Top taxpayers 'to fall by one million'

Date: 3rd June 2009

The number of workers in the UK paying the top taxation rate is set to fall by approximately one million within two years.

That is according to new statistics from HM Revenue and Customs (HMRC), which anticipates that only 2.9 million people will be paying the 40 per cent rate by the end of 2010.

HMRC also forecast that the amount of taxation paid by this bracket will slump by £15.9 billion to £75.1 billion during the period.

A senior research economist at the Institute for Fiscal Studies James Browne told the BBC that the forecasts are not improbable.

He said: "If a lot of the higher rate taxpayers in financial services are not getting bonuses, this predication is not entirely unrealistic."

The highest taxation band currently applies to those individuals earning £37,400 per annum or more, after being pushed up from £34,800 earlier this year.