BRITAIN’S economy is roaring along. The IMF thinks it will outpace that of every G7 country in 2014. In the past twelve months 774,000 jobs have been created; the adult employment rate, at 73%, is on the verge of breaking a record set in 1974. Yet this humming engine is so far doing surprisingly little for the country’s finances. As the economy revs up, the Treasury is not benefiting from the acceleration.

In 2010 George Osborne, Britain’s newly appointed chancellor, promised to close the deficit—then 11% of GDP—within five years. He is only two-fifths of the way there. Until last year his problem was slow growth, which weighed on receipts and kept unemployment and benefits spending high. That cannot explain the present weakness of the public accounts. In March the Office for Budget Responsibility, Britain’s fiscal watchdog, forecast borrowing to fall by £10.4 billion ($17 billion) in the 2014-15 financial year. Four months in, it is up by £1.8 billion.

Mr Osborne’s spending cuts are proceeding more-or-less as planned. A consumption boom has boosted VAT receipts. Stamp duty, paid on house sales, is up by an astonishing 71% since January 2013, adjusting for inflation—the result of a housing boom. The big problem is income tax, which accounts for just over a quarter of government revenue. Mr Osborne is seeking £11 billion more from income tax this year; less than a tenth of that sum has materialised so far, notes Elizabeth Martins, an economist at HSBC, a bank.

Comparisons with last year’s receipts look particularly dismal because many bonus payments were shifted into that year to take advantage of a reduction in the top rate of tax. A one-off levy on Swiss bank accounts filled the Treasury’s coffers by £900m a year ago, too. But the root of the problem is structural. Britain is having a job-rich, tax-poor recovery (see chart).