Almost a quarter (24%) of all income and capital gains tax is paid by just 100,000 taxpayers
Britain’s top 100,000 taxpayers footed an average income and capital gains tax bill of £559,000 each in 2021/22 up by 18% from the £475,000 in the previous year. They also paid almost a quarter (24.1%) of HMRC’s annual tab from this tax, despite accounting for just 0.3% of UK taxpayers. This is according to a new Freedom of Information Request made by Wealth Club to HMRC in November.
Meanwhile the top 100 taxpayers in the UK collectively paid a staggering £4.6 billion of income and capital gains tax in 2021/22, the equivalent of £46m each. This is a 14% increase from the £3.9bn paid in the year before.
Alex Davies, founder of high-net-worth investment service, Wealth Club comments: “It is commonly claimed that wealthy individuals do not pay their fair share of tax. These figures prove what a myth that is. In fact, 100,000 people paid £55bn in tax, a staggering 24% of all income and capital gains receipts, despite making up just 0.3% of taxpayers.
Moreover, the overall income and capital gains tax take they are paying has risen by 45% in just five years, meaning not only are they paying more, but they are shouldering more of the increasingly heavy burden.
Meanwhile the top 100 people in the UK paid on average over £46 million each in tax, contributing 2% of the UK’s total income and capital gains tax receipts, despite accounting for just 0.0003% of the income and capital gains tax paying population.
The message is clear for politicians of all persuasions when deciding future tax policy – tread very carefully.
The wealthy are a mobile bunch, proven by the fact that an estimated 3,200 millionaires are expected to leave the UK this year. And they pay a significant proportion of the UK’s tax. If the top 100 taxpayers up sticks and move to sunnier tax climates, that would be £4.6bn less in tax receipts. If the top 1,000 taxpayers migrated out of the UK, that figure would rise to £11.5bn, leaving a massive gap in the country’s finances.”
| Combined Income and CGT liability | |||||
| Top (N) Taxpayers | 2017-18 | 2018-19 | 2019-20 | 2020-21 | 2021-22 |
| 100 | £2.1 bn | £2.3 bn | £2.7 bn | £3.9 bn | £4.6 bn |
| 1,000 | £6.3 bn | £6.7 bn | £7.4 bn | £9.9 bn | £11.5 bn |
| 10,000 | £16.3 bn | £17.1 bn | £18.4 bn | £22.5 bn | £26.6 bn |
| 50,000 | £30.0 bn | £31.12 bn | £33.2 bn | £38.1 bn | £45.0 bn |
| 100,000 | £38.5 bn | £39.8 bn | £42.2 bn | £47.5 bn | £55.9 bn |
| Tax paid by all UK Income & CGT taxpayers | £190 bn | £199 bn | £198.4 bn | £209.7 bn | £232.7bn |
| Population of all UK Income & CGT taxpayers | 31.3m | 31.7m | 31.5m | 31.7m | 33.3m |
The table shows a breakdown from HMRC of the amount of tax paid by the top 100 to top 100,000 taxpayers between 2017 and 2022.
The graph above shows the proportion of income and capital gains tax paid by the top 100,000 tax payers between 2017 and 2022.
