Compare Tax Years
The same salary does not produce the same take-home pay every year. Compare 2026/27 and 2025/26 side by side.
No change
+£0 a year
| 2025/26 | 2026/27 | Change | |
|---|---|---|---|
| Personal allowance | £12,570 | £12,570 | £0 |
| Income Tax | £4,486 | £4,486 | £0 |
| National Insurance | £1,794 | £1,794 | £0 |
| Effective rate | 17.9% | 17.9% | |
| Take-home | £28,720 | £28,720 | £0 |
Fiscal drag: why a frozen threshold is a tax rise
The personal allowance and the higher-rate threshold have been frozen since April 2021. When thresholds stand still and wages rise, more of your income falls into taxable bands — a real-terms tax increase without any rate changing. The effect is known as fiscal drag, and it is why your effective tax rate creeps up even in a year when nothing was announced.
For a salary that keeps pace with inflation, a frozen allowance means paying tax on a larger share of it every year. The comparison above holds your salary constant, which isolates the effect of the rules changing rather than your pay changing.
What changed in Scotland
Scottish band boundaries do move, so a Scottish taxpayer can see a genuine difference year to year even at an identical salary. Switch the region above to compare.
Common questions
Am I better off this tax year?
Enter your salary above. At an unchanged salary the answer is usually "about the same" in England, Wales and Northern Ireland, because rates and thresholds are frozen. Scottish taxpayers see more movement because the band boundaries are uprated.
What is fiscal drag?
It is the extra tax collected when thresholds are frozen while earnings rise. Nobody announces a rate increase, but a larger share of each pay packet ends up in a taxed band, so the effective rate rises.
How long are thresholds frozen for?
The personal allowance and higher-rate threshold have been held at £12,570 and £50,270 since April 2021. Check gov.uk for the current end date of the freeze, as it has been extended more than once.