UK Income Tax Calculator

How to use the Income Tax calculator

Enter your annual income and select your region — England, Wales and Northern Ireland share the same Income Tax bands, while Scotland has its own separate structure. The calculator shows your personal allowance, taxable income, and a full breakdown of how much tax you pay in each band, along with your total Income Tax bill and effective (average) tax rate.

This is a focused calculator that isolates Income Tax on its own — useful if you want to understand exactly how HMRC's banding system works, check a payslip, or plan around a pay rise, bonus, or new income source without pension and National Insurance deductions muddying the picture.

How UK Income Tax bands work

Income Tax in the UK is progressive and banded — you don't pay one flat rate on your whole income. Instead, your personal allowance (£12,570) is tax-free, then each band of taxable income above that is taxed at its own rate. For England, Wales and Northern Ireland: the basic rate of 20% applies to the first £37,700 of taxable income above your allowance, the higher rate of 40% applies to the next portion up to £125,140 of total income, and the additional rate of 45% applies above that.

Scotland uses a more granular six-band system on the same personal allowance: a 19% starter rate, 20% basic rate, 21% intermediate rate, 42% higher rate, 45% advanced rate, and 48% top rate, with each band applying to a progressively smaller slice of income as you move up.

Worked example

Someone earning £55,000 in England has a personal allowance of £12,570, leaving £42,430 of taxable income. The first £37,700 of that is taxed at the basic rate of 20%, giving £7,540. The remaining £4,730 falls into the higher-rate band and is taxed at 40%, adding £1,892. Total Income Tax comes to £9,432 — an effective rate of about 17.2% of the full £55,000 salary, even though part of it is taxed at 40%.

The same £55,000 salary in Scotland would be taxed slightly differently across the starter, basic, intermediate and higher bands, typically resulting in a somewhat higher total bill than in the rest of the UK at this income level, because Scotland's higher-rate threshold sits lower and its higher rate (42%) is applied sooner.

The personal allowance taper for high earners

If your income exceeds £100,000, your personal allowance starts shrinking — you lose £1 of allowance for every £2 you earn above that threshold. This creates an effective marginal tax rate of 60% on income between £100,000 and £125,140 in England, Wales and Northern Ireland, because you're paying 40% tax while simultaneously losing tax-free allowance. By £125,140, the personal allowance is gone entirely and every pound is taxed at the standard higher or additional rates.

Common questions when checking your tax

A common point of confusion is mixing up your tax code with the bands used here — most people have the standard 1257L code, reflecting the £12,570 personal allowance, but an emergency, adjusted, or BR/D0 code changes how much tax is deducted. It's also worth remembering this calculator covers salary-type income only; savings interest, dividends, and rental income each have their own separate tax treatment and allowances.

Related calculators

For the complete picture including National Insurance, pension contributions and student loan repayments, use our take-home pay calculator. Our dedicated National Insurance calculator covers that deduction on its own, and if you also receive dividend income, our dividend tax calculator covers how that is taxed separately. If you're self-employed or comparing a house purchase, our self-employed tax calculator, stamp duty calculator and mortgage calculator can help you plan the bigger picture. If you are married or in a civil partnership, our Marriage Allowance calculator checks whether you could reduce your bill further.