Highest ever July tax takings for HMRC
HMRC’s tax taking stats for July 2024 show the government has inherited a healthy tax income, but any tax rises in the October Budget could make it disappear, say leading audit, tax and business advisory firm, Blick Rothenberg.
Joe Neal, a manager at the firm, said: “HMRC collected a healthy £82.5bn in July 2024 which is the highest tax takings ever for a month of July and up from £81.3bn 12 months earlier.”
He added: “32.7bn of this is income tax takings, which are also at the highest they have ever been for July. Self-assessment income tax takings make up £12.9bn of this, up from £11.8bn from the previous year. Comparing the July tax take with the January amount (the 2 key months for self-employed taxpayers), the stats suggest less self-employed individuals have reduced their payments on account compared to last year, an early sign that small businesses are becoming more profitable.”
Joe said: “PAYE receipts for the first quarter of 2024/25 are 5% higher than the first quarter of 2023/24 (£60.8bn up from £57.9bn). This is expected to increase further following the recent above inflation pay rises announced for some areas of the public sector.”
He added: “Corporation Tax receipts are 8.6% up for the first quarter of 2024/25 compared to the first quarter of 2023/24 and 22.5% from 2022/23 (due to the increase in CT rates from 19% to 25% from 1 April 2023). This suggests that companies have now weathered the high inflation environment and are now becoming more profitable.”
Joe said: “Inheritance Tax collections were the second highest on record with £749m being collected in July 2024. The highest month on record was June 2023 when £795m was received.”
He added: “However, with the Government announcing that the amount of spending needed being ‘much worse than expected’, further tax rises are expected to be announced in the October budget. Taxpayers already are feeling that the tax burden is high and these tax rises could be the tipping point that drives wealthy individuals and large companies to leave the UK. Making Labour’s healthy tax income quickly disappear.”
