Air passenger duty takes off as holidays return, but for how long?
- Air passenger duty receipts for April 2022 to May 2022 are £0.4 billion higher than in the same period a year earlier.
- Receipts from PAYE Income Tax and NIC1 for April 2022 to May 2022 are £10.7 billion higher than in the same period a year earlier.
- We expect to see the effect of the increase in National Insurance from May onwards.
- The number of paid employees continued to rise – increasing by 4.2%.
- Stamp duty receipts for April 2022 to May 2022 are £1.0 billion higher than in the same period a year earlier.
- The significantly higher receipts in April and May 2022 can be explained in part by the lower tax rates brought about by the stamp duty holiday.
HMRC has released its monthly bulletin on tax receipts and National Insurance contributions HMRC tax receipts and National Insurance contributions for the UK (Monthly Bulletin) – GOV.UK (www.gov.uk)
Helen Morrissey, senior pensions and retirement analyst at Hargreaves Lansdown:
“Air passenger duty is on the rise – after two years of being cooped up at home we can now go on holiday, with not even the prospect of long airport queues putting us off. Receipts are soaring ahead of where they have been for the past two years though they still have some way to go before reaching pre-pandemic levels.
A 4.2% increase in paid employees was a major factor behind the continued increase in income tax and National Insurance. We’ve seen the number of paid employees rising for some time now which is great news after the turmoil caused by the pandemic. However, many will have to contend with the 1.25 percentage point increase in National Insurance which came into effect in April. It’s still too early to see the effect of this in terms of tax take but we should expect to see a further bump in receipts in the coming months.
House prices may be at all time highs but that hasn’t dampened our love of property with stamp duty receipts up £1bn on the same time last year. Stamp duty holidays and the pandemic race for space fuelled the housing market last year and while we are starting to see some signs of the market cooling it’s clear our love of property still has some way to run.
The data paints a strong picture of increasing employment, a buoyant housing market and foreign holidays but we will likely see signs of the cost-of-living crunch starting to bite in the coming months. From next month we should see the effect of the national insurance increase start to kick in and there are signs the housing market is starting to cool which could show in stamp duty receipts in the coming months. Our newly re-found love of overseas travel could also hit a bump as soaring inflation makes us tighten our belts and we could see more people look to put off that foreign holiday a while longer.”
