Use this before making a large pension contribution. It estimates your current-year allowance, checks whether taper or MPAA is likely to matter, and shows how much carry forward room may still be available from the previous three years.
Important: this tool assumes the previous three tax years all had the standard £60,000 allowance and that you did not have taper or MPAA restrictions in those years unless stated otherwise.
£0Carry forward included where it appears available.
Current-year allowance£0Carry forward available£0Current-year total input£0Potential excess£0
Current constraintWaiting for the main allowance constraint.Carry-forward pictureWaiting for carry-forward context.Best next checkConfirm scheme input figures and whether taper or MPAA history changes the result.
What this means
At the current contribution level, you still appear to have room before a charge would arise.
When does taper apply?
For 2026/27 planning, taper only bites if threshold income is above £200,000 and adjusted income is above £260,000. Above that point, the annual allowance is reduced by £1 for every £2 of adjusted income, down to a minimum of £10,000.
How does MPAA change the picture?
If you have flexibly accessed a defined contribution pension, the Money Purchase Annual Allowance can reduce your DC contribution room to £10,000. Carry forward does not increase that £10,000 limit for money purchase contributions.
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This tool is for allowance triage before large pension funding, not final tax sign-off. The professional use-case is to identify whether taper, MPAA or carry forward is the likely constraint and then confirm the exact pension input amounts with scheme records.
Last reviewed
22 April 2026
2026/27 pension annual-allowance context
Who this is for
People making large personal or employer pension contributions and checking whether taper, MPAA or carry forward could bite
Main assumptions
Carry forward is simplified and defined-benefit accrual is not modelled in full
Prior-year taper or MPAA history can change the true answer materially
Check the contribution route, not just the allowance room
Allowance room is only one side of the decision. The next step is usually to check whether salary sacrifice is the right funding route, whether the pension destination fits the retirement job, and whether the current tax year has introduced any fresh pension friction.