Taxes and revenue

Effects of taxes and benefits on UK household income: financial year ending 2023

What's in the bulletin?

• Median equivalised household income in the UK before taxes and benefits was £37,300, increasing to £39,700 after taxes and benefits.
• The richest fifth of people's mean equivalised household income before taxes and benefits (£114,300) was 11.6 times larger than the poorest fifth (£9,800); however, this gap reduced to 3.4 times larger (£82,200 and £24,500, respectively) after taxes and benefits.
• Original income inequality (before taxes and benefits) decreased by 2.9 percentage points to 47.2% since FYE 2022, while final income inequality (after taxes and benefits) decreased by only 2.1 percentage points to 27.7%, highlighting the redistributive effect of taxes and benefits decreased marginally between years.