There was a 15% increase in the number of people charged interest on overdue tax payments in 2020-21, compared to the pre-pandemic figure of 1.2m, showed a freedom of information (FOI) request by investment platform AJ Bell.

The FOI did not reveal how much money HMRC was raised from taxpayers who failed to pay their tax bills on time.

The increase came despite furlough and corporate dividend cuts meaning many would have owed HMRC less than normal for that year.

Around 270,000 people were hit with a penalty for missing the self assessment tax return deadline in 2020-21, down from 290,000 the year before. A further 110,000 had to pay a late filing penalty as well as interest charges.