The State took in a total of €44.7 billion in tax in the first six months of the year, up more than 9% on the same period last year, the latest exchequer returns show.
The strong performance was driven in particular by corporation tax, income tax and VAT and contributed to an exchequer surplus of €3.1 billion at the end of June.
Over the period, €12.2 billion in corporation tax was collected, up €1.6 billion or 15.4% on the same period of 2023.
In June alone, which is an important month for corporation tax, returns were up €1.6 billion or 38% on a year ago.
That performance was €1.2 billion or over 11% ahead of Department of Finance projections for this point of the year.
VAT receipts for the half year came to €11 billion, 6.2% up on the comparable months of last year.
Income taxes over the first six months of 2024 totalled €16.7 billion, up 7.5% on a year ago, driven by the large numbers of people at work.
Overall, tax receipts to the midway point of this year are 3.4% higher than had been predicted by the Department of Finance in the Budget.
When other sources of income are taken into account, gross revenue came in at €54.7 billion - an increase of €3.5 billion or 6.8% on the same time last year.
However, the data also shows that while tax receipts are running ahead of projections, so too is spending.
Total gross spending to the end of June was €47.1 billion.
That is €5.2 billion or 12.4% ahead of the same period last year and €1.5 billion or 3.3% more than had been expected at this time of the year.
The over run in spending comes despite warnings from both the Ministers of Finance and of Public Expenditure to other cabinet ministers in recent months to rein in expenditure.
The overall performance means that the exchequer ran a surplus of €3.1 billion to the end of June.
That compares to a surplus of €0.3 billion the same period last year, an improvement of €2.8 billion, although the annual comparison is distorted by the transfer of €4 billion to the National Reserve Fund last year.
"June is a key month for tax revenues and the strong performance across the first half of the year is a welcome indicator of the health of our economy, most clearly reflected in the robust growth in income tax and VAT revenues," said Jack Chambers, Minister for Finance.
"The stand-out feature is undoubtedly the sharp spike in corporation tax receipts in June, which means that in the year to date, this revenue stream is well above its level in the same period last year.
"That said, there has been considerable volatility - in both directions - in corporation tax revenues over the last number of months, underlying the need to treat around half of these receipts as windfall in nature," he added.