Around £786.6 billion was collected in taxes in 2022-23, marking an increase of 9.9% from the year before, according to provisional HM Revenue & Customs (HMRC) figures.
Income tax, capital gains tax and National Insurance (NI) contributions combined accounted for 57% of the annual receipts, HMRC said.
Receipts as a proportion of GDP (gross domestic product) have been steady over the past 20 years, HMRC said, rising from 27.3% in 2003-04 to 28.2% in 2019-20.
After a fall to 28.0% in 2020-21, which reflected the impacts of the coronavirus pandemic, the proportion has increased to 31.4% in 2022-23.
Our tax burden is growing as a series of threshold freezes and cuts kick in— Helen Morrissey, Hargreaves Lansdown
A new tax year started in April, but several savings and tax thresholds have remained frozen.
Some household budgets may feel a tighter squeeze from fiscal drag, where earnings growth pushes people into paying more tax.
The UK’s tax burden is expected to reach a post-war high of 37.7% of GDP in 2027-28, according to recently-published Office for Budget Responsibility (OBR) documents.
Helen Morrissey, head of retirement analysis at Hargreaves Lansdown, said: “There’s no getting away from the fact our tax burden is growing as a series of threshold freezes and cuts kick in.
“We’ve seen receipts for taxes such as inheritance tax, income tax and National Insurance on the rise and recent cuts to capital gains tax thresholds will further boost future receipts.”
