The latest annual income tax figures from HMRC reveal huge geographic swings in the amount of tax paid across the UK for who is paying the annual £268bn income tax bill.

London is top of the chart by miles for the 2023-24 tax year, paying £71.5bn and accounting for more than a quarter of the total paid, while the 10 largest cities in the country outside the capital pay a combined £16.28bn.

The total tax paid by London in 2023-24 was £71.5bn, up a shocking 11.5% from £64.1bn the previous year, based on its population of 9.5 million citizens.

In the capital, it is the central wealthy boroughs doing the heaviest lifting on the tax front, the government’s widest shoulders in other words.

Kensington and Chelsea residents paid the most income tax at £5.58bn in 2023-24, up from £5.3bn the previous tax year, and Westminster paid nearly as much at £5.04bn up from £4.74bn.

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