UK Tax Rates 2026/27: the complete guide

How this page works

The UK tax system is administered as a single-year affair: every rate, threshold, allowance and band runs from 6 April through 5 April. This page collects every figure that affects a typical UK taxpayer for 2026/27 in one place, with the official source linked beside each section and the relevant calculator on this site for working numbers. Where Scotland or Wales apply different rates, those are flagged inline. Northern Ireland follows the rest-of-UK rates.

For 2026/27 the Personal Allowance, the higher-rate threshold and most National Insurance thresholds remain at 2025/26 levels — this is the continuation of the freeze announced in 2021. The freeze itself is the source of the "fiscal drag" effect that has pulled millions more taxpayers into higher bands as wages have risen with inflation.

Income tax (England, Wales, Northern Ireland)

The Personal Allowance taper: reduces the £12,570 allowance by £1 for every £2 of adjusted net income above £100,000. Fully gone at £125,140. This is the mechanic behind the 60% tax trap.

Marriage Allowance: £1,260 transferable from a non-taxpaying spouse to a basic-rate-paying spouse, worth up to £252 of tax saving. See the checker.

Use the tax calculator to see how these bands hit your specific salary, including the taper.

Income tax (Scotland)

Scotland sets its own income tax bands on non-savings, non-dividend income. Savings interest and dividends are still taxed at rest-of-UK rates everywhere. For 2026/27:

Scottish rates feed through PAYE based on the "S" prefix on the tax code (e.g. S1257L). The Personal Allowance taper applies at the same £100k threshold and the Scottish 60%/62% trap is actually a 65%/67% trap because of the higher Scottish higher-rate income tax rate.

National Insurance (employees)

Employer NI for 2026/27: 15% above the secondary threshold of £5,000. Salary sacrifice schemes typically pass some or all of this employer-NI saving back to the employee as additional pension contribution.

National Insurance (self-employed)

• Class 2: abolished from 6 April 2024, no longer payable.
• Class 4: 6% on profits between £12,570 and £50,270; 2% above £50,270.
• Voluntary Class 3: £17.45/week for 2026/27 — used by anyone with NI gaps wanting to top up their State Pension entitlement. See the State Pension forecast calculator.

Dividend tax

Dividends are added on top of other taxable income for the purposes of band identification. A higher-rate taxpayer has a Dividend Allowance of £500; above that, the marginal rate jumps from 0% to 33.75%. The dividend calculator handles the band stacking for limited-company directors.

Savings interest

Interest from regular bank/building society accounts (not ISAs) is taxed at marginal income tax rates, but with two big shields:

• Personal Savings Allowance: £1,000 for basic-rate taxpayers, £500 for higher-rate, £0 for additional-rate.
• Starting rate for savings: up to £5,000 of savings interest taxed at 0% if non-savings income is below the Personal Allowance plus £5,000. Used in retirement and bridging years.

ISA interest is outside both of the above and is tax-free without limit. See the savings interest tax calculator.

Capital Gains Tax

The CGT rate for residential property and non-residential assets unified at the start of the 2024/25 tax year. The annual exempt amount has been £3,000 since 2024/25 — a deep cut from the £12,300 it was three years earlier. See the property CGT calculator and the shares CGT calculator.

ISA allowances

The £20,000 adult ISA limit has been frozen since 2017/18. The Junior ISA limit at £9,000 has been frozen since 2020/21. See the LISA calculator and JISA tip.

Pension allowances

• Annual Allowance: £60,000 (reduced from previous years' £40,000 since April 2023).
• Tapered Annual Allowance: reduces the £60,000 by £1 for every £2 of "adjusted income" above £260,000, to a minimum of £10,000 at £360,000 of adjusted income.
• Money Purchase Annual Allowance (MPAA): £10,000, applies once you've flexibly accessed a defined-contribution pension.
• Carry forward: unused annual allowance from the previous three tax years can be carried forward, subject to having been a member of a registered scheme during those years.
• Lifetime Allowance: abolished from 6 April 2024 (replaced by lump-sum allowances — see below).
• Lump Sum Allowance: £268,275 — caps the total tax-free lump sums you can take across all pensions in your lifetime.
• Lump Sum and Death Benefit Allowance: £1,073,100 — caps total tax-free lump-sum elements paid in life or on death.

Inheritance Tax

Both the NRB and RNRB are frozen until April 2030. A married couple can combine their bands for a maximum tax-free estate of £1,000,000, provided the home is left to direct descendants and the estate is below the £2m taper threshold. See the inheritance tax calculator.

Stamp Duty Land Tax (England + NI)

SDLT bands changed materially in April 2025 when the temporary thresholds expired. For 2026/27:

First-time buyers pay 0% up to £300,000 and 5% on £300,001–£500,000, with no relief above £500,000. Second / additional homes pay an extra 5 percentage points on top of the standard rates from October 2024 onward. Non-UK residents add a further 2 percentage point surcharge on top of all rates. Scotland uses the LBTT system and Wales uses LTT — both with different bands. See the stamp duty calculator.

VAT

• Standard rate: 20%
• Reduced rate: 5% (domestic fuel, child car seats, etc.)
• Zero rate: 0% (most food, books, children's clothes, etc.)
• Registration threshold: £90,000 of taxable turnover (rolling 12-month basis)
• Deregistration threshold: £88,000

Tax-Free Childcare and 30 hours free childcare

• Tax-Free Childcare: Government tops up your childcare savings by 25%, up to £2,000 per child per year (£4,000 for disabled children). Eligibility requires both parents working and neither earning over £100,000 of adjusted net income.
• 30 hours free childcare: 30 hours per week of free childcare for working families with children aged 9 months to 4 years. Same £100,000 ANI cap per parent. From September 2025 the entitlement extended to 9-month-olds.

The £100k ANI cap creates the brutal childcare cliff covered in detail in the 60% tax trap guide.

Child Benefit and the High Income Charge

• Child Benefit: £25.60/week for the eldest child, £16.95/week for each subsequent child.
• High Income Child Benefit Charge: tapers Child Benefit between £60,000 and £80,000 of the higher-earning partner's adjusted net income. Above £80,000, all Child Benefit is clawed back via the charge. See the HICBC calculator.

State Pension

• New State Pension (full rate, 2026/27): £230.25/week, or £11,973/year. Rises by the Triple Lock — the higher of CPI inflation, average earnings growth or 2.5%.
• Basic State Pension (pre-April-2016 retirees, full rate): £176.45/week.
• State Pension age: 66 (rising to 67 between 2026 and 2028).

Full new State Pension requires 35 qualifying years of National Insurance contributions; less than 10 qualifying years means no State Pension at all. See the forecast calculator.

Trading and property allowances

• Trading Allowance: £1,000 — small side-income earned tax-free without registering for Self Assessment.
• Property Allowance: £1,000 — same idea for casual rental income.
• Rent-a-Room Relief: £7,500 — tax-free income from letting a room in your main home.

How to use this reference

This page is the canonical reference for UK personal tax rates on this site. Every calculator we host uses these figures internally; the figures are reviewed against gov.uk after every Budget and Spring Statement. Where you see a number on a calculator that differs from the table above, that's a bug — please email us.

Bookmark this page for next April when you're rebuilding your tax position from scratch — it'll be updated within a week of the new tax year for 2027/28 figures, with a clear changelog showing what changed.

Related guides and calculators

For the in-depth view on specific traps and reliefs, see the 60% tax trap guide, fiscal drag explained, and the full tip library. For working numbers, the tax calculator, ANI calculator and tax health check are the most-used tools.