Number crunching by Her Majesty’s Revenue and Customs (HMRC) provides for us overall figures for 2010/2011 key out-turns for taxpayers and income tax liabilities. In terms of an analysis of the body of taxpayers, we are told that:
- there were 31.3 million individual income taxpayers in 2010/2011, an increase of 0.7 million compared with the previous year.
- there were 28 million non-higher rate taxpayers (89.6% of all taxpayers), 3.02 million higher rate taxpayers (9.6%), and 236,000 additional rate taxpayers (0.8%).
The average rates of taxation applied to taxpayers in 2010/2011 were 12.5% for basic rate taxpayers, 23.1% for higher rate taxpayers, and 39.9% for additional rate taxpayers.
The share by band of total income and tax liabilities were:
- the richest 50% of taxpayers by total income accounted for a 76.5% share of total income and 88.7% of tax liabilities.
- the richest 1% of taxpayers by total income accounted for a 11.5% share of total income and 25.0% of tax liabilities.
In terms of tax liabilities due on taxable incomes, 61.3% fell within the basic rate tax band, 23.9% in the higher rate band, and 14.7% in the additional rate band.
The HMRC projections for 2013/2014 estimate that there are:
- 29.3 million taxpayers in 2013/2014, which is 2 million lower than in 2010/2011.
- 4.3 million higher rate taxpayers in 2013/2014, which is 1.3 million higher than in 2010/2011, with 290,000 additional rate taxpayers in 2013/2014.
Also in 2013/2014 average rates of tax fall to 10.6% for basic rate taxpayers, 22% for higher rate taxpayers, and 38.8% for additional rate taxpayers. HMRC notes that recent out-turns and projections for the highest income taxpayers are strongly affected by expected responses to changes in the top rate of income tax.
