The total debt is made up of £7.8bn of managed debt in repayment arrangements and £40.3bn in debt available for HMRC to chase. The December 2022 debt balance stood at £48.1bn, up from £42bn at the end of March, showing a worsening in the number of debtors.

While the numbers of taxpayers in time to pay arrangements fell by 14% over the previous year to 730,617 at the end of December 2022, the level of managed debt rose considerably by 88% to £7.8bn, up from 4.1bn in December 2021.

Meanwhile the debt available for pursuit climbed 24% to £40.3bn, up from £32.5bn at the end of 2021.

HMRC collected £715.5bn in taxes in 2021 to 2022, an increase of 22.5% from the year before when the pandemic affected revenues.