UK pension tax relief calculator

How much tax relief do I get on my pension contributions?

Relief comes at the rate of income tax you would otherwise pay on the money you put in. The calculator takes your contribution off the top of your earnings and works out how much less tax that slice of income costs you, slice by slice, using the 2026/27 bands for where you pay income tax.

On the defaults, £60,000 of earnings and a £10,000 gross contribution in England, Wales or Northern Ireland get £3,946 of relief. Income above £50,270 is taxed at 40%, so £9,730 of the contribution is relieved at 40% and the other £270 at 20%. Under relief at source you pay £8,000, your provider adds £2,000, and you claim £1,946 back. The contribution costs you £6,054, which is 39.5% relief.

A Scottish taxpayer on the same figures gets £4,200, because all of that slice sits in the 42% band between £43,663 and £75,000. Switch Where you pay income tax to compare.

Relief at source or net pay: what is the difference?

Relief at source applies, GOV.UK says, in all personal and stakeholder pensions and some workplace pensions; a SIPP is a kind of personal pension. You pay in from taxed income, and GOV.UK explains that the provider claims 20% from the government and adds it to your pot. Anything above that you claim yourself through Self Assessment. GOV.UK's worked example, set in 2024 to 2025 with the same £50,270 threshold, has someone earning £60,270 pay £12,000 and claim an extra 20% on £10,000, the amount they paid 40% tax on. The calculator gives that extra £2,000 too.

Net pay is the other route GOV.UK describes: your employer takes workplace pension contributions out of your pay before deducting income tax, so the relief arrives in your take-home pay at your top rate with nothing to claim.

For most taxpayers both give the same total. They part company at low earnings. Someone earning £15,000 who puts in £10,000 gets £2,000 under relief at source, because the provider adds 20% regardless, but only £486 under net pay, because most of that income was already covered by the £12,570 personal allowance. HM Revenue and Customs also allows relief at source on up to £3,600 a year with no earnings at all: you pay £2,880 and the provider adds £720.

Pension tax relief rates for 2026/27, including Scotland

GOV.UK lists the 2026/27 rates assuming the standard £12,570 personal allowance. Scottish taxpayers have six bands; elsewhere in the UK there are three.

The Scottish figures match the Scottish Government's technical factsheet of 13 January 2026 and GOV.UK's Scottish rates page. The extra relief percentages for Scottish taxpayers are the ones GOV.UK publishes. Because the 21% band gets only 1% extra, a Scottish taxpayer earning £45,000 who puts in £10,000 gets £2,380.98, a little more than the £2,000 elsewhere in the UK.

Why relief can reach 60% between £100,000 and £125,140

Your personal allowance falls by £1 for every £2 of adjusted net income above £100,000, and it is gone at £125,140. GOV.UK's adjusted net income guidance takes grossed-up relief at source contributions off before the test, and net pay contributions never enter taxable pay. So a contribution that brings income back toward £100,000 restores allowance as well as saving 40% tax.

With £110,000 of earnings, a £10,000 contribution brings income down to £100,000, gives back £5,000 of personal allowance, and saves £6,000 of tax in England, Wales and Northern Ireland: relief of 60%. In Scotland the same figures give £6,750, or 67.5%, because the band is 45%. At £150,000 of earnings, where the whole slice is above £125,140, the relief on £10,000 is £4,500 elsewhere in the UK and £4,800 in Scotland.

Pension tax relief at different earnings

The same £10,000 gross contribution under relief at source, with the 2026/27 bands. These figures are also in the chart below the calculator.

The step from £80,000 to £110,000 is the personal allowance taper; the fall from £110,000 to £150,000 is the move out of it into the 45% band. Under net pay the Scottish figure at £25,000 drops to £1,984.63, because £1,537 of the contribution comes out of income taxed at 19%.

How much can I pay into a pension and still get relief?

Two separate limits apply. The first is about relief: GOV.UK says you get relief on contributions worth up to 100% of your annual earnings, and HM Revenue and Customs' Pensions Tax Manual sets the floor at a £3,600 basic amount, which is only available through relief at source. Relevant UK earnings are mainly pay and profits from a trade; income from a pension does not count. The calculator shows any part of your contribution above the limit as getting no relief.

The second is the annual allowance, the most that can be saved across all your pensions in a tax year before a tax charge. For 2026/27 it is £60,000. For a defined contribution pension, GOV.UK counts everything paid in during the tax year by you or anyone else, such as your employer; the calculator adds your gross contribution to your employer's. If you have already taken money flexibly from a pension, the money purchase annual allowance of £10,000 applies instead to money purchase saving. Going over can bring an annual allowance charge at your marginal rate, but GOV.UK notes that unused allowance from the previous 3 tax years may be carried forward. The calculator flags an excess; it does not include carry forward or work out the charge.

How the tapered annual allowance works

Two measures of income decide whether your allowance is reduced. HM Revenue and Customs' guidance starts both from net income. Threshold income then deducts gross relief at source contributions. Adjusted income adds back contributions relieved through net pay and adds your employer's contributions. If threshold income is over £200,000 and adjusted income is over £260,000, the £60,000 allowance falls by £1 for every £2 of adjusted income above £260,000, down to a minimum of £10,000.

Taking your earnings as your only income, the calculator follows those steps: threshold income is earnings minus your relieved contribution, and adjusted income is earnings plus your employer's contribution, under either method. For example, £300,000 of earnings with a £20,000 contribution and £40,000 from an employer gives threshold income of £280,000 and adjusted income of £340,000. The allowance falls by £40,000 to £20,000, and £60,000 of pension saving is £40,000 over it. Other income, salary sacrifice and lump sum death benefits change both figures and are not modelled.

How to calculate pension tax relief in Excel

For a relief at source contribution in England, Wales or Northern Ireland, with earnings between £50,270 and £100,000 and a contribution no bigger than your income above £12,570, the total relief is =B2*0.2 + MIN(B2, MAX(0, A2-50270))*0.2, where A2 holds earnings and B2 the gross contribution. With £60,000 and £10,000 it returns 3,946; with £80,000 it returns 4,000.

Outside that range, a single formula breaks down because of the personal allowance taper and the extra Scottish bands. The reliable spreadsheet method is the one the calculator uses: work out the income tax on your earnings, then on your earnings minus the contribution, and take the difference. Under relief at source, count any slice taxed below 20% at 20% instead, since the provider adds that much whatever your rate.

What this calculator leaves out, and common mistakes

It treats your earnings as your only income, so savings interest, dividends, rental income and other pensions are not included. It does not cover salary sacrifice, National Insurance, the Marriage Allowance, Gift Aid, the High Income Child Benefit Charge, carry forward or the annual allowance charge itself. It assumes the standard personal allowance and the 2026/27 rates throughout the year.

• Not claiming the higher-rate part. Under relief at source the provider adds only 20%; the rest is claimed through Self Assessment.
• Entering the net amount as gross. £8,000 paid in under relief at source is a £10,000 gross contribution.
• Expecting relief above your earnings. Relief stops at 100% of earnings, or £3,600 through relief at source.
• Forgetting employer money. It does not earn you relief, but it uses your annual allowance.
• Using English bands in Scotland. A Scottish taxpayer earning £60,000 gets £254 more relief on £10,000.

Glossary

Relief at source: you pay from taxed income and the provider adds the basic rate. Net pay: your employer takes the contribution before income tax. SIPP: a self-invested personal pension, where you choose the investments. Gross contribution: what goes into the pension before any relief at source top-up is counted as yours. Annual allowance: the yearly limit on pension saving before a tax charge. Money purchase annual allowance: a £10,000 limit after flexible access. Threshold income and adjusted income: the two tests for the tapered annual allowance. Personal allowance taper: the loss of £1 of allowance for every £2 of adjusted net income over £100,000.

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