The January data showed that total tax collected by HMRC in January was £73bn ($91bn, €85.5bn), up 14.1% on the same month last year, due in part to a 9.7% growth in contributions from those filing self-assessment tax returns.
“These numbers reflect the growing army of people who are self employed for tax purposes as well as the buoyancy of the economy during the last tax year,” said George Bull, senior tax partner at tax and consulting firm RSM.
“Many had feared that the rise in self employment would be accompanied by a reduction in pay as you earn (PAYE) receipts. With PAYE income tax receipts up by 4.8% over the year, those fears have proved groundless,” he added
Similarly, January national insurance contributions were up by 11.4% on the 2016 level.
IHT soars
Elsewhere the data showed that the Inheritance Tax (IHT) take is rising sharply in terms of annual revenue and as a proportion of GDP as the population ages.
Inheritance tax was up by 22.5% in January over the same month of 2016 to £386m. IHT receipts for April 2016 to January 2017 are 4.1% higher than in the same period of the previous tax year.
The insurance premium tax take was up by over 60% at £361m compared to £222m in January of 2016 after its sharp rise in the 2015 Budget, when it was raised to 9.5% from 6.0%, and the further hike in October 2016, when the rate hit 10%.
Capital gains tax had risen 14% to £6.2bn and stamp duty land tax had gained by 16.3%.
