Rates, bands and allowances
Tax codes for 2026/27
Everything payroll uses this tax year, from 6 April 2026 to 5 April 2027: the standard code, the emergency code and the bands by nation.
Tax-free pay from this job
£12,570 a year
- 1257 × 10 = £12,570, and the letter L means the standard tax-free Personal Allowance.
- England or Northern Ireland rates
- Cumulative: allowance and bands build up through the tax year, so over- or under-payments correct themselves
| Tax-free pay each month | £1,048.26 |
| Tax over the year on £35,000 | £4,484.00 |
| That is, each month | £373.67 |
| With 1257L instead | £4,484.00 |
Estimate with HMRC’s payroll method and the same pay every month. Only HMRC can change your code.
For the 2026 to 2027 tax year, which runs from 6 April 2026 to 5 April 2027, the standard tax code is 1257L in England and Northern Ireland, S1257L in Scotland and C1257L in Wales, all built on a Personal Allowance of £12,570. HMRC's P9X notice sets the emergency code at 1257L, operated as 1257L W1, 1257L M1 or 1257L X, with no S or C prefix. Payroll starts taking Income Tax above £242 a week or £1,048 a month. Outside Scotland, gross pay up to £50,270 is taxed at 20% above the allowance, then 40% and 45%. Scotland keeps six rates from 19% to 48%, with wider starter and basic bands than in 2025 to 2026. On a salary of £35,000, a full year on 1257L takes £4,484.00 of Income Tax, against £4,498.97 on S1257L.
Income Tax for the year by band
Income Tax for the year
£7,486.00
| Personal Allowance | £12,570 |
| Taxed income | £37,430 |
| Top band reached | basic, 20% |
| Each month | £623.83 |
Rules read on HMRC’s texts by Radif Partners · Editorial policy · Method
The codes payroll starts the year with
Nothing changed for the standard code between 2025 to 2026 and 2026 to 2027: the allowance stayed at £12,570, so 1257L, S1257L and C1257L carried over. Before the first pay day of the new year, HMRC's P9X instructions asked employers to copy each authorised code from the old payroll record, to use the most recent P9(T) notice where one had been issued, and to strip any week 1 or month 1 marking. That last step matters to you: if you ended March on 1257L M1, your April payslip should show plain 1257L and run cumulatively from the first month.
The same notice gives the starting point for PAYE as £242 a week and £1,048 a month. Payroll software uses the slightly more precise free pay of £241.92 a week and £1,048.26 a month for code 1257, from HMRC's PAYE specification. If you earn less than that in a period and have been paid nothing else this year, no Income Tax comes off.
Someone who leaves before 6 April but is paid afterwards keeps the old code for that payment. A payment made after the P45 has been issued is taxed on 0T on a non-cumulative basis, S0T or C0T for those whose code had a Scottish or Welsh prefix.
Bands for England and Northern Ireland, and for Wales
For employees in England, Northern Ireland and Wales, the employer rates for 2026 to 2027 show a basic rate band of £37,700 above the allowance. Read as gross pay with the standard allowance, that gives these thresholds. The allowance shrinks above £100,000 and is gone at £125,140, which is why the additional rate starts there.
| Band | Gross yearly income | Rate |
|---|---|---|
| Personal Allowance | up to £12,570 | 0% |
| Basic | £12,571 to £50,270 | 20% |
| Higher | £50,271 to £125,140 | 40% |
| Additional | over £125,140 | 45% |
Wales has its own rates, signalled by the C prefix, but for 2026 to 2027 the Welsh totals match these figures exactly, so a C1257L payslip and a 1257L payslip take the same tax on the same pay. The Welsh rates page explains how the two parts add up.
Scottish bands in 2026/27 against 2025/26
Scotland is where the year brought a real change. Both the starter band, taxed at 19%, and the basic band, at 20%, were widened, which pushes the start of the intermediate rate up. The higher rate still starts at £43,663, so people above that point see almost no difference. Bands below are gross income with the standard allowance, from GOV.UK.
| Scottish band | 2026 to 2027 | 2025 to 2026 |
|---|---|---|
| Starter, 19% | £12,571 to £16,537 | £12,571 to £15,397 |
| Basic, 20% | £16,538 to £29,526 | £15,398 to £27,491 |
| Intermediate, 21% | £29,527 to £43,662 | £27,492 to £43,662 |
| Higher, 42% | £43,663 to £75,000 | £43,663 to £75,000 |
| Advanced, 45% | £75,001 to £125,140 | £75,001 to £125,140 |
| Top, 48% | over £125,140 | over £125,140 |
| Yearly pay | 1257L | S1257L 2026 to 2027 | S1257L 2025 to 2026 |
|---|---|---|---|
| £20,000 | £1,484.00 | £1,444.33 | £1,455.73 |
| £30,000 | £3,484.00 | £3,448.97 | £3,480.72 |
| £45,000 | £6,484.00 | £6,877.85 | £6,909.60 |
| £60,000 | £11,428.00 | £13,177.85 | £13,209.60 |
Scottish rates against England
Tax with S1257L
£3,448.97
| With 1257L (England) | £3,484.00 |
| Difference over the year | −£35.03 |
| Each month | −£2.92 |
The full detail of who counts as a Scottish taxpayer is on the Scottish rates page.
Checking your own code this year
The code itself only tells payroll how much tax-free pay to give and which bands to use. Whether it is right for you depends on your circumstances: a second job, a pension, company benefits, Marriage Allowance or an income above £100,000 all move it away from 1257L. Type the code from your payslip into the decoder above, then compare it with what HMRC holds in your HMRC online account. For the year that starts on 6 April 2027, the next year page lists what the Budget of 28 October 2026 confirmed and what is still to come.