Tax raid helps Rishi Sunak raise another £10bn in April Business

The Treasury received £70.2billion in revenue, up £9.9billion on the year, according to the Office for National Statistics, while central government spending fell by 4.1 billion to £88.8 billion.

Paul Dales of Capital Economics said it ‘will only add pressure on the Chancellor to go big when finalizing the impending support package for households’ suffering from inflation which hit 9% on last month.

April was the first month of the higher national tax rate, which the Chancellor increased for workers and businesses, adding another 1.25 percentage points to the rate for staff and their employers.

As a result, the Treasury received £13.4bn in mandatory social security contributions during the month, an increase of £1.4bn, or more than 11%, on the year.

VAT transport jumped by £1.5billion, an eighth, to £13.9billion as the tax rate for hotel businesses climbed to 20% and shoppers returned to the high street since the closures last year, which has boosted sales.

Stamp duty on property sales also soared to £1.6billion, up 40% from last April when the house purchases tax exemption was still in place.

Overall government spending has fallen, largely because the more than £5bn spent in April 2021 on the furlough scheme and support for the self-employed was not repeated as Covid schemes closed.

Meanwhile, the past financial year deficit has been revised down by £7.2bn to £144.6bn, due to stronger than expected National Insurance and VAT receipts .

Mr Sunak said: “While we are doing what we can to help families cope with rising prices, inflation is also driving up our interest expense on debt – which is expected to reach £83billion. This year.

“We must take a balanced and responsible approach to support people now, without burdening future generations, and we are on track to reduce public debt by 2024-25.”