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| The Tαnaiste and Minister for Finance, Brian Cowen T.D. |
The Department of Finance issued the Exchequer figures for the first 11 months of the year this evening and following Friday's white paper on planned receipts and expenditures for 2008, a jump in the tax deficit was expected.
The Exchequer figures for November show that total tax receipts are almost 2 billion behind the target set out in last year's Budget.
The Department of Finance had signalled on Friday that taxes collected this year would be around 1.75 billion below target.
Today's figures show that the total tax receipts to the end of November were just under 44.7 billion, compared with the 46.5 billion target. Stamp duty was almost 600m below expectations at just under 3 billion, though income tax was almost bang in line at 12.54 billion.
VAT receipts were almost 400m lower than expected at 14 billion, while Corporation Tax was almost 350 behind target at 6.2 billion. The take from excise was around 250m less than projected at just under 5.2m.
Overall the Exchequer was in surplus to the tune of 1.58 billion as December is usually a much heavier month for Government spending. But the Government is expecting a deficit of 1.6 billion for the full year, as opposed to a target deficit of 546m forecast at Budget time.
