Chancellor Rishi Sunak's Treasury has dragged nearly two million workers into paying a higher tax rates since the 2019 general election.
And working people's pay packets will feel lighter in the years to come, as a government scrambling to pay for the dual impact of Covid and Brexit is preparing to hike taxes further for millions of Brits.
According to HM Revenue and Customs (HMRC) figures, around 6.1 million taxpayers are projected to be paying the higher income tax rate of 40% or additional tax rate of 45% by 2022/23.
There are a projected 5.5 million higher rate income taxpayers in 2022/23, marking a 43.9% increase compared with 2019/20, HMRC said.
In addition, there are a projected 629,000 additional rate income taxpayers in 2022/23, which is a 49.4% increase from 2019/20.
Back in 2019/20, the total number of higher rate and additional rate taxpayers combined was approaching 4.3 million.
Higher rate income taxpayers make up a projected 16.2% of the overall income tax-paying population in 2022/23, while additional rate taxpayers make up around 1.9%, HMRC said.
Liberal Democrat Treasury spokesperson Christine Jardine MP said: "It is time Rishi Sunak and Boris Johnson stopped taking the British public for fools. You can't call yourself a low-tax Government then hike them to record levels.
"Britain's squeezed-middle is being crushed by a barrage of tax hikes. Britain needs an emergency tax cut before its too late for millions of families and pensioners on the brink.
"This Government has proven itself to be completely out of touch with the cost of living crisis and people will never forgive them for these tax hikes."
Sir Steve Webb, partner at consultants LCP, said: “Paying higher rate tax used to be reserved for the very wealthiest, but this has changed very dramatically in recent years.
“The starting point for higher rate tax has not kept pace with rising incomes, and the current five-year freeze on thresholds has turbo-charged this trend.
“People who would not think of themselves as being particularly rich can now easily face an income tax rate of 40% and around one in five of all taxpayers will soon be in the higher rate bracket.”
HMRC said that, overall, there were 31.5 million income taxpayers in tax year 2019/20, a figure which is projected to increase to 34.0 million in 2022/23.
Sarah Coles, senior personal finance analyst, Hargreaves Lansdown, said: “Things are only set to get worse. With the thresholds frozen until 2026, we’re going to see a steady stream of taxpayers crossing thresholds and paying eye-watering levels of tax.
“It adds insult to the financial injuries we’ve sustained as a result of rising prices.”
Clive Gawthorpe, a partner at accountancy firm UHY Hacker Young, said: “Even by HMRC’s standards, the past year has been a bumper one for creating new higher rate taxpayers.”
He added: “It is worth noting that due to inflation, taxpayers sucked into the higher band were already having to make their monthly pay cheques stretch further – without the additional burden of higher tax.”
