Nearly two million people in the UK have moved into the higher-rate income tax band since the start of the decade, new figures show.

A total of 5.76 million individuals were paying the higher rate in the 2023/24 tax year, according to HM Revenue and Customs.

This is up 50% from 3.83 million in 2019/20.

Some 654,000 people were added to the higher-rate band between 2022/23 and 2023/24, a year-on-year jump of 13%.

HMRC acknowledged the rise is “likely to be due to the unchanged higher rate threshold and increases in income, largely from employment, resulting in more taxpayers being brought into the higher rate of tax.”

The level at which people start paying the higher rate of income tax of 40% has been frozen at £50,271 since 2021/22.

Tax thresholds typically used to rise in line with inflation, but the freeze – introduced by the previous Conservative government – has seen more people dragged into the higher bracket as their earnings have grown.

Chancellor of the Exchequer Rachel Reeves announced at the…