The Department of Finance published a technical paper on Corporation Tax Modelling Recent Developments in Corporation Tax. Recent trends in corporation tax revenues, corporation tax developments, from both a micro- and a macro-economic perspective, are examined in the paper. Almost 80% of total corporation tax receipts in 2018 derived from key multinational-dominated sectors – specifically pharmaceuticals, technology and finance – according to the paper.

The paper takes a detailed look at corporation tax developments, the upward trend in corporation tax receipts and corporate profitability since 2014. A focus on the 2018 outturn is highlighted in the paper. One of the key concluding points in the paper is that it is “difficult to be overly definitive on whether recent corporation tax excesses have been windfalls or are, in fact, representative of longer-term structural changes within the economy.”