Irish tax revenues 345 mln euros ahead of target by Feb.

The Irish Department of Finance said on Tuesday it collected over 6.7 billion euros (7.5 billion U.S. dollars) in tax revenue in the first two months of the year, 345 million euros, or 5.4 percent ahead of budget forecasts.

In a statement, the department said the figure represents a year-on-year increase of 925 million euros or 15.9 percent, with the tax take higher in all major categories.

This has put the exchequer deficit at 205 million euros by the end of February, compared to a deficit of 1.68 billion euros in the same period last year, it said.

The reduction on the exchequer deficit is driven by increased tax receipts, reduced net voted expenditure and earlier full repayment of loans from the exchequer to the Social Insurance Fund, the department said.

In the first two months of the year, the department took in about 2.9 billion euros in income tax, a year-on-year increase of 183 million euros or 6.8 percent.

For the month of February alone, income tax was 91 million euros or 7.1 percent above profile.

The first two months of the year saw VAT receipts of 2.37 billion euros collected, which represents an increase of 330 million euros or 16.2 percent, when compared to the corresponding period last year. In the month of February alone, VAT receipts were 40 million euros or 11.3 percent above profile.

Corporation tax receipts, meanwhile, has seen a significant improvement on an annual basis, rising by 174 million euros to 265 million euros.( 1 euro = 1.12 U.S. dollars) Endit