Total income tax revenues, including PAYE, were £7bn higher in January 2025 than the previous year, while the self assessment month, which is HMRC’s biggest of the year for obvious reasons, saw over £4bn extra paid despite 700,000 missing the filing deadline.

This compared to virtually flat figures for the last two years, with to £21.7bn in 2024, slightly down on £21.9bn paid in January 2023. The latest figure has climbed to £25.88bn.

In a stark reminder of how the UK faces the highest tax burden in decades, self assessment tax take has soared since the pandemic, with January 2020 showing tax take of £15.29bn, with only a slight 4.7% rise on 2019’s £14.6bn.

Despite the hike in tax take, this was below Office for Budget Responsibility (OBR) estimates issued at the Budget, which predicted self assessment receipts would be £3bn higher in January at £28.9bn compared to the actual figure of £25.88bn. But the late filers could easily fill the gaps when they pay their tax bills.