HMRC figures reveal that an extra 3.36m taxpayers have been dragged into paying higher or additional rate tax in the current year.

It has projected there will be 7.08m higher rate income taxpayers in the 2025-26 tax year.

That is up from 5.1m people who were in the higher-rate tax bracket in 2022-23 and is 2.6m higher than the 4.4m higher rate income taxpayers in 2021-22.

HMRC also projected there would be 1.2m additional rate income taxpayers in 2025-26, compared with around 570,000 in 2022-23 and 520,000 in 2021-22.

Some 39.1m people are projected to be income taxpayers in 2025-26, up from 34.5m in 2022-23 and 33m in 2021-22.

Frozen tax thresholds have pushed more people into higher brackets as their pay has increased, experts said.

Sarah Coles, head of personal finance, Hargreaves Lansdown said: “Fiscal drag has hauled more than six million more people into paying income tax, and 3.36m more into paying higher or additional rate tax.

“We’ve had to hand over an extra £89bn in income tax this year – compared to 2021-22 – as a result.”

She pointed out that Income tax thresholds are set to stay frozen until 2028, but as the debate around the Government finances intensifies, “the risk that the freeze remains for even longer can’t be ruled out.”

Laura Suter, director of personal finance at AJ Bell, said: “The figures show that in just the past year alone, from 2024-25 to the current 2025-26 tax year, a further half a million people are estimated to move into the higher rate taxpayer bracket.

“They now account for almost a fifth (18% in 2025-26) of all taxpayers, illustrating that the higher rate of tax, once reserved for those on healthy salaries, is now pretty commonplace.”

A Treasury spokesperson said: “This Government inherited the previous government’s policy of frozen tax thresholds. At the Budget and the spring statement, the Chancellor announced that we would not extend that freeze.”