Pension Annual Allowance Calculator for 2026/27

Work out your pension allowance above

Enter your gross pay, the contributions you and your employer have already made, and your taxable income for the year. The calculator above estimates how much of your annual allowance is left and flags whether tapering or carry forward might apply to you. The notes below explain how each figure is reached so you can sense-check the result against your own payslips and pension statements.

What the annual allowance actually is

The annual allowance is the total amount that can be paid into your pensions each tax year while still getting tax relief. It covers everything: your own contributions, anything your employer pays in, and contributions made on your behalf by anyone else. For most people in 2026/27 that limit is £60,000.

It is not the same as your pension tax relief, and it is not the same as the tax on money you take out later. The annual allowance is purely about how much can go in. If your total pension input for the year stays within the allowance, you get tax relief on the contributions in the normal way. Go over it, and a tax charge claws back the relief on the excess. That is the whole job of this pension annual allowance calculator: to tell you where you stand against that £60,000 ceiling before the tax year closes on 5 April 2027.

One important detail for defined contribution savers: the allowance measures the money paid in. For defined benefit (final salary) schemes it measures the growth in the value of your promised pension over the year, not the cash you contribute. Most workplace pensions today are defined contribution, so the calculator is built around contributions paid in, but if you are in a final salary scheme your annual statement will quote a "pension input amount" figure that you should use instead.

The £60,000 limit for 2026/27 and how it works

The plain-English formula is straightforward:

Remaining allowance = £60,000 (or your tapered limit) − all contributions paid in this tax year − any amount already used by carry forward rules.

Contributions paid in means the gross figure. If you pay £4,000 from your take-home pay into a personal pension, basic-rate relief is added on top, so the gross contribution is £5,000. It is the £5,000 that counts towards your allowance, not the £4,000 you actually handed over. Your employer's contributions count in full, and so does anything paid through salary sacrifice.

There is a second limit running alongside the annual allowance that catches a lot of people: you can normally only get tax relief on personal contributions up to 100% of your relevant UK earnings (or £3,600 gross if you earn less than that). So a part-time worker earning £20,000 cannot personally pay in £40,000 and claim relief on all of it, even though £40,000 is below the £60,000 annual allowance. The annual allowance is the ceiling; your earnings are a separate, often lower, cap on personal relief.

Tapering for high earners

If you are a high earner, your annual allowance can be reduced below £60,000 through a mechanism called the tapered annual allowance. The taper bites when both your "threshold income" and your "adjusted income" are high. Broadly, threshold income is your taxable income before pension contributions, and adjusted income adds your pension contributions back in. Once adjusted income climbs above the trigger point, the allowance is gradually cut.

The exact trigger figures and the minimum tapered allowance change from time to time and are not reproduced here, because using a stale number on a pension decision is worse than checking the live one. Confirm the current 2026/27 taper thresholds directly on the official guidance at gov.uk: annual allowance before you act. The principle to remember is this: if you are a higher or additional-rate taxpayer, especially one with a bonus, large employer contributions or rental and dividend income on top of a salary, do not assume your allowance is the full £60,000. A tapering calculation may apply, and getting it wrong can trigger an unexpected charge.

Carry forward from earlier years

If you have not used your full allowance in the previous three tax years, you may be able to carry forward the unused amount and add it to this year's limit. To use carry forward you must have been a member of a registered pension scheme in those earlier years, and you must first use up the current year's allowance. Personal contributions are still capped at 100% of this year's earnings, so carry forward helps most when a large employer contribution or a one-off lump sum is involved.

Carry forward is the reason someone can occasionally pay well over £60,000 in a single year without a charge. The calculator treats the standard £60,000 as your baseline; if you think you have unused allowance from earlier years, factor that in separately and keep the paperwork that proves your past contributions.

How the calculator works, step by step

The tool follows the same sequence a pension adviser would:

• It starts with the standard £60,000 annual allowance for 2026/27.
• It adds up every contribution paid in this year: your personal contributions grossed up for tax relief, your employer's contributions, and any salary sacrifice amounts.
• It checks your income to flag whether the high-earner taper is likely to reduce your allowance below £60,000.
• It subtracts the contributions used from the allowance to show your remaining room.

The output is an estimate of how much more you could pay in before reaching the limit. It is a guide for planning, not a formal pension input calculation, so always cross-check against your scheme's own annual statement and any tapering that applies to you.

Worked example: Priya, a higher-rate manager on £85,000

Priya earns a salary of £85,000 and pays 6% of it into her workplace pension, with her employer adding 4%. She is wondering whether she can make an extra one-off contribution before the tax year ends.

• Priya's contribution: 6% of £85,000 = £5,100.
• Employer's contribution: 4% of £85,000 = £3,400.
• Total paid in so far this year: £5,100 + £3,400 = £8,500.
• Standard annual allowance: £60,000.
• Remaining allowance: £60,000 − £8,500 = £51,500.

On the annual allowance alone, Priya has £51,500 of headroom. But the second cap matters too: her personal relief is limited to 100% of her relevant earnings, and she has already used £5,100 of personal contributions, so the room left for further personal contributions with relief is comfortably within her £85,000 of earnings. As a higher-rate taxpayer, the extra she pays in personally attracts relief that pulls more of her income out of the 40% band. To see how much income tax that saves, she can run her figures through the income tax calculator and the pension tax relief calculator.

Worked example: a self-employed designer on £42,000 profit

Sam is a self-employed designer with £42,000 of profit and no employer pension. Sam wants to pay a lump sum into a personal pension before 5 April 2027.

• Standard annual allowance: £60,000 - so on that test alone, Sam could pay in up to £60,000.
• But Sam's relevant earnings are £42,000, and personal relief is capped at 100% of earnings.
• So the most Sam can pay in with tax relief is £42,000 gross (£33,600 from Sam's pocket, with £8,400 of basic-rate relief added).

This is the classic trap: the annual allowance says £60,000, but Sam's own earnings cap the relievable amount at £42,000. Anyone weighing up a self-employed pension contribution should check both limits. Sam could explore a SIPP to make the contribution and claim higher-rate relief through Self Assessment if applicable.

2026/27 rates and thresholds

Source, checked for the 2026/27 tax year: gov.uk - Tax on your private pension: annual allowance. The annual allowance is a UK-wide rule, so it is the same whether you live in England, Wales, Northern Ireland or Scotland. Income tax rates differ in Scotland, which changes how much relief is worth, but the £60,000 contribution limit itself does not change by nation.

How to make the most of your allowance

• Use salary sacrifice if your employer offers it. Swapping salary for an employer pension contribution can save both income tax and National Insurance. Our salary sacrifice calculator shows the effect on your take-home pay.
• Don't leave carry forward on the table. If you have had a low-contribution few years and a windfall this year, unused allowance from the previous three years could let you pay in more without a charge.
• Mind the personal earnings cap. The £60,000 ceiling is meaningless if your earnings are lower; relief stops at 100% of relevant earnings.
• Higher-rate taxpayers, claim the rest. Workplace schemes often give only basic-rate relief at source. Higher and additional-rate taxpayers usually need to claim the extra through Self Assessment.

Common mistakes to watch for

• Forgetting employer contributions. The allowance covers everything paid in, not just your own contributions. People often check their own 5% and ignore the employer's, then breach the limit.
• Using the net figure. A £4,000 personal contribution is £5,000 gross once relief is added. Always count the grossed-up amount against the allowance.
• Assuming £60,000 always applies. High earners can be tapered down well below the standard figure. A large bonus is the usual culprit.
• Ignoring the Money Purchase Annual Allowance. If you have already flexibly accessed a defined contribution pension, a much lower allowance can apply to future defined contribution savings. If you have started drawing income from a pot, check your position before paying more in.
• Confusing the annual allowance with the tax on withdrawals. Money coming out is taxed separately; for that, see our pension lump sum tax calculator.

What happens if you exceed the allowance

If your total pension input for the year is more than your available allowance (after carry forward), the excess is hit by the annual allowance charge. In effect, the charge removes the tax relief you received on the amount over the limit, so the excess is taxed as though it were ordinary income. You report it on your Self Assessment return. In some cases the pension scheme can pay the charge on your behalf through a process called Scheme Pays. Because the charge is based on your marginal income tax rate, the exact cost depends on your income, so model your income first with the income tax calculator.

These figures are estimates for guidance only and not personal tax or financial advice. Pension rules are detailed and your own position may differ, so check the official guidance or speak to a regulated adviser before acting.

Who should use this calculator

The annual allowance caps how much can go into your pensions each year with tax relief. Exceeding it produces a tax charge, and the trap is that the allowance tapers for high earners — falling as income rises, potentially to a small fraction of the standard figure.

Two income measures decide it, and they are not the same: threshold income broadly excludes pension contributions, while adjusted income includes them, employer contributions included. The taper only bites if both exceed their limits, which is why a large employer contribution can trigger it even when salary alone would not.

What this calculator assumes

• Total contributions include employer contributions, not just your own — the most common oversight.
• The taper reduces the allowance where both threshold income and adjusted income exceed their limits.
• Any excess is taxed at your marginal rate, removing the relief given.
• For defined-benefit schemes, the figure is the growth in benefit value, not the contribution paid.

Limitations — what it does not cover

• Carry forward of unused allowance from the previous three tax years, which frequently removes a charge entirely and is the first thing to check.
• The Money Purchase Annual Allowance, which applies once you flexibly access a pension and cannot be carried forward.
• Defined-benefit input calculation, which is complex and scheme-specific.
• Scheme Pays, allowing the charge to be met from the pension rather than your own funds.
• Pension input periods, now aligned to the tax year but historically not.
• The relief limit for non-earners of £3,600 gross.

Related calculators

Keep planning with these tools: the pension tax relief calculator to see what your contributions actually save in tax, the SIPP calculator to project a self-invested pot, and the salary sacrifice calculator to compare paying in through your payslip.

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