Retail investor anxiety over taxes and policy changes reaches highest ever level in IG sentiment tracker

London, 13th January - Retail investor anxiety over higher taxes and government policy has reached its highest ever level in IG’s latest biannual sentiment tracker. 

The survey of 1,800 UK investors shows that 46% are worried about how taxes and policy changes could affect their investments over the coming year - up sharply from 33% in June 2025 and just 15% when the tracker launched in June 2022. The findings follow the Autumn Budget, which saw investors impacted by a number of policies, from frozen income tax thresholds to a 2 percentage point increase in Dividend Tax.

Taxes and policy changes rank third among investors’ concerns for the first half of 2026, after geopolitical conflict (51%) and political uncertainty (50%). Worries over geopolitical conflict fell from 61% in June 2025.

Broader economic worries are also rising. Eight in 10 investors (80%) said they are concerned about the state of the UK economy, the highest level since December 2022. Concern over government debt has also edged up slightly, from 36% in June 2025 to 38% in December, reflecting wider unease about the outlook for public finances.

Chris Beauchamp, Chief Market Analyst UK at IG, said: "Our latest client sentiment tracker highlights how sensitive investors are to policy changes. In recent years, across different governments, we’ve seen dividend tax hikes, reductions in capital gains allowances, and frozen income tax thresholds. Investors are naturally worried that this trend is going to continue.

“So while it’s encouraging to see steps being taken by the current government to boost retail investing in the UK, to grow participation in a meaningful way and give existing investors more confidence, these efforts must be backed by supportive policy. We need stable conditions to spark a stronger investing culture.”

ENDS

Notes to editors 

The IG Group Client Sentiment Study is a bi-annual study to understand clients’ sentiment, confidence, concerns as well as outlook on their financial goals, ambitions, financial markets, portfolio performance and future trading intentions.

Survey fieldwork dates: 3rd December – 18th December 2025

Methodology: 10–12 minute online survey sent to active IG retail clients on a 6 monthly basis to track investor sentiment. This tracker launched in January 2022.

Sample: IG clients that placed a trade in the last 6 months – the survey was sent to active leverage and share dealing clients – the results are split based on their preferred account.

Survey Base Sizes: Total sample June ’25 wave – c. 1,800 UK Clients

Clients’ top concerns regarding portfolio performance: respondents were asked to select all which apply to them from the five options in the graph above, plus Recession (44%), Government debt (39%), Corporate earnings impacted by NI hike (19%), High interest rates (18%), higher corporate taxes (18%), Banking crises (15%), Supply chain disruption (13%), and Labour shortages (13%). Additionally, 8% of respondents selected “No, I am not concerned”. 

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