Rates, bands and allowances
Personal Allowance
The tax-free amount behind the number in your code: its size, who gets less, who gets more, and how it turns into a code.
Personal Allowance above £100,000
Personal Allowance left
£6,570
| Code if this is all from one job | 657L |
| Allowance lost | £6,000 |
| Extra tax from the lost allowance (40%) | £2,400 |
£1 of allowance goes for every £2 above £100,000; none is left at £125,140.
The Personal Allowance is the income you can receive in a tax year before any Income Tax is due: £12,570 in 2026 to 2027, the same as in 2025 to 2026, and the Budget of 28 October 2026 keeps it at £12,570 for 2027 to 2028. It is the starting point of every tax code: HMRC adjusts it for your circumstances and drops the last digit, which is why the standard code reads 1257L. The allowance is cut by £1 for every £2 of adjusted net income above £100,000, so on £110,000 only £7,570 is left, giving 757L, and from £125,140 nothing remains. It can also grow: Marriage Allowance moves £1,260 from a lower earner to a spouse or civil partner, and Blind Person's Allowance adds £3,250 this year.
Tax-free pay behind a code number
Tax-free a year
£12,570
| Free pay in month 1 | £1,048.26 |
| Free pay in week 1 | £241.92 |
| Against the Personal Allowance | +£0 |
HMRC’s tables add £9 to the code number × 10, so the free pay is a few pence above a twelfth of it.
Rules read on HMRC’s texts by Radif Partners · Editorial policy · Method
From allowance to code number
A tax code is the Personal Allowance after HMRC has added what increases it and subtracted what it collects through your pay, divided by ten. With nothing to adjust, £12,570 becomes 1257. Your employer never sees the allowance itself, only the code, and turns it back into free pay for each pay period: £1,048.26 a month or £241.92 a week for 1257, following HMRC's payroll specification, which adds £9 to the number times ten before dividing, so the free pay ends up a few pence above an exact twelfth.
That conversion explains why two people with the same salary can see different tax. One with 1383M gets £1,153.26 of free pay a month, one with 1131N only £943.26. Type any code number into the converter below to see the free pay it gives.
Tax-free pay behind a code number
Tax-free a year
£13,830
| Free pay in month 1 | £1,153.26 |
| Free pay in week 1 | £266.15 |
| Against the Personal Allowance | +£1,260 |
HMRC’s tables add £9 to the code number × 10, so the free pay is a few pence above a twelfth of it.
| Tax year | Personal Allowance | Marriage Allowance | Blind Person's Allowance |
|---|---|---|---|
| 2025 to 2026 | £12,570 | £1,260 | £3,130 |
| 2026 to 2027 | £12,570 | £1,260 | £3,250 |
| 2027 to 2028 | £12,570 | £1,260 | £3,370 |
The taper above £100,000
Above £100,000, the allowance loses £1 for every £2 of adjusted net income over the limit, whatever your age. Adjusted net income starts from all your taxable income (pay, benefits in kind, pensions, interest, dividends, rents) and takes off certain reliefs: trading losses, pension contributions paid without relief, and the grossed-up amount of Gift Aid donations and of pension contributions where the provider has already claimed basic rate relief. Take a salary of £112,000 with £8,000 paid gross into a pension: adjusted net income is £104,000, so the allowance is £10,570 and the code 1057L.
| Adjusted net income | Allowance left | Code if all from one job | Income Tax for the year |
|---|---|---|---|
| £100,000 | £12,570 | 1257L | £27,432.00 |
| £105,000 | £10,070 | 1007L | £30,432.00 |
| £110,000 | £7,570 | 757L | £33,432.00 |
| £115,000 | £5,070 | 507L | £36,432.00 |
| £120,000 | £2,570 | 257L | £39,432.00 |
| £125,140 | £0 | 0T | £42,516.00 |
The cost is steep. Going from £100,000 to £110,000 adds £6,000.00 of Income Tax on £10,000 of extra income, because each pound earned in that zone is taxed at the higher rate and also removes fifty pence of allowance that would otherwise have covered income taxed at the same rate. Payroll only applies the code it receives, so if the code still gives the full allowance while your income is above the limit, too little tax is taken and the gap has to be collected later. The page on codes above £100,000 covers how that is collected.
Marriage Allowance
A married couple or civil partners can move £1,260 of allowance from one to the other when the giver's income is below the Personal Allowance and the receiver pays no more than the basic rate, which usually means income up to £50,270, or up to £43,662 for a Scottish taxpayer paying the starter, basic or intermediate rate. Unmarried couples who live together cannot claim. The claim can be backdated to 6 April 2022 for each year you were eligible, and it renews every year until one of you cancels it. HMRC then changes both codes: the letter N marks the giver, M the receiver. Details are on the M and N codes page.
Blind Person's Allowance
This is an extra allowance on top of the Personal Allowance: £3,130 in 2025 to 2026, £3,250 in 2026 to 2027 and £3,370 in 2027 to 2028. In England and Wales you qualify if your local council lists you as blind or severely sight impaired and you hold a certificate saying so. In Scotland and Northern Ireland the test is that you cannot do work for which eyesight is essential. Both spouses can get it if both are eligible, and an unused part can pass to a spouse or civil partner on form 575. Once HMRC has it, the code number rises, for example to 1582L; you can check the result in your HMRC online account.