LONDON (Bloomberg) — Britain's tax authorities will for the first time take a greater proportion of financial services bonus payments than the workers who earned the rewards, according to the Centre for Economics & Business Research Ltd.

About £4.1 billion ($6.5 billion) of the estimated £7 billion bonus in the pot for 2010 will go to Her Majesty's Revenue & Customs, the research company said in a statement yesterday.

"The public coffers stand to gain considerably more from City bonuses than City workers themselves," said Benjamin Williamson, a London-based economist and co-author of the findings, referring to London's main financial district.

"A whopping £7 billion bonus payout will be easier to stomach if the lion's share goes to the nation."

In April, the UK introduced a new 50 percent tax band for those earning more than £150,000. Chancellor of the Exchequer George Osborne said he will block the payment of large bonuses unless banks show they are extending credit to households and companies.

"We will not allow money to flow unimpeded in huge bonuses if that money does not flow out in credit," he told Conservative supporters at the party's annual conference.

Bonuses for 2010 will be four percent lower than the £7.3 billion paid to staff for 2009 because trading revenue is declining, the CEBR said in its statement.

Bonuses this year will be about a third below the record payouts of 2007, when UK-based companies paid out £11.6 billion, according to Williamson.