The amount of money HMRC collected from capital gains tax (CGT) receipts hit a record high in the tax year 2019/20, bringing in £9.94 billion, figures from HMRC show.

Receipts were £243 million higher than 2018/19 when £9.7bn was collected, and higher too than in 2017/18, when £9bn was collected.

The amount of taxpayers paying CGT dropped for the second year in a row, however, from 288,000 in 2017/18 to 265,000 in 2019/20, meaning people are paying more in CGT on average than in previous years.

Figures also show that most CGT payments came from a small number of taxpayers. In the 2019/20 tax year, 41% of tax came from those who made gains of £5m or more, a group representing less than 1% of taxpayers.

Early estimates place the amount collected in the 2020/21 tax year at £10.61bn, although this figure is yet to be confirmed by HMRC.

The tax take for CGT is forecast to rise even further over the next five years to reach £14.4bn in 2025/26, according to Government estimates.

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