Peadar Tóibín (Meath West, Sinn Fein)
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39. To ask the Minister for Finance the specific causes of the large increase in the intake of corporation tax in 2015. [40345/15]

Michael Noonan (Limerick City, Fine Gael)
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The performance of Corporation Tax receipts has been unexpectedly strong in 2015. At end-October, cumulative receipts were €2.0 billion or just under 74 per cent higher than expected and up €1.8 billion or over 60 per cent in year-on-year terms.  

As the Deputy may be aware, approximately 80 per cent of Corporation Tax receipts are received from the multinational sector with the top ten tax paying groups accounting for over a third of corporation tax receipts. 

I am advised by the Revenue Commissioners that the over-performance is a result of a combination of reasons.  For example, around half of the €2.0 billion surplus against profile is attributable to a small number of large multinational companies.  The companies involved have advised the Revenue Commissioners that the strong performance in 2015, is primarily associated with improved trading conditions.  There are also some positive currency effects but these are not substantial in overall terms.  In addition, there has also been some timing factors.  For example, a number of payments profiled for November and December were received early and a number of large repayments that were expected to be made in October are still outstanding.    

While Corporation Tax receipts are concentrated in the multinational sector, it should be noted that the improvement is relatively broad based. In this regard, I am further advised by the Revenue Commissioners that there has been an increase of over 20 per cent in the number of companies paying between €100,000 and €5 million up to the end of October this year versus the same period last year.  This is reflected in the receipts which were also up by over 20 per cent from this category.