Tax receipts for September 2022 were £57.9bn, down slightly from the previous month’s £58.2bn.

Over the six-month period, receipts were higher from income tax, capital gains tax and National Insurance contributions (NICs) (£24.2bn), business taxes at £35.8bn, up £5.5bn, and revenue from stamp taxes increased by £2.2bn.

Receipts from PAYE income tax and NICs for April 2022 to September 2022 were £190.4bn, which was £24.6bn higher than in the same period a year earlier. These figures were helped by a 2.8% rise in the number of paid employees with an additional 803,000 people joining the workforce. In addition, median monthly pay increased by 6.5%.

The increase in NICs rates as a result of the 1.25% social care levy, effective from April 2022, affected HMRC’s NICs receipts from May 2022 onwards. However, this will be removed from 6 November as the levy was reversed by the Truss government.