Number of people paying tax at marginal rate and who are over 65 years of age (FOI)

​Request

What is the total number of people paying tax at marginal rate and how many of them are over 65 years of age; and how many under 65 are retired (if there is a method of identifying those who have taken early retirement)?

Response

There were 38,269 taxpayers paying at the marginal rate in 2013.

Of these 5421* were over 65.

It is not possible to identify how many people under 65 are retired as tax data does not specifically record whether a person has retired or not.

*Number of taxpayers 65 years or over at January 1st 2013. Includes married couples and civil partnerships where one or both parties are 65 years or over at January 1st 2013.

Explanatory Notes

The above data is the position as at March 2015.

A Registered Entity (Individuals) is an individual registered with the Taxes Office, irrespective of whether they have a tax liability for the tax year or not.

The data above excludes those Registered Entities (Individuals) who are registered with the Taxes Office but who are either:

• not required to complete an income tax return because the Taxes Office is satisfied that their total annual income is consistently below the tax exemption thresholds (e.g. their sole source of income is an old age pension or their sole source of income arises from employment which is consistently below the tax exemption threshold); or

• Non-residents for income tax purposes.

A Registered Entity (Individuals) includes an Individual Taxpayer and an Individual Non-Taxpayer.
An Individual Taxpayer is defined as an individual who has completed an income tax return and calculated to have a positive income tax liability greater than £50 for the tax year, based on the income, allowances and deductions, for the year.

Based on latest Taxes Office figures, there are less than 300 Individual Taxpayers whose liability was less than £50 with a combined total value of less than £8,500. These are counted as Individual Non-Taxpayers. This is consistent with the Taxes Office historical position on gathering tax data.

An Individual Non-Taxpayer is defined as an individual who has completed an income tax return and does not have a positive income tax liability for the tax year, based on the income, allowances, reliefs and deductions for the year.

Both Individual Taxpayers and Individual Non-Taxpayers include:

• Single individuals
• Married couples and civil partnerships that have not opted for separate assessments (counted as one Individual Taxpayer or one Individual Non-Taxpayer)
• Married couples and civil partners that have opted for separate assessments (counted as two Individual Taxpayers or two Individual Non-Taxpayers).