Employer NI up 23% with a record amount paid of £93.7bn
Employer NI up 23% with a record amount paid of £93.7bn
Businesses hit by soaring employer national insurance (NI) raise billions in extra tax for the Treasury in first eight months of the tax year.
The latest HMRC figures for November 2025 showed the tax take from employer NI was up 23%, with a record £93.7bn haul from April to November 2025, up from £75.9bn the previous year, illustrating the impact of the chancellor’s decision to hike employer NI in her first Budget in October 2024.
There was a big increase in employer national insurance contributions (NICs) year on year, with £2.4bn more being collected in November 2025 compared to the same period the year previous. In 2024, takings stood at £9.2bn, compared with £11.6bn just a year later.
This rise reflects the NI hike announced in the 2024 Budget, which saw increases in the rate of employer NICs from 13.8% to 15% from April 2025 and halving of allowances for lower paid workers.
So far, employer NICs for the year have risen 23.3%, to £93.7bn. With employer NICs close to £94bn for the period from April to November 2025. The amount eventually raised for the full financial year could come to a new record, as last financial year, the national insurance bill for businesses was £116bn for the 2024-25 tax year.
Total VAT receipts for April to November 2025 are £122.5bn, up £5.1bn on last year, but this number was down 3% from £15.4bn to £14.9bn in November 2025, this reflects the difficult economic climate, with consumer confidence rattled and high inflation rates.
Inheritance tax (IHT) receipts were down at £588m from £811m the previous month, and the year-on-year figure was £5.8bn, for the eight months of this tax year and only £84m higher than the same period last year.
Fuel duty has brought in £22.4bn so far in 2024-25, a drop of £50m on the same period in 2024 and £460m less than 2023, underlining concerns that the tax – once one of the Exchequer’s most reliable revenue raisers – is becoming increasingly unsustainable as drivers shift away from petrol and diesel vehicles.
The director of public policy at the Association of Taxation Technicians (ATT), said: ‘HMRC’s monthly receipts show that the decline in fuel duty is already well under way. The unfreezing of duty from next year may reverse that trend, but with more drivers switching to electric vehicles, and petrol and diesel cars becoming more fuel efficient, any extra revenue is only ever going to be temporary.’