The government says it is on track to meet its end of year tax targets with the latest Exchequer figures showing revenues running slightly ahead of profile.

At the end of September taxes were €385 million ahead of expectations.

However the government is also spending more than anticipated with overruns in Social Welfare and Health.

Taxes for the 9 months of the year were 1.5% – or €385 million – ahead of target.

However taking the month of September alone 3 of the 4 main tax heads – income tax, excise and corporation tax – underperformed while VAT came in ahead of profile.

But taking the year as a whole the Department of Finance collected €2 billion more in tax this year compared with the first 9 months of 2011.

The bad news is that government departments are still over-spending by €338 million.

This is mostly because of overruns in the Departments of Health and Social Welfare.

Read the full report href="http://www.finance.gov.ie/documents/exchequerstatements/2012/excheqstatsep2012.pdf"> here

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