HM Revenue & Custom’s tax receipts are up 6.6 per cent since last year, official figures have shown.
Accountancy firm Blick Rothenberg stated the statistics, showing receipts for the 12 months to May 2017, revealed tax receipts are “as buoyant as they have ever been.”
Paul Haywood-Schiefer, assistant manager at Blick Rothenberg, said that tax receipts had increased by 3.7 percentage points more than the official measure of inflation.
These receipts are being boosted by a steady 4.17 per cent increase in the income tax take and a 9.57 per cent increase in National Insurance Contributions.
The 12 months also saw £5.1bn raised from Inheritance Tax (IHT), which Mr Haywood-Schiefer described as “momentous”.
“This is the first time that the receipts for inheritance tax for a 12-month period have exceeded £5bn,” he said.
“Over the last few years, the government has introduced several inheritance tax measures, such as restricting the deductibility of certain debt, and these measures, together with rising house prices are now beginning to bear fruition.”
Financial adviser Andrew Nevett, from Freedom Financial Planning in Cheshire, said that the tax statistics were partly evidence of how well the government is doing from taxing the self-employed.
He added that the inheritance tax receipts were partly indicative of the increase in house prices. “The government is reaping the reward of rising property prices,” he said.
rosie.murray-west@ft.com
