HMRC’s receipts for April to July 2026

HMRC published its monthly receipts bulletin on 21 August 2026. Four months into the tax year, it has collected £322.7 billion in tax and National Insurance, £19.1 billion more than in the same four months last year.

8 min read · Altro Partners, by Equity & General

£322.7 billion

of tax and National Insurance collected in April to July 2026, £19.1 billion more than the same four months of 2025

HMRC monthly receipts bulletin, 21 August 2026

Reacting to

HMRC tax receipts and National Insurance contributions for the UK, monthly bulletin, published 21 August 2026 (HM Revenue & Customs)

The thresholds that decide whether tax is due have not moved, while incomes, property values and business valuations have risen.

What the bulletin says

The figures are HMRC’s own, covering April to July 2026:

Total tax and National Insurance £322.7 billion, which HMRC states is £19.1 billion higher than the same period last year.
Income Tax, Capital Gains Tax and National Insurance together £189.8 billion, up £13.2 billion. That one line is about seven-tenths of the year-on-year increase.
Inheritance tax £3.2 billion in four months, £0.1 billion higher than last year.
Business taxes £31.6 billion, up £3.7 billion.
VAT £64.8 billion (up £1.0 billion) and stamp taxes £6.9 billion (up £0.5 billion).

Reporting the same release on 21 August 2026, Money Marketing put capital gains tax receipts for the 2025/26 tax year at a record £22.2 billion, and noted Office for Budget Responsibility projections of £34.9 billion a year by 2030/31. Simon Martin of Utmost, quoted in that report, warned that the rising burden on gains from investments, property and business assets risks making the UK less attractive to internationally mobile investors.

The growth is concentrated in personal income and gains and in business taxes, which is where a business owner’s tax sits.

Frozen thresholds

The inheritance tax nil-rate band has been £325,000 since 6 April 2009. The residence nil-rate band is £175,000. Both are frozen to 5 April 2031, and the residence nil-rate band tapers away from an estate of £2 million (Budget 2025, Overview of tax legislation and rates, GOV.UK). The capital gains annual exempt amount is £3,000 (GOV.UK, Capital Gains Tax rates). The personal allowance for 2026/27 is £12,570, with the higher rate applying from £50,270 (GOV.UK, Income Tax rates and Personal Allowances).

£325,000

inheritance tax nil-rate band, since 6 April 2009 and frozen to 5 April 2031

£175,000

residence nil-rate band, frozen to 5 April 2031

£3,000

capital gains annual exempt amount

Budget 2025, Overview of tax legislation and rates, GOV.UK; GOV.UK, Capital Gains Tax rates

Set against seventeen years of house price growth and a decade of wage growth, a fixed £325,000 covers less than it did in 2009. A client can become liable without buying anything, because the value of the house rises. Nothing in the compliance cycle records the year a client crossed a threshold they were previously under. The accounts are filed and the return is submitted as before.

A worked example

This example uses a made-up client and made-up figures. A widowed client, a retired company director, whose numbers have barely changed in five years:

The same client under each set of rules

Made-up figures

Main residence, passing to two adult children:£700,000

ISAs and cash:£250,000

Unused defined contribution pension:£400,000

The estate once the pension counts, for deaths on or after 6 April 2027£1,350,000

The available allowances are £325,000 of nil-rate band plus £325,000 transferred from the late spouse, and £175,000 of residence nil-rate band plus £175,000 transferred: £1,000,000 in total, with the residence element depending on the home passing to direct descendants and tapering where an estate exceeds £2 million.

Under the rules in force today the estate for inheritance tax is £950,000. It falls under the £1,000,000 of allowances and no inheritance tax is due. For deaths on or after 6 April 2027, most unused pension funds count in the estate (Finance Act 2026; HMRC technical note, Inheritance Tax on pensions, 11 May 2026). The same client under each set of rules, and the estate becomes £1,350,000. Taxable value £350,000, at 40%, is an inheritance tax bill of £140,000. The change is set out in when the pension joins the estate.

The increase comes from the rule change and the frozen threshold, with no change to the assets.

HMRC, 21 August 2026: £322.7 billion of tax and National Insurance collected in April to July 2026, £19.1 billion more than the same four months of 2025.

Who does what

The FCA’s Financial Lives 2024 survey found that 8.6% of UK adults had taken regulated financial advice in the previous twelve months, and 13% of the self-employed. Those figures include the clients whose returns an accountant prepares.

Accountancy work

The accountant describes the position: here is the estate, here are the allowances, here is where the two meet, and here is what changes in April 2027.

Regulated advice

The Equity & General financial planner takes the questions that turn on things the accountant does not hold: the client’s attitude to risk, their capacity for loss, their health, whether they can afford to give anything away, and what their partner needs.

Neither profession does the other’s work. The division is set out in who does what.

Two things to do this week

Run a threshold check over the client list. Which clients hold a main residence plus a pension that, combined, will exceed the nil-rate bands available to them from 6 April 2027? The answer comes from data the firm holds. Use the resulting list as the agenda for the next round of year-end meetings.
Add one line to the year-end meeting template. Something factual that opens the subject without straying into regulated territory: “On current figures your estate sits above the allowances once the pension counts from April 2027. Would you like the Equity & General financial planner to look at what can be done about that?” That is an observation and an offer. It recommends no product and takes no view on suitability. The other things to look for are in what to look for in the accounts, and the case for looking at surplus cash in the cash question.

What is not yet settled

The receipts are published statistics for April to July 2026 and will not change. The thresholds are the rates HMRC publishes, and the pension change is law for deaths on or after 6 April 2027 (Finance Act 2026, Royal Assent 18 March 2026).

What the next fiscal event does to any of it is open. The Autumn Budget is on 28 October 2026. The OBR projection of £34.9 billion of capital gains tax by 2030/31 is a forecast built on current policy. A plan built on the law as it stands can be revisited when the law moves.

The next monthly bulletin is due in late September and will cover April to August.

Common questions

Does a rising tax take change anything for my clients?

Yes, without the client doing anything. The thresholds that decide whether tax is due stay still while the numbers measured against them rise. The inheritance tax nil-rate band has been £325,000 since 6 April 2009 and is frozen to 5 April 2031 (Budget 2025, GOV.UK). The capital gains annual exempt amount is £3,000. An estate or a shareholding that sat inside those figures three years ago may sit outside them now on identical assets. The number of clients with something to plan grows every year.

Which numbers in a set of accounts point to a planning conversation?

Retained profit growing for a third year with no extraction plan attached. Cash above the working capital the business needs. A director’s fifty-fifth birthday in the diary. A property or shareholding standing at a large unrealised gain. A personal guarantee on a new lease with nothing behind it. A first approach from a buyer. Each is an ordinary entry in the file open on the desk at the year-end meeting, and each has a decision attached that has not yet been made.

Is talking to a client about inheritance tax regulated advice?

No. Explaining how inheritance tax works, what the nil-rate bands are, and how a client’s current position measures against them is tax work, inside an accountancy practice’s ordinary remit. The line is crossed when the conversation moves to what the client should do about it with a regulated product: recommending a particular pension, investment, trust arrangement or protection policy, or advising on whether one is suitable for that individual. Those are regulated activities and sit with the Equity & General financial planner. Describe the position, and where the answer involves a regulated product, make the introduction.

When does the accountant make an introduction and when does the firm handle it in-house?

At the point where the answer stops being a computation and starts being a recommendation about a product. Working out that an estate will exceed the available nil-rate bands is arithmetic. Deciding whether the right response is a pension contribution, a policy written in trust, a programme of gifts, or nothing at all is regulated advice, and it turns on facts an accountant does not hold: attitude to risk, capacity for loss, health, and the client’s other commitments. The accountant supplies what the numbers show. The Equity & General financial planner supplies the recommendation and carries the regulatory responsibility for it.

What should we tell a client who says the rules will change again anyway?

That their position is measured against the rules in force, and that the receipts published on 21 August 2026 reflect thresholds that have been frozen for years. No new tax was introduced. Waiting for the next fiscal event has a cost of its own: some responses need time to work, and some stop being available once a transaction has completed or a client’s health has changed. A plan built on today’s law can be revisited when the law moves.

Financial planning for your clients, alongside the accounts and tax work

Equity & General holds the FCA authorisation. There is no charge to your firm, and a named partnership director works with you from the first introduction.