In 2022 €110 billion of taxes and social contributions were collected. Figure 2.1 shows the breakdown of the main tax heads. Income taxes of €31 billion are almost a third of the total. Value Added Tax (VAT) was the next largest tax revenue, with almost €19 billion collected in 2022. Corporation tax revenues were €23 billion and there was €20 billion received from PRSI and other social contributions. The remaining revenues include, for example, excise duties and property taxes.

Figure 2.2 shows the evolution of the share of the main tax heads over a longer timeframe. At the beginning of the series, in 1995, corporation tax revenues accounted for 8% of total tax revenues. This compares with 22% in 2022 and much of this increase occurred in more recent years. Income tax revenues were 30% of revenues in 1995. While the share of income taxes decreased during 2000-2010 it returned to approximately 30% of total tax revenue from 2015 onwards. VAT as a proportion of all revenues has decreased slightly in more recent years.

Taxes are classified according to the European System of Accounts (ESA) 2010 framework. This is the harmonised methodology used by all European Union Member States. This framework groups taxes into the following categories:

• Taxes on Production
• Taxes on Products
• Taxes on Income
• Other Taxes
• Social contributions

More detail on these classifications is available in the background notes. Figure 2.3 presents these groupings over time. In summary terms, taxes on income, which include income tax and corporation tax, have been increasing steadily since 1995 and has been consistently the largest category of revenue. Taxes on products have also been steadily increasing since 1995 – although at a slower rate than the taxes on income.

The impact of the financial crisis and the COVID-19 pandemic can be seen in this graph, affecting, in particular, taxes on income and taxes on products.

Taxes are paid to a number of different ESA sectors, (see Table 2.1). Most taxes are paid to the central government sector, with revenues of €93 billion in 2022. Local government tax revenues were €2 billion which was mainly commercial rates collected by the local authorities. PRSI of €14 billion was paid to the Social Insurance fund. Taxes of €0.9 billion were paid to the rest of the world in 2022 - this included €0.6 billion in customs duties, which Member States collect on behalf of the EU.

For more details on sectors please see the background notes.