Equity partners at the UK’s 10 biggest law firms will each pay on average £100,000 extra a year to help bail the government out of deficit, Gazette research suggests. Chancellor Alistair Darling’s new 50% income tax bracket, which comes in to force in April 2010, will raise £150m from City partners.

The tax burden taken on by all City lawyers will be far higher than £150m, as the figure does not include non-equity partners, associates and other lawyers earning more than £150,000. The £150m figure factors in an estimated 10% fall in profits across the firms for 2009-10.

By 2013, Darling hopes to net the Treasury £7bn with his tax changes. The £150m figure is equivalent to 7.5% of the UK’s annual legal aid budget; it could also buy 75 million doses of swine flu vaccine.