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Income Tax

Volume 456: debated on Wednesday 7 February 2007

To ask the Chancellor of the Exchequer (1) what estimate he has made of the value of income tax payments made by each income decile group in each year since 1997-98; (115529)

(2) what estimate he has made of the value of national insurance payments made by each income decile group in each year since 1997-98.

The information requested falls within the responsibility of the National Statistician, who has been asked to reply.

Letter from Karen Dunnell, dated 7 February 2007:

As National Statistician, I have been asked to reply to your recent Parliamentary Questions asking (1) what estimate has been made of the value of income tax payments made by each income decile since 1997-98 (115529) and (2) what estimate has been made of the value of national insurance payments made by each income decile group since 1997-98 (115531).

Estimates of income tax, and national insurance payments appear in the ONS analysis ‘The effects of taxes and benefits on household income’. The latest analysis for 2004/05 was published on the National Statistics website on 12th May 2006 at: http://www.statistics.gov.uk/taxesbenefits. The analysis is based on data from the Expenditure and Food Survey, which is a sample survey covering approximately 7,000 households in the UK.

The tables below show the average annual payments of these taxes for households in each income decile. These average payments reflect both the number of households paying each tax, and the size of the payments. Since the results are based on a sample survey, some of the year to year movement is due to sampling variability. However the tables do illustrate longer term trends in the distribution of tax payments.

Average income tax by each household income decile1,United Kingdom, 1997-98 to 2004-05

£ per year

Decile groups of all households ranked by equivalised disposable income

Bottom

2nd

3rd

4th

5th

6th

7th

8th

9th

Top

All households

At current prices

1997-98

239

344

514

1,010

1,764

2,443

3,392

4,693

6,049

11,954

3,240

1998-99

216

354

514

1,027

1,712

2,427

3,254

4,323

5,853

13,169

3,285

1999-2000

174

313

532

1,094

1,771

2,479

3,485

4,531

6,421

13,312

3,411

2000-01

217

394

781

1,293

2,023

2,776

3,956

4,957

6,703

13,450

3,655

2001-02

232

335

666

1,386

1,989

2,781

3,987

5,279

7,338

15,902

3,989

2002-03

196

484

657

1,297

2,024

2,833

4,064

5,459

7,427

15,131

3,957

2003-04

271

359

684

1,277

2,026

2,959

4,004

5,508

7,413

16,266

4,076

2004-05

194

451

809

1,351

2,210

3,030

4,079

5,749

8,094

16,590

4,256

' From 2002-03 onwards, Income tax is shown after the deduction of any tax credits, which offset payments of income tax. Before 2002-03 tax credits treated as social security benefits. The effects on these figures is small.

Source:

‘The effects of taxes and benefits on household Income’, ONS

Average National insurance contributions by each household income decile, United Kingdom, 1997-98 to 2004-05

£ per year

Decile groups of all households ranked by equivalised disposable income

Bottom

2nd

3rd

4th

5th

6th

7th

8th

9th

Top

All households

At current prices

1997-98

75

141

215

414

718

985

1,249

1,646

1,967

2,147

956

1998-99

96

162

236

478

756

1,000

1,348

1,675

2,002

2,330

1,008

1999-2000

84

148

244

466

724

1,038

1,334

1,635

2,147

2,179

1,000

2000-01

82

158

295

459

783

1,054

1,434

1,683

2,006

2,302

1,026

2001-02

84

130

258

456

795

1,068

1,433

1,863

2,342

2,564

1,099

2002-03

79

181

271

520

758

1,029

1,484

1,871

2,222

2,595

1.101

2003-04

92

183

330

610

925

1,301

1,622

2,161

2,616

3,326

1,317

2004-05

90

236

428

636

1,030

1,358

1,724

2,321

3,023

3,506

1,435

Source:

‘The effects of taxes and benefits on household income’, ONS