Tax intake next month will determine overall revenues for this year, according to Minister for Finance Brian Cowen, who estimates an overall budget deficit of €1 billion compared to an estimate last Budget day of €546 million.
The Minister told the Dáil that "a significant amount of tax revenue is due for collection in the last quarter of the year, especially in November, when a particularly large share of tax is collected annually from corporation tax, capital gains tax and income tax of the self-employed".
The Minister, who will publish his pre-Budget outlook this week, said that "as of now a shortfall of up to €1 billion in taxes this year is the current estimate".
Fine Gael finance spokesman Richard Bruton had asked what were the other revenue sources "that will mean that an apparent deficit of €1 billion will only be off by €500 million at the end of the year".
"Some of the offsetting issues relate to the cost of debt repayments," said Mr Cowen. "As of now, however, the deficit is estimated to be €1 billion over a projected estimate of €546 million".
Labour's finance spokeswoman Joan Burton asked if the Minister would keep his Budget promise last year to reduce the top tax rate from 41 per cent to 40 per cent.
Last year's points "were made on the basis of maintaining current economic strength. In the first six months of this year the economy improved by 6.4 per cent but there has been a different story in the second half," said the Minister.
