

It should be noted that with the increase in corporate tax we are expecting for this year, we expect corporate tax now to be €21 billion for 2021. We are expecting an increase next year to €22.7 billion. Those figures may be revised again in April, but if they were to materialise, it would be a low rate of growth in corporate tax on profits versus where we have been in previous years. Over recent years, particularly since 2019, we have seen a far more rapid increase in corporate tax revenue. Our best analysis is for a further increase in corporate tax for next year but a slower rate of growth. Therefore, we are expecting an increase in overall corporate profitability in the Irish economy but at a far lower rate than we have had in previous years. We will consider all this again when the Government is preparing the stability programme update in April.