Threshold freeze would drive up top rate taxpayer numbers With Jeremy Hunt and Rishi Sunak said to be considering a two-year extension to the current freeze on income tax thresholds, experts calculate the move could see the number of workers paying the top rate of tax more than double. With the Chancellor and Prime Minister considering options as they look to balance the nation’s books, extending the freeze on tax thresholds until 2027/28 could net the Treasury an extra £30bn. Analysis by the Centre for Economics and Business Research says extending the freeze will drag an additional 3m workers into higher income tax bands. It estimates that the number of people paying the top tax rate will be 850,000 in 2026/27, up from 400,000 in 2019/20. Separate analysis by the Institute for Fiscal Studies suggests a two-year threshold freeze could raise between an extra £4bn to £5bn. The study says 7.7m workers could be paying the 40p rate by 2025/26, compared to 4.6m if there was no freeze and thresholds rose with inflation.