April 2026 – Tax ‘take’ up £6bn in one month

April 2026 – Tax ‘take’ up £6bn in one month

Analysis of the latest HMRC figures for April shows that the tax take for the first month of the new tax year continues to soar. HMRC collected £87.3bn in taxes in the month of April, up an incredible £6.3bn from April 2025.

Income tax, capital gains tax (CGT) and national insurance contribution (NIC) receipts for April 2026 were £52bn, up £4.4bn on the same period last year as the pain of years long freezing of the tax-free threshold really begins to generate substantial revenue for the government.

Breaking the numbers down, income tax PAYE was up from £30.7bn to £32.3bn, while employee NICs was up by £160m to £4.64bn from £4.48bn a year ago. Of course, it was employers hit the hardest on the NI front, with Class 1 NICs up nearly £3bn year on year, to £15.55bn from £12.66bn.  

However, frozen thresholds are clearly having a painful impact for ordinary taxpayers, particularly the hundreds of thousands being dragged into higher rate tax at 40%.

Fuel duty revenue was up £300m in April as the government earned more revenue on the back of soaring petrol and diesel prices after the outbreak of the war. The monthly figure was £2.3bn.

Taxpayers appear to be being hit from all sides with the cost-of-living crisis continuing to force up prices, which in turn hikes VAT take. Total VAT receipts for April 2026 were £20.5bn, a significant £1.5bn higher than the same period last year. Basically, this figure continues to edge upwards recording the highest ever April figure, up more than £7bn on the pre-pandemic April 2019 VAT figure of £13.04bn.

On the Capital Gains Tax front, the overall tax take was down after a flurry of selling in the 2025-26 tax year when concerns grew that the chancellor would hike rates in line with income tax! April saw £162m in CGT payments, against £191m a year ago, but set against a backdrop of record CGT for the for 2025-26.