Bernard Durkan (Kildare North, Fine Gael)
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Question 201: To ask the Minister for Finance the extent to which VAT, income tax, corporation tax and indirect taxation returns are so far in keeping with budgetary projections; and if he will make a statement on the matter. [5562/10]

Brian Lenihan Jnr (Dublin West, Fianna Fail)
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The Exchequer Returns for January, including tax revenue receipts, were published yesterday evening on my Department's website. At end-January, €3,074 million had been collected in tax revenue. The amounts for each tax-head are set out in the following table.

At end-January, taxes were down 17.7 per cent on an annual basis. Taking into account the fact that the economy was relatively stronger during the first quarter of 2009 than at the end of the year, the amount of tax revenue collected in January of this year is in line with expectations.

Tax revenue profiles for each of the remaining months of this year were also published yesterday. The profiles show the anticipated trend of tax revenue receipts for each tax-head over the course of the year. Receipts are expected to show a large year-on-year decline in the initial months, before narrowing over the course of the year. A 6 per cent fall in tax revenue receipts is expected during 2010. While it is far too early to draw any conclusions about the likely end-year tax outturn, the January outturn was in line with my Department's expectations.