The average income of Deloitte’s more than 640 equity partners in the UK rose to £1.1m this year, despite a recent slowdown in spending and company deals.
Deloitte UK said revenue grew 14% to £5.6bn in the year to May, as buoyant markets in the first six months of its financial year bolstered demand for audit and advisory work. It helped offset the “increased caution” among more cash-strapped clients and a slowdown in merger and acquisition activity in the months that followed.
The UK arm of the big four accounting firm – which employs about 27,000 people and includes its smaller Swiss operations – reported a 6% rise in operating profit, totalling £756m. That rise benefited Deloitte’s partners, who do not receive a salary but instead receive a share of profits as income.
While the average profit per partner remained broadly flat at £1.06m, the payouts were flattered by an extra £53,000 each from the sale of Deloitte’s pension benefits advisory business, lifting total amount by about 5%.
This is the third year in a row the average income of the 714 partners has exceeded £1m, 642 of whom are based in the UK and remaining 72 in Switzerland.
Deloitte said it paid £1.7bn in UK taxes for the financial year, up from £1.5bn in 2022, and that equity partners were taxed at an effective rate of 50.4%.
Richard Houston, the chief executive of Deloitte UK, said: “Our performance in the first half of the year was strong and, despite some softening of growth in the second half, we saw significant demand across all our services and industry groups, particularly in financial services, energy and resources and public sector.”
Deloitte UK’s payouts surpass those at rivals PricewaterhouseCoopers, which last month said its more than 1,000 partners would be paid £906,000 this year. It marked a slight fall on last year’s record payout as profits fell despite rising revenues.
Last year, PwC’s partners celebrated their highest-ever personal rewards, pocketing more than £1m each as their record £920,000 basic pay was topped up by a £100,000 bonus linked to the $2.2bn (£1.7bn) sale of a tax advice business for companies moving staff overseas, which was bought by the US private equity firm Clayton, Dubilier & Rice.
