The number of people receiving end year tax demands from HMRC in the UK has soared over the past few years, new data shows.
A freedom of information (FOI) request by Steve Webb, former pensions minister and partner at LCP, revealed that in 2023/24, over 1.3m people received such demands from the taxman – nearly double the number just two years earlier.
Many of these were for relatively small sums, with nearly a quarter being for under £100, although nearly a quarter were for over £1,000.
Webb explained that the issue relates to a process known as ‘simple assessment’. For most taxpayers, the correct amount of income tax is collected during the year via PAYE tax codes, but those with more complex tax affairs such as landlords, the self-employed, and those with significant capital gains or other high earners must fill in a full self-assessment.
However, there is a group in the middle with relatively simple tax affairs, but where there is no PAYE code used to collect the tax due on their income, such as state pensioners with no private pensions.
Ongoing freezes to tax thresholds and large increases to the state pension over the past few years are to blame for a rise in the number of state pensioners receiving end-year tax demands, Webb said.
“The continued freezing of the income tax personal allowance means that the numbers getting unwelcome end-of-year tax demands have soared,” he said.
“Many of these people will be pensioners whose only income is the state pension, and they now get an annual tax demand, with the amounts growing each year. Although the government has indicated it may address this issue for a subset of pensioners from 2027, a much wider-ranging solution is needed”.
