Question to the HM Treasury:

To ask Her Majesty's Government what is their assessment of the October International Monetary Fund half-yearly fiscal monitor report view that tax systems should have become more progressive to reduce inequality and that there is now "scope for increasing the progressivity of income taxation without significantly hurting growth".

The International Monetary Fund’s report conclusions consider the OECD as a whole and are not specifically aimed at the UK.

The UK already has a progressive system. The income tax system consists of three progressive rates of tax – 20%, 40% and 45%, which sit above an internationally high tax-free personal allowance. As a result the top 1% of income taxpayers pay 28% of all income tax and HMRC statistics show additional rate taxpayers paid £46.7bn of tax in 2014-15 compared with £34.5bn in 2010-11.