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What is the Revenue from the Income Tax?

For the year ending in March 2026:
Total UK income tax revenue is forecast to be $458.9 billion.

This page shows the current trends in UK Income Tax revenue.

Total

Recent UK Income Tax Revenue

Chart R.11t: Recent Income Tax Revenue

Chart R.12t: Recent Income Tax as Pct GDP

UK income tax revenue was steady, around£200 billion from the late 2000s to the mid 2010s. In the mid 2010s revenues began to increase, reaching £271 billion in 2020. Since COVID income tax revenues have increased sharply. For the year ending March 2025 income tax revenue was £421.8 billion.

Viewed from a GDP perspective, income tax revenue declined from a peak of 13.4 percent GDP in 2008 to about 11 percent GDP in 2015. But income tax revenue increased in the late 2010s reaching 12 percent in 2020. Since COVID income tax revenue has increased steadily. For the year ending March 2025 income tax revenue was 14.6 percent GDP.

UK Income Tax Revenue Since 1900

Chart R.13t: Total Income Tax since 1900

UK income tax revenue at the start of the 20th century was about 2 percent of GDP but had increased to 3 percent GDP by the start of World War I.

Income tax revenue vaulted to 11 percent of GDP by the end of World War I, and then increased to 13.5 percent GDP by 1921. But in the 1920s the income tax take declined to 8.1 percent GDP by 1927 and then 7 percent in the 1930s.

Income tax revenue exploded in World War II to over 20 percent GDP in 1945 and 1946 before retreating to 16 percent GDP in 1947.

In the 1950s income tax revenue slowly declined as a percent of GDP, to 11.1 percent GDP by 1960, before reversing direction up to 14.5 percent GDP in 1970.

From the 1970s to the 2010s income tax revenue has fluctuated in a band between about 12 percent GDP in recessions and 14 percent at the top of economic expansions.

In 2014 income tax revenue was 11.4 percent GDP. Since then it has increased to 12.2 percent GDP in 2019, and then rapidly increased to 14.6 percent GDP in 2025.

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Revenue Data Sources

Detailed table of revenue data sources here.

Gross Domestic Product data comes from measuringworth.com.

Central government revenue data begins in 1692.

Local authority revenue data begins in 1868.

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On July 23, 2025, HM Treasury published its Public Expenditure Statistical Analyses (PESA) for 2025. ukpublicspending.co.uk uses the PESA tables of public spending at the "sub-function" level as its major data source for UK public spending.

ukpublicspending.co.uk has now updated its spending tables using data from PESA 2025. The update includes outturn spending data for 2023-24, and plans data for 2024-25. ukpublicspending.co.uk uses PESA's Table 6.4 for Central Government expenditure, Table 7.4 for Local Authority expenditure, and Table 8.3 for Public Corporation capital expenditure.

Since HM Treasury does not provide plans estimates for future Local Authority spending, ukpublicspending.co.uk provides "guesstimates" instead. This is done by extending the percentage increase in spending between 2023-24 and 2024-25 for each sub-function for the plans year. It is assumed that local authority spending reductions will not carry through to plans years.

Country and Region spending has been updated up to 2023-24. These are obtained from Chapters 9 and 10 in the PESA document.

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