UK personal allowance 2026/27
The personal allowance is one of the most important building blocks of take-home pay, because it decides how much salary can usually be received before income tax starts.
Only the long explanation section changes language. Page labels and calculator links stay in English.
Why the personal allowance matters so much
The personal allowance is one of the core building blocks of a UK salary calculation because it decides how much income can usually be received before income tax starts. For the 2026/27 tax year, the standard allowance is £12,570.
That does not remove National Insurance, pension deductions or student loans, but it does shape the income tax part of almost every payslip. This is why so many salary examples start by separating gross income from taxable income rather than treating the whole salary as immediately taxable.
How it works in a normal salary calculation
Once the allowance is applied, the remaining taxable income is split across the relevant tax bands. For many employees outside Scotland, that means 20% basic-rate tax is paid on the next slice of taxable income until higher-rate tax becomes relevant.
In practical terms, this is why a salary does not lose the same percentage of tax from the first pound to the last. The allowance softens the early part of the calculation and makes lower and mid-range salaries more efficient than a flat-rate tax assumption would suggest.
What happens after £100,000
Once adjusted net income rises above £100,000, the personal allowance starts to be withdrawn at £1 for every £2 of income above that level. That is the reason people talk about an effective 60% marginal rate between £100,000 and £125,140.
This matters because the allowance is not just a passive tax feature. It can become a planning issue, especially for people considering pension contributions or salary sacrifice to bring adjusted income back below the taper threshold.
Why adjusted net income matters
People often focus only on headline salary, but the allowance taper uses adjusted net income rather than just the simple contractual salary figure. Pension contributions and salary sacrifice can therefore affect whether the taper applies and how much of the allowance is lost.
That is why salary and pension calculators sometimes ask questions that appear more detailed than you expect. The goal is not to complicate the estimate, but to reflect the places where the tax result changes materially.
Practical tip for using calculators
If your income is well below £100,000, the standard allowance assumption is often a good planning baseline unless your tax code says otherwise. If your income is near or above £100,000, it becomes much more important to use the right pension and salary-sacrifice settings so the allowance taper is handled realistically.
That is also the salary range where a headline pay rise can produce a smaller-than-expected jump in monthly take-home pay, simply because more tax and allowance tapering are happening at the same time.
Further reading
These links are mainly official or evergreen UK guidance so the page stays useful over time rather than relying on fast-dating news coverage.
Chamara S. Kodikara
Founder of UK Calculator Hub
Intermediate Electrical Design Engineer in UK building services
UK Calculator Hub is built and maintained by Chamara S. Kodikara, a UK-based engineer with a systems-focused background in building services and practical problem solving. His work across the UK, Sri Lanka and the Maldives has centred on turning complex rules, constraints and calculations into clear, usable outputs, which is the same mindset behind UKCalcHub. The site is designed to make everyday UK money questions easier to understand with transparent assumptions, official source links and straightforward visual explanations. It is not presented as regulated financial advice, but as a practical planning tool built with care by someone who values clarity, structure and honest communication.