Britons face £7.5bn stealth tax hit Taxpayers are set to pay more than £7.5bn in ‘stealth taxes’ this year due to surging inflation and a freeze on tax brackets. Chancellor Rishi Sunak has frozen tax thresholds, meaning that as pay rises to keep track with soaring prices, more workers will be pulled into higher tax brackets. House price rises will also have an impact, with inheritance tax and stamp duty thresholds also frozen. Centre for Economics and Business Research (CEBR) analysis suggests that the stealth taxes will cost families a total of £7.5bn this year. By the 2025/26 financial year, frozen income tax brackets alone will make an extra £40bn for the Treasury, the research shows. With the CEBR saying one in five workers will be paying the higher or top rate of income tax by the next general election, former Conservative leader Sir Iain Duncan Smith has urged his party to cut taxes. He said: “Our system has delivered more tax revenue to the Government than we ever anticipated. We don’t need to raise National Insurance... we need to put some money back into people’s pockets.”