Ireland
While youth unemployment has soared as huge swathes of the hospitality, tourism, retail and travel sectors have effectively shut down as a result of the pandemic, Ireland’s overall tax take has held up well thanks to one of the most progressive tax systems in the world. “It’s a classic K-shaped economy, where there’s a clear divergence between the real economy and the stock exchange,” says Liam Lynch, tax partner at KPMG in Dublin.
Nonetheless, the Irish government forecasts a 16.4% decline in total taxation revenue to €49.6bn in 2021, and a total government deficit of €20.5bn. Perhaps not surprisingly, Ireland’s budget for 2021 - the biggest spending budget in the history of the state - focused predominantly on COVID-19-related measures.