Deloitte UK said revenue grew 14% to £5.6bn in the year to May, as buoyant markets in the first six months of its financial year boosted demand for audit and advisory work. It helped offset the increase in caution among more cash-strapped clients and a slowdown in merger and acquisition activity in the months that followed.
The UK arm of the big four accounting firm, which employs about 27,000 people and includes its smaller Swiss operations, reported a 6% rise in operating profits, amounted to£756m. In addition to earning a salary, Deloitte's partners receive a share of profits as income.
Although the average profit per partner remained relatively flat at £1.06m, the payouts were flattered by an extra £53,000 each from the sale of Deloitte's pension benefits advisory business, lifting the total amount by about 5%.
This year, the average income of 714 partners has exceeded £1m, 642 of whom are based in the UK and 72 in Switzerland.
Deloitte said it paid a tax of £1.7bn in the 2016 financial year, up from£1.5bn in 2022 and that equity partners were taxed at an effective rate of 50.4%.
Deloitte UK's payments surpass those at rivals PricewaterhouseCoopers, which last month announced its more than 1,000 partners would be paid £906,000 this year. The year-on-year increase in profits compared to the same period last year fell as profits fell despite a surge in revenue.
Last year, PwC's partners celebrated their best-ever personal rewards, pocketing more than $1m each as their record-breaking pay was up by a £100,000 bonanza linked to the $2.2bn sale of a tax advice business for firms moving staff overseas, which was bought by the US private equity firm Clayton, Dubilier & Rice.