Pharma paid more corporation tax than tech, numbers show

Analysis by Revenue shows that trading profits in the construction sector jumped 15.3pc last year to just under €3bn, despite challenges voiced by the industry in making money in an environment with high inflation and with what it says are onerous taxes and levies.

Almost €257bn of trading profits was reported by companies in 2021, a €57.6bn increase on 2020 returns and mainly due to increased profitability experienced by large multinational companies.

With the Exchequer’s coffers bursting with soaring corporation tax receipts, attention has often been on tech firms such as Apple, Microsoft and Google.

And while they’re among the top payers of corporation tax in the country, Revenue’s annual report shows that it’s the pharma and chemical sector that’s paying the most.

The figures shows that the more than €5.5bn in corporation tax paid by the sector was almost €2.65bn more than in 2021.

The tech sector paid just under €3.8bn in corporation tax in 2022, which was almost €2.9bn higher than in 2021.

The total corporation tax take last year was €22.6bn, which was €7.3bn more than in 2021. It accounted for 27pc of net tax receipts in 2022.

The report shows that 10 companies operating in Ireland contributed €13bn of the total corporation tax paid in 2022.

The data also shows how payments by the top 10 companies in Ireland have evolved over the past decade to underpin the country’s tax base.

In 2012, the top 10 companies paid a total of €1.4bn in corporation tax, with the figure having risen almost 10-fold since then. In 2012, the combined corporation tax paid by the top 10 companies accounted for 34pc of the country’s net corporation tax receipts, compared to 57pc last year.

Revenue said that more than 77,100 companies paid net corporation tax in 2022, which was up 16.2pc on 2021.

A record amount of tax and duty was collected by the Revenue Commissioners last year.

And corporation tax receipts have continued to swell the State’s coffers. They soared 70pc in the first quarter of this year compared to the first three months of 2022.

Corporation tax of €833m was paid in 2022 by 26,000 companies that did not pay the tax in 2021.

This was partly counterbalanced by €576m paid by 15,100 companies with positive tax payments in 2021 that did not pay corporation tax in 2022, according to Revenue.

Revenue chairman Niall Cody said that the agency collected total gross receipts of €118bn last year, including €22bn in non-Exchequer receipts collected on behalf of other government departments, agencies and EU member states.

Net Exchequer receipts of €82.4bn were up 22pc, or €14.9bn, on the 2021 figure.

“Despite the challenging business environment, overall timely compliance rates remained strong across all taxes for 2022,” said Mr Cody. “This reflects the positive engagement by businesses, individual taxpayers and tax practitioners with tax compliance obligations and with Revenue during the year.”