UK statistics
UK Income Tax Payers 2026/27: How Many in Each Band
HMRC's Income Tax liabilities statistics (published 15 July 2026) project 40.8 million Income Tax payers in 2026/27, of whom 7.70 million pay at the higher rate (up 33.8% on 2023/24) and 1.29 million at the additional rate (up 44.4%). The 2026/27 figures are projections built on 2023/24 data.
Headline numbers
- Higher-rate taxpayers
- 7.70m HMRC projection 2026/27
- Additional-rate taxpayers
- 1.29m +44.4% vs 2023/24
- Higher-rate share of all taxpayers
- 18.9% projected 2026/27, up from 15.7%
The detail
HMRC's Income Tax liabilities statistics, published on 15 July 2026, estimate 36.7 million UK Income Tax payers in 2023/24 and project 40.8 million in 2026/27. The projections are based on the 2023/24 Survey of Personal Incomes and the OBR's March 2026 Economic and Fiscal Outlook. HMRC groups payers by their marginal rate, and counts Scottish starter-rate and intermediate-rate payers as basic rate.
Higher-rate payers are projected at 7.70 million in 2026/27, up from 5.76 million in 2023/24 (+33.8%), with 6.60 million in 2024/25 and 7.29 million in 2025/26 in between. Their share of all payers rises from 15.7% to 18.9%. HMRC attributes the shift largely to the higher-rate threshold being frozen at its 2021/22 level from 2022/23 through to 2030/31, combined with earnings growth pushing more people over it.
Additional-rate payers are projected at 1.29 million in 2026/27, up 44.4% from 893,000 in 2023/24, or 3.2% of all payers. The additional-rate threshold had been frozen at £150,000 from its introduction in 2010/11 until 2022/23, and from April 2023 it was reduced to £125,140.
Basic-rate payers are projected at 31.4 million (76.9% of payers) and savers-rate payers at 415,000 (1.0%). The £12,570 Personal Allowance has been frozen alongside the higher-rate threshold, which HMRC says has brought more people into paying tax: the number of payers rose by 2.2 million between 2022/23 and 2023/24 alone.
Sources
Related statistics
- Top 1%
Being in the UK's top 1% of income earners requires total pre-tax income of roughly £207,000 per year (HMRC Personal Incomes Statistics, tax year 2023/24 - the most recent complete dataset).
- Top 10%
Full-time UK employees need gross pay of roughly £76,903 per year to be in the top 10% of earners by salary (ONS ASHE 2025, 90th percentile of full-time annual pay).
- UK Tax Burden
Effective combined tax (Income Tax + employee NI) rises from 16.3% on a £30,000 salary to 39.1% on £150,000 in 2026/27 (England, Wales and Northern Ireland) - not the headline marginal rate but the blended total-tax share.
- What Counts as Rich
There's no official "rich" threshold, but three proxies are commonly used: the top 1% of UK taxpayers by income (£207,000 or more, HMRC, 2023-24), the additional-rate tax band (above £125,140), or the wealthiest 10% of households in Great Britain (£1,200,500 or more, ONS).