EC3 provides several methodologies for the stability verification of members and frames. However, when dealing with the verification of non-uniform members in general, with tapered cross-section, irregular distribution of restraints, non-linear axis, castellated, etc., several difficulties are noted. Because there are yet no guidelines to overcome any of these issues, safety verification is conservative. In recent research from the authors of this paper, an Ayrton-Perry based procedure was proposed for the flexural buckling verification of web-tapered columns. However, in order to apply this procedure, Linear Buckling Analysis (LBA) of the tapered column must be performed for determination of the critical load. Because tapered members should lead to efficient structural solutions, it is therefore of major importance to provide simple and accurate formula for determination of the critical axial force of tapered columns. In this paper, firstly, the fourth order differential equation for non-uniform columns is derived. For the particular case of simply supported web-tapered columns subject to in-plane buckling, the Rayleigh-Ritz method is applied. Finally, and followed by a numerical parametric study, a formula for determination of the critical axial force of simply supported linearly web-tapered columns buckling in plane is proposed leading to differences up to 8% relatively to the LBA model.