UK taxes on median earners at lowest in 50 years despite overall tax burden reaching all time highs

Interesting analysis from the IFS and FT

“Overall, there has been a common trend towards increasing direct taxes on high-income individuals, while cutting them on low and middle earners. In fact, remarkably, despite the overall tax burden reaching historical highs, income tax and employee NICs now take a smaller fraction of the earnings of a single full-time median earner with no children than at any time for almost 50 years. Tax policy has been changed such that we are raising less on average earnings but more from higher earners, more from other taxes, and more overall”.

https://ifs.org.uk/publications/governments-record-tax-2010-24

“The UK’s overall tax burden is becoming increasingly European in its size, but the distribution of tax payments is not. OECD figures show that UK income tax and social security burdens for employees on average incomes were comparatively very low. Not so for individuals with incomes two-thirds higher than the median, which are generally above the OECD average. It shows the UK has a very progressive direct tax system”.

“For income tax alone, in 2024-25 those with the top 10 per cent of incomes paid 60.2 per cent of total revenue, a figure estimated by HM Revenue & Customs to have risen from 53.5 per cent in 2010-11”.

https://www.ft.com/content/78026133-c752-4073-a136-66946f9dd8db