Pension carry forward calculator
Unused pension annual allowance from the three previous tax years, each at the allowance that actually applied in it — plus the order a contribution uses them in, and the limit on tax relief that carry forward does not move.
Calculator
Carry forward always looks back exactly three years from this one. Changing it changes which three years the boxes below are about — the labels move with it.
Everything that counted towards the annual allowance that year: your own contributions, tax relief added to them, anything your employer paid, and anything given up through salary sacrifice. For a defined benefit scheme it is the pension input amount, which your scheme can tell you and which is not the same as the contributions.
The same basis as the box above.
The same basis again. This is the most recent of the three carried-forward years, and it is the last one a contribution reaches — see the order below.
Everything going in during the tax year selected above, on the same basis as the boxes on the left — yours, the tax relief, your employer's and any salary sacrifice.
Broadly employment income and trading profits. A pension already in payment, the state pension, rental income and taxable benefits are not relevant earnings, even though they are taxed like earnings — so a retired reader with a large pension income has relevant earnings of nil. This limits tax relief on your own contributions, and carry forward does not change it.
Broadly your income excluding pension contributions. The taper only applies when this is above £200,000 and adjusted income is above its own limit — both, not either. Left at zero this page uses the standard allowance and says so.
Broadly your income including employer pension contributions. The taper starts above £260,000 of this, and only if threshold income is above its limit too. Both figures have statutory definitions with additions and deductions this page cannot work out for you.
Unused allowance can only be carried forward from a year in which you were a member of a registered pension scheme. Membership, not contributions — a year in which you were a member and paid in nothing carries its whole allowance forward, and a year in which you were not a member carries nothing, whatever the boxes above say. Nothing on this page can check that.
What you can carry forward, and what you can actually get relief on
You could put in £195,000.00 this year without an annual allowance charge
That is £60,000.00 of allowance for 2026/27 plus £135,000.00 carried forward from the three years before it. The £100,000.00 you entered fits inside it, leaving £95,000.00.
This is capacity, not headroom and not a target. It is the most that can go in without a charge, given the three earlier years. Whether any of it can be relieved is a separate question with a separate limit, answered further down; whether any of it should go in is a question about your own circumstances that this page does not answer.
The three years you can carry forward from
Each year is measured against its own annual allowance, not against this year’s. Unused allowance can be carried forward for three years and then expires, so the top row of this table is the one with a deadline.
| Tax year | Annual allowance | Went in | Unused, carried forward |
|---|---|---|---|
| 2023-24 | £60,000.00 | £10,000.00 | £50,000.00 |
| 2024-25 | £60,000.00 | £15,000.00 | £45,000.00 |
| 2025-26 | £60,000.00 | £20,000.00 | £40,000.00 |
| Carried forward in total | £135,000.00 | ||
| This year’s allowance (2026/27) | £60,000.00 |
The annual allowance happens to be the same in all four of these years, so applying this year’s figure to each would give the same answer today. It has not always been the same, and the calculation reads each year’s own figure rather than assuming. Where a year differs, applying the current figure to it overstates carried capacity by the whole of the difference — which is enough on its own to turn a contribution that is inside the allowance into one that is charged.
Where your £100,000.00 lands
The order is set by the rules, not chosen: this year’s allowance first, then carried-forward allowance oldest year first. That second part matters because the oldest year is the one about to expire — using a later year first would waste it.
| Used in this order | Available | Used | Left |
|---|---|---|---|
| 1. 2026/27 allowance | £60,000.00 | £60,000.00 | £0.00 |
| 2. Carried forward from 2023-24 | £50,000.00 | £40,000.00 | £10,000.00 |
| 3. Carried forward from 2024-25 | £45,000.00 | £0.00 | £45,000.00 |
| 4. Carried forward from 2025-26 | £40,000.00 | £0.00 | £40,000.00 |
| Capacity left over | £95,000.00 |
Rows showing an allowance left over are not an invitation. Carrying forward the remainder is automatic if you are eligible; nothing is lost by not using it this year except the oldest year, which expires whether it is used or not.
The other limit: what you can get relief on
| Allowance available (this year plus carried forward) | £195,000.00 |
|---|---|
| Most of your own money that can be relieved this year | £80,000.00 |
| Contribution you entered | £100,000.00 |
£20,000.00 of that contribution would get no tax relief at all. Relief on your own contributions is limited to the greater of your relevant UK earnings and £3,600.00 — and carry forward does not change it. Carry forward extends the allowance, which is the cap on how much can be saved without a charge; it says nothing about how much of your own money can be relieved. The two are different limits from different parts of the legislation and they bite in different ways.
The relief limit applies to your own contributions, not your employer’s. An employer contribution is not limited by your earnings — but it does count towards the annual allowance, so it uses up the capacity in the table above. That asymmetry is why the two panels can disagree about the same pound, and why a member with modest earnings and a generous employer meets one limit and not the other.
Five things this figure does not know
Whether you were a member of a pension scheme in each earlier year
This is the condition that most often turns a correct calculation into the wrong answer. Unused allowance carries forward only from a year in which you were a member of a registered pension scheme — a year of self-employment with no scheme, a career break with no scheme, or a period living abroad outside a UK scheme carries nothing forward, however much allowance was unused. There is no box for it because there is no figure; it is a fact about your history that only you and your provider have.
Whether your allowance was tapered in any of those years
The figures above use the standard annual allowance for each of the three earlier years. A member whose allowance was tapered in one of them has less to carry forward than shown, and for a heavily tapered year the difference is most of it. This page applies the taper to the current year, from the two income boxes you filled in, and does not ask for three more pairs of income figures to do the same for the past.
Whether you have flexibly accessed a pension
Taking taxable income flexibly from a defined contribution pot triggers the money purchase annual allowance, which is a much lower flat cap of £10,000 on money purchase contributions — and carry forward cannot be used against it at all. If that has happened to you, the capacity above is not available for those contributions. This page does not ask, because a member who has triggered it really has two limits at once and showing one figure for both would be worse than showing neither.
What actually counts as going in, in each year
The boxes ask for the total that counted towards the allowance, which is not the same as what left your bank account: it includes the basic-rate relief added by a personal pension, your employer’s contributions and anything given up through salary sacrifice. For a defined benefit scheme it is not a contribution figure at all but a pension input amount derived from the growth in your promised pension, which only your scheme can tell you. Put the wrong basis in and every row above is arithmetic on the wrong input.
What an excess would actually cost you
Where a contribution goes beyond every allowance, the excess is added to your taxable income and charged at your marginal rate. This page reports the amount and stops there, because it collects no region and no income breakdown, and the rate depends on both. It also does not model scheme pays, the route by which a large charge can be paid out of the pension rather than out of your own pocket.
Worked example: the same pension history, two sets of earnings
Nadia and Oliver have identical pension histories and identical capacity of £195,000.00. Nadia can relieve £80,000.00 of her own money this year and Oliver can relieve £250,000.00. The difference is not their pensions. It is their earnings — and it is the limit almost every carry forward calculator leaves out.
Both were scheme members throughout, neither was tapered, and both paid in the same amounts: £10,000 in 2023-24, £15,000 in 2024-25, £20,000 in 2025-26. Each of those years had an allowance of its own, so the unused parts are £50,000, £45,000, £40,000 — £135,000.00 carried forward in total. Add this year’s £60,000.00 and both have £195,000.00 of capacity.
Both want to put in £100,000.00, and for both of them that is comfortably inside the allowance. No annual allowance charge arises for either. It uses this year’s allowance first, and then £40,000.00 of the oldest carried year — 2023-24 — because carried allowance is used oldest first and that is the year about to expire.
| Figure | Nadia — £80,000 of relevant earnings | Oliver — £250,000 of relevant earnings |
|---|---|---|
| Carried forward from three earlier years | £135,000.00 | £135,000.00 |
| Allowance for 2026/27 | £60,000.00 | £60,000.00 |
| Total capacity before a charge | £195,000.00 | £195,000.00 |
| Most of their own money that can be relieved | £80,000.00 | £250,000.00 |
| Of a £100,000 contribution, the part getting no relief | £20,000.00 | £0.00 |
Nadia is not blocked from contributing. She may pay in whatever her scheme accepts, and no charge arises because the allowance covers it. What she does not get is relief on £20,000.00 of it — that part goes in out of taxed income and stays taxed. Carry forward moved her allowance; it did nothing at all to the relief limit, because they are different limits in different parts of the legislation.
The way out for Nadia is usually an employer contribution, which is not limited by her earnings at all — though it still consumes the same capacity in the table above. Whether that is available to her is a question for her employer, not for the tax system, and this page does not model it.
Methodology and sources
The calculation, in order
- Work out this year’s annual allowance, applying the taper if — and only if — both threshold income and adjusted income are above their own limits.
- Look back exactly three tax years and take each year’s own annual allowance. The allowance has not been the same figure across that span, and using today’s for all three is the standard way this calculation goes wrong.
- Subtract what went in each of those years. What is left is carried forward.
- Add this year’s allowance to the three unused amounts. That is total capacity.
- Set the contribution against this year’s allowance first, then against carried allowance oldest year first. Anything beyond all four is charged.
- Separately, work out the limit on relief — the greater of relevant UK earnings and the basic amount. Carry forward does not move it.
Reading four years of rules at once is the exception, and it is deliberate. Every other calculation on this site works within a single tax year’s rules file. Carry forward cannot: it needs one figure from each of three earlier years, including years that are not otherwise modelled here at all. The source repository keeps exactly that one figure for those years — the annual allowance and nothing else, no rates, no thresholds, no personal allowance — which is why those years are not offered in the tax year selector and never will be.
The annual allowance, by year
| Tax year | Annual allowance |
|---|---|
| 2023-24 | £60,000.00 |
| 2024-25 | £60,000.00 |
| 2025-26 | £60,000.00 |
| 2026/27 | £60,000.00 |
The other figures this page uses
| Figure | 2025/26 | 2026/27 |
|---|---|---|
| Annual allowance | £60,000 | £60,000 |
| Taper — threshold income limit | £200,000 | £200,000 |
| Taper — adjusted income limit | £260,000 | £260,000 |
| Allowance lost per £ of adjusted income above the limit | £1 for every £2 | £1 for every £2 |
| Minimum tapered allowance | £10,000 | £10,000 |
| Money purchase annual allowance | £10,000 | £10,000 |
| Relief floor for a non-earner (the basic amount) | £3,600 | £3,600 |
What this page does not model
- Scheme membership in the earlier years, which is the condition carry forward actually depends on and which no input here could establish.
- The taper in the three earlier years. The standard allowance is used for each of them.
- The money purchase annual allowance, which carry forward cannot be used against at all.
- The annual allowance charge itself. The excess is reported; the tax on it depends on a marginal rate this page does not collect the inputs for.
- Scheme pays, and the separate alternative annual allowance that applies to defined benefit accrual for a member who has triggered the money purchase allowance.
Where the figures come from
- gov.uk — Check if you have unused annual allowances on your pension savings
- gov.uk — Tax on your private pension contributions: annual allowance
- gov.uk — Tax on your private pension contributions: tax relief
- gov.uk — Pension schemes rates and allowances
- gov.uk — Work out your reduced (tapered) annual allowance
The allowances in the tables above were verified against gov.uk on 12 August 2026. That check covers the published figures this page computes with, including the annual allowance for the earlier years this calculation reaches back into. It does not verify any result the page produces, and it has not yet been signed off by a person — the verification recorded in the source repository is an automated one. Check anything that matters against gov.uk, your scheme or an adviser.
Every calculation runs in your browser. There is no application server and no database, so nothing you type is transmitted or stored. A share link is the exception: it carries your figures in the URL. More on what that means. Information, not advice.
Pension carry forward questions
- What is pension carry forward?
It lets you use annual allowance you did not use in the three previous tax years, on top of this year's, so a larger contribution can be made without an annual allowance charge. You do not claim it and there is no form: if the contribution is within this year's allowance plus the unused amounts, no charge arises. Each earlier year is measured against the allowance that applied in that year, which for 2026/27 means looking back to 2023-24.
- Do I have to have been in a pension scheme in those years?
Yes, and this is the condition most often missed. You must have been a member of a registered pension scheme in each year you carry unused allowance forward from. Membership is what counts, not contributions — a year in which you were a member and paid nothing in carries its whole allowance forward. A year in which you were not a member of any scheme carries nothing, however much allowance went unused. No calculator can check this for you, including this one.
- What order is unused allowance used in?
The current year’s allowance is used first, and then carried-forward allowance oldest year first. The order is not a choice and it matters: the oldest of the three carried years is the one about to fall out of the window, so using a later year first would waste it. The calculator above shows the walk row by row for the contribution you entered.
- Does carry forward mean I can contribute more than I earn?
No, and this is the second thing carry forward is routinely believed to do. Tax relief on your own contributions is limited to the greater of your relevant UK earnings for the year and £3,600 — that is a separate limit in a different part of the legislation, and carry forward does not touch it. You may pay in more if your scheme accepts it, and no annual allowance charge arises if the allowance covers it, but the excess over your earnings gets no relief. An employer contribution is not limited by your earnings, though it does use up the same allowance.
- What counts as a contribution for these figures?
Everything that counted towards the annual allowance in that year: your own contributions, the basic-rate tax relief a personal pension added to them, anything your employer paid, and anything given up through salary sacrifice. For a defined benefit scheme it is not a contribution figure at all — it is the pension input amount, derived from the growth in your promised pension over the year, and only your scheme can tell you what it was. Putting the wrong basis in makes every figure on the page arithmetic on the wrong input.
- What happens if I go over the allowance even with carry forward?
The excess is added to your taxable income for the year and charged at your marginal rate, which broadly cancels the relief the contribution received. It is reported through Self Assessment. Where the charge is large enough, the scheme can sometimes be asked to pay it out of the pension instead — "scheme pays" — in exchange for a reduction in benefits. This page reports the excess but does not compute the charge, because the rate depends on your income and where you live and it collects neither.
- Can I use carry forward if I have already taken money from a pension?
Not against money purchase contributions. Taking taxable income flexibly from a defined contribution pot triggers the money purchase annual allowance, a flat cap of £10,000 on further money purchase savings — and carry forward cannot be used against it. Taking only tax-free cash does not trigger it, and neither does buying an annuity or drawing a defined benefit pension. This calculator does not ask, because a member who has triggered it faces two limits at once and one figure could not honestly describe both.
- How does the taper for high earners affect carry forward?
It reduces the allowance in any year it applies to, so there is less to carry forward from that year. The taper only bites when both threshold income and adjusted income are above their limits — £200,000 and £260,000 for 2026/27 — and testing adjusted income alone is a common error that penalises people with generous employer contributions and modest salaries. This page applies the taper to the current year from the figures you enter, and uses the standard allowance for the three earlier years.
- Why does each earlier year have its own allowance?
Because the annual allowance has changed, and a calculation that applies the current figure to every earlier year overstates carried capacity by the whole of the difference for each year affected — enough on its own to turn a contribution that is inside the allowance into one that is charged. This calculator reads the allowance actually published for each year rather than assuming one, and the table above flags any row whose allowance differs from this year’s, so the difference is visible rather than taken on trust.
- What does the calculator show on the figures it opens with?
Contributions of £10,000, £15,000, £20,000 in 2023-24, 2024-25, 2025-26 leave £135,000.00 carried forward. With 2026/27's allowance of £60,000.00 on top, total capacity is £195,000.00. A £100,000 contribution fits inside that, so no annual allowance charge arises — but with relevant earnings of £80,000, £20,000.00 of it would attract no tax relief at all. That gap between the two limits is what the page exists to show.