More retired boomer's pay income tax than generation z according to official data.

[caringcarer]

The article is in the tax year 22-23 5.45 million boomers paid income tax whilst only 5.32 million under 30's did so according to data from HMRC. There are almost a million 16-24 year old NEETs. It was a real eye opener for me. Article behind pay wall so can't link.

There will be a lot of pensioners paying a little bit of tax. My dad is one of them. Enhanced state pension plus small private pension income puts him over the threshold. What is more silly is I suspect the admin cost to do his tax return is not that much less than what he pays in tax. I also wonder how many people as they get into their 90s are still ok to be filling in tax returns but that is another issue.

Most pensioners won't need to complete and submit tax returns. The existing system is perfectly capable of using the PAYE scheme on the occupational pension to collect tax due - the state pension can easily be adjusted for via the PAYE tax code on the occupational pension. I see literally dozens of cases like that among my client base. The system is set up and works fine. There are current pensioners with a state pension over the tax free personal allowance (due to legacy enhancements) and the PAYE system still works fine to collect the tax via the PAYE code for the occupational pension.

Even those without an occupational pension, but whose state pension is above the personal allowance still don't need to do a tax return as HMRC have a separate system called "simple assessments" where they issue a tax demand for the income tax due on a state pension if over the tax free personal allowance and no other PAYE sources to collect the tax through. It works fine. HMRC know your state pension (they're initially told by DWP when the state pension starts and then know the percentage increase each year).

The main reason pensioners have to do self assessment tax returns is other income, i.e. interest over the tax free amounts, property rental income, dividends over the tax free amount.

The state pension rising over the personal allowance figure really won't bring huge numbers of people having to prepare and submit self assessment tax returns. It will be minimal.