UK Tax Year 2025/2026 breakdown
§ A · England, Wales & Northern Ireland
Income tax bands & thresholds
| Band | Income range | Rate |
|---|---|---|
| Personal Allowance | £0 – £12,570 | 0% |
| Basic rate | £12,570 – £50,270 | 20% |
| Higher rate | £50,270 – £125,140 | 40% |
| Additional rate | Over £125,140 | 45% |
§ B · Scotland
Scottish income tax bands
| Band | Income range | Rate |
|---|---|---|
| Personal Allowance | £0 – £12,570 | 0% |
| Starter rate | £12,570 – £15,002 | 19% |
| Basic rate | £15,002 – £26,690 | 20% |
| Intermediate rate | £26,690 – £43,662 | 21% |
| Higher rate | £43,662 – £75,100 | 42% |
| Advanced rate | £75,100 – £125,140 | 45% |
| Top rate | Over £125,140 | 48% |
§ C · Class 1 employee
National Insurance tiers
| Band | Earnings slice | Rate |
|---|---|---|
| Below Primary Threshold | £0 – £12,570 | 0% |
| Main rate (PT → UEL) | £12,570 – £50,270 | 8% |
| Upper rate (above UEL) | Over £50,270 | 2% |
2025/26 — the fifth year of the threshold freeze
The 2025/26 ruleset is structurally indistinguishable from 2026/27 in England, Wales and Northern Ireland: every rUK threshold matches the Autumn 2022 freeze. The Personal Allowance held at £12,570, the Higher Rate threshold at £50,270, and the Additional Rate threshold at £125,140.
Scotland’s bands differ very slightly from 2026/27 — the Starter and Basic rate boundaries were nudged a few hundred pounds to track inflation within the lower bands. The Higher, Advanced and Top rate edges were left untouched.
What was already locked-in
National Insurance carried forward the 8% main rate introduced in the January 2024 cut. The Upper Earnings Limit remained aligned with the Higher Rate threshold at £50,270, so above-UEL earnings continued to attract the 2% upper rate.
The £100,000 Personal Allowance taper continued to operate unchanged, keeping the 60% marginal trap between £100,000 and £125,140 fully in force.
Allowances
The dividend allowance of £500 was unchanged from the 2024 reduction. The CGT annual exempt amount held at £3,000. The ISA subscription limit was £20,000.
Why this page still matters
Archived years are kept on this directory not as nostalgia but because
real users still need to model payslips, P60s, and self-assessment
submissions against the rate set that actually applied when the income
landed. The sidebar calculator on this route runs against the 2025/26
bands — pulled live from the @fintech/calc-engine TAX_YEARS map, not
the current year’s. The structured Dataset JSON-LD emitted on this
page tags itself with the matching temporalCoverage so search engines
can disambiguate historical fiscal data from the live ruleset.
§ D · Common questions
2025/2026 tax year FAQ
- What are the income tax brackets for the 2025/2026 tax year?
- For England, Wales and Northern Ireland in 2025/2026, the first £12,570 is the tax-free Personal Allowance. The 20% basic rate then applies up to £50,270, the 40% higher rate up to £125,140, and the 45% additional rate on income above that. Scotland sets its own banded rates — see the Scottish table above.
- What is the Personal Allowance for 2025/2026?
- The 2025/2026 Personal Allowance is £12,570. It is reduced by £1 for every £2 of income above £100,000, so it is fully withdrawn once income reaches £125,140.
- What are the National Insurance rates for 2025/2026?
- In 2025/2026, Class 1 employee National Insurance is charged at 8% on earnings between the Primary Threshold (£12,570) and the Upper Earnings Limit (£50,270), then 2% on earnings above the Upper Earnings Limit.
- When does the 2025/2026 UK tax year start and end?
- The 2025/2026 UK tax year runs from 6 April 2025 to 5 April 2026.
Model pensions, student loans and salary sacrifice against this year's bands
The sidebar covers the core PA + IT + NI math. SalaryGrid's full grid layers in workplace pensions, custom tax codes, marriage allowance and the 60% trap optimiser — all running against the 2025/2026 ruleset.