Pension tax relief calculator
What tax relief a pension contribution attracts and how it reaches you — the part your provider adds at source, the part you have to claim yourself, and the personal allowance a contribution can buy back.
Calculator
Salary, self-employed profit, pensions in payment or rental profit — everything taxed as income, before any pension contribution is taken off. It decides the rate your relief is given at, and whether the contribution restores personal allowance.
Your own contribution. Not your employer’s: employer contributions are relieved to the employer, not to you, and they do not appear anywhere in this answer.
The amount leaving your account and the amount landing in the pension are the same contribution described two ways, and they are not the same number — the provider adds the difference. Say which one you typed and the answer below shows the other.
If money leaves your bank account and a provider tops it up afterwards, that is relief at source. If it comes off your salary before tax and your payslip shows a smaller taxable pay figure, that is net pay. Your scheme booklet says which; payroll will know. Salary sacrifice is neither — it reduces your salary itself, and has its own calculator.
Income tax is devolved, so the relief above the basic rate differs in Scotland — and a Scottish taxpayer still gets the UK basic rate at source, then claims the rest against Scottish rates.
Relief is given for the year the contribution is paid in, at that year’s rates and thresholds.
Untick this if some of it is a pension already in payment, the state pension, rental income or taxable benefits. Those are taxed as income but they are not relevant UK earnings, and only relevant UK earnings decide how much you can get relief on.
Relief is limited to the greater of your relevant UK earnings and £3,600 gross a year — on your figures, £110,000.00. Above that a contribution is still allowed and simply gets nothing. Separately, the annual allowance caps how much can go in with tax relief at all, counts your employer’s contributions too, and is not applied on this page — the pension contribution calculator works that one out.
Your pension tax relief, and how much of it you have to claim
£10,000.00 into your pension attracts £6,000.00 of tax relief — 60.00% of the contribution
So the pot goes up by £10,000.00 and you are £4,000.00 worse off, not £10,000.00.
That percentage is not your tax rate and you will not find it in a rate table. It is the difference between two whole income tax calculations — yours with the contribution and yours without it — divided by the contribution. It can be higher than every rate on your income, and on these figures it is.
How the relief reaches you
You are paying in through relief at source, in England or Northern Ireland, for 2026/27. The total is the same either way; where it lands is not.
| Into the pension | £10,000.00 |
|---|---|
| Out of your own pocket | £8,000.00 |
| Added by your provider automatically, reclaimed from HMRC | £2,000.00 |
| Relief you have to claim yourself | £4,000.00 |
| Total relief | £6,000.00 |
£4,000.00 of that will not arrive on its own. Only the amount your provider reclaims is automatic. The rest is delivered by moving your rate limits up by the contribution, which happens through a Self Assessment return or an adjustment to your tax code — and it happens because you asked, not because anybody noticed. HMRC has said repeatedly that a great deal of higher-rate relief is never claimed at all.
What “extending your basic-rate band” actually means
| Basic-rate limit, in taxable income | £37,700.00 |
|---|---|
| Your basic-rate limit with this contribution | £47,700.00 |
Every rate limit at or above that one moves up by the contribution, and nothing below it moves. So income that would have been charged at a higher rate is charged at a lower one instead, and the difference is the relief you claim. Both figures are taxable income — income after allowances — not salary. Before the contribution, you were £15,140.00 of gross income from the additional rate.
Your contribution is buying back personal allowance
Above £100,000 the personal allowance is withdrawn by £1 for every £2 of income. Your contribution reduces the income that withdrawal is measured against, so it has handed back £5,000.00 of allowance — and that allowance is relieved at your own rate on top of the relief on the contribution itself.
Which is why the relief works out at 60.00% of the contribution rather than a band rate. It is not a special rate and it is not published anywhere: it is one rate applied to two things at once. The figure is different in Scotland, because the band rates are, so this page measures it rather than printing it.
Whether making a contribution is the right thing to do with the money is a question about your own circumstances, when you need it and what else it could be doing. This page does not answer that. It answers what the relief comes to.
The limit on how much relief you can get
| Your relevant UK earnings | £110,000.00 |
|---|---|
| The basic amount, available to anyone | £3,600.00 |
| Most you can get relief on this year | £110,000.00 |
| Your contribution above that limit | £0.00 |
The whole of your contribution is inside this limit, so all of it attracts relief.
This is not the annual allowance, and the two are often confused. This one caps the relief: go past it and the excess gets nothing. The annual allowance caps how much can be saved with tax privileges at all, counts your employer’s contributions as well as your own, and is reduced for high earners — go past that one and the contribution is relieved in full and then charged back through a tax charge. The pension contribution calculator works out the annual allowance; this page does not apply it.
The same contribution, at other incomes
£10,000.00 into a pension through relief at source in England or Northern Ireland, for 2026/27. Read the relief column downwards: it does not simply climb with income.
| Income | Relief | Allowance restored | Relief as a share of the contribution | Cost to you |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| £30,000 | £2,000.00 | £0.00 | 20.00% | £8,000.00 |
| £60,000 | £3,946.00 | £0.00 | 39.46% | £6,054.00 |
| £100,000 | £4,000.00 | £0.00 | 40.00% | £6,000.00 |
| £110,000in the taper | £6,000.00 | £5,000.00 | 60.00% | £4,000.00 |
| £125,140in the taper | £6,000.00 | £5,000.00 | 60.00% | £4,000.00 |
| £150,000 | £4,500.00 | £0.00 | 45.00% | £5,500.00 |
Each row assumes the whole of that income is relevant UK earnings, so the relief limit never bites in this table. The rows marked in the taper are the ones where the contribution is also buying personal allowance back, which is why their relief column is the highest on the page and higher than any rate charged on the income.
Five things this figure does not know
It does not check the annual allowance, which is the limit that costs money to breach
Relief and the annual allowance are separate limits with separate consequences, and this page applies only the first. Going past the annual allowance does not remove your relief; it adds a charge on top, at your own marginal rate, and the allowance counts employer contributions and salary sacrifice as well as your own and is reduced for high earners. gov.uk sets out the annual allowance, including carry forward from earlier years.
It assumes the relief you have to claim is claimed
On these figures £4,000.00 arrives only if you ask for it, through a tax return or a tax code change. Nothing prompts it, there is no deadline reminder, and it does not appear on a pension statement. The relief figures above are what the rules allow, not a record of what has reached anybody.
It knows one income figure and one contribution
No savings interest, no dividends, no capital gains, no student loan, no employer contribution, no gift aid and no other pension. Each of those changes the answer: dividends and savings interest are taxed on their own schedules, gift aid extends the same rate limits this contribution extends, and an employer contribution is relieved to the employer rather than to you. Enter your full taxable income above and the answer improves; the page cannot split it up for you.
It prices a year, not a lifetime
Relief is given in the tax year the contribution is paid, and this page computes one year at a time. Nothing here models what the pot becomes, what tax is due when it is taken, or the tax-free share available then — the SIPP calculator takes a contribution forward and prices the other end.
It is not advice, and relief is not the only thing that matters
Money in a pension is not available until the minimum pension age, most of it is taxable when it comes out, and whether a contribution is the right use of the money depends on things this page never asks about. It states the relief. It recommends nothing.
Worked example: the same pension contribution, two incomes
The same £10,000 contribution attracts 39.46% relief for one of these two people and 60.00% for the other. Both are in England, both pay into a personal pension, and both are higher-rate taxpayers. The only thing that differs is where their income sits.
Nadia earns £60,000. She pays £8,000.00 into a SIPP and her provider adds £2,000.00, so £10,000.00 lands in the pension. Her basic-rate limit then moves up by the contribution, from £37,700.00 to £47,700.00 of taxable income, which pulls income out of the higher rate and back into the basic rate. That is worth a further £1,946.00 — which she has to claim. Her total relief is £3,946.00, or 39.46%. Note that it is not the whole of the higher rate: only part of her income was being charged there in the first place, so only that part can be moved.
Marcus earns £110,000 — inside the stretch where the personal allowance is withdrawn. The same £10,000 does two things for him at once: it is relieved at his band rate, and by reducing the income his allowance is measured against it hands back £5,000.00 of personal allowance that had been taken away. His relief is £6,000.00, or 60.00% — £10,000.00 in the pension for £4,000.00 out of his pocket.
| Figure | Nadia, £60,000 | Marcus, £110,000 |
|---|---|---|
| Paid from their own account | £8,000.00 | £8,000.00 |
| Added by the provider | £2,000.00 | £2,000.00 |
| Claimed back from HMRC | £1,946.00 | £4,000.00 |
| Personal allowance restored | £0.00 | £5,000.00 |
| Total relief | £3,946.00 | £6,000.00 |
| Relief as a share of the contribution | 39.46% | 60.00% |
Marcus in Scotland would get 67.50% on the same contribution rather than 60.00% — the same mechanism against a different set of band rates. His provider would still add £2,000.00 at source, because relief at source is given at the basic rate wherever you live; the difference is entirely in the £4,750.00 he would have to claim. Neither figure is written into this page: both are measured against the rate schedules for the year.
And if Marcus paid the same money through a workplace scheme on a net pay arrangement, his relief would be £6,000.00 — the same total, arriving completely differently. Nothing would be added to the pension by a provider, nothing would be claimed on a tax return, and his taxable pay would simply be £10,000 lower. The mechanism decides whether the relief turns up on its own. It does not decide how much of it there is.
Methodology and sources
The calculation, in order
- If you entered the amount leaving your account, gross it up: the contribution is that figure divided by one less the basic rate. £80.00 becomes £100.00, not £96.00 — the relief is measured against the gross figure rather than added to the net one, and getting that backwards is the single most common error in this area.
- Apply the limit on relief: the greater of your relevant UK earnings and the basic amount. Anything above it gets no relief and is reported separately.
- Work out your income tax twice — once as you are, and once with the contribution. The difference is the relief delivered through the tax computation.
- For relief at source, add what the provider reclaims at the basic rate. That part is already in the pension; the rest is the part you claim.
- Divide the total by the contribution to get the share this page leads with. It is a measured quantity, not a rate anybody publishes.
Nothing on this page multiplies a contribution by a tax rate, and that is the whole design of it. A “relief = contribution × marginal rate” shortcut is a second income tax engine, and it gets three things wrong: a contribution that straddles a band boundary, a contribution inside the personal allowance taper — where it also restores allowance — and Scotland, twice over. Differencing two full tax positions gets all three right for free, because it is the same engine every other calculator here uses.
Rates and thresholds
| Figure | 2025/26 | 2026/27 |
|---|---|---|
| Personal allowance | £12,570 | £12,570 |
| Personal allowance taper starts at | £100,000 | £100,000 |
| Allowance lost per £1 of income above that | £1 for every £2 | £1 for every £2 |
| Basic amount — the floor on relievable contributions | £3,600 | £3,600 |
| Income tax bands — England, Wales and Northern Ireland | Basic rate 20.00% from £0; Higher rate 40.00% from £37,700; Additional rate 45.00% from £125,140 | Basic rate 20.00% from £0; Higher rate 40.00% from £37,700; Additional rate 45.00% from £125,140 |
| Income tax bands — Scotland | Starter rate 19.00% from £0; Basic rate 20.00% from £2,827; Intermediate rate 21.00% from £14,921; Higher rate 42.00% from £31,092; Advanced rate 45.00% from £62,430; Top rate 48.00% from £125,140 | Starter rate 19.00% from £0; Basic rate 20.00% from £3,967; Intermediate rate 21.00% from £16,956; Higher rate 42.00% from £31,092; Advanced rate 45.00% from £62,430; Top rate 48.00% from £125,140 |
What this page does not model
- The annual allowance, its taper for high earners, the money purchase annual allowance and carry forward. A different limit with a different consequence.
- Employer contributions. They are relieved to the employer, not to you, and they do not move any of your rate limits.
- Savings interest, dividends and capital gains. A contribution moves the savings and dividend limits too, and this page has no field for either.
- Gift aid, which extends the same rate limits, so a reader who gives to charity has more relief than this page shows.
- Anything at the other end — growth, the tax-free share, or the income tax due when the money is taken out.
Where the figures come from
- gov.uk — Tax on your private pension contributions: pension tax relief
- gov.uk — Adjusted net income
- gov.uk — Pension annual allowance
- HMRC — Pensions Tax Manual PTM044220, relief at source
- gov.uk — Income tax rates and allowances: current and past
- gov.scot — Scottish income tax rates and bands
The rates and allowances in the table above were verified against gov.uk on 12 August 2026. That check covers the published figures this page computes with. 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 or with an accountant.
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.
Frequently asked questions
- How does pension tax relief actually work?
Money you put into a pension is not taxed as income, and there are two ways the rules deliver that. Under relief at source — personal pensions, stakeholder pensions and SIPPs — you pay out of income that has already been taxed and the provider reclaims the basic rate from HMRC and adds it to the pot, so £80.00 handed over becomes £100.00 in the pension. If you pay tax above the basic rate, the rest of your relief is not paid to the provider: it is given by increasing your rate limits by the amount of the contribution, so income that would have been taxed at a higher rate is taxed at a lower one. Under a net pay arrangement — most workplace schemes — the contribution comes out of your pay before tax is worked out, so relief lands at your own rate automatically and there is nothing to reclaim and nothing to claim.
- How much tax relief do I get on my pension contributions?
Enough to make the contribution cost less than it puts in, and how much less depends on the rate your income is charged at and on where that income sits. On £30,000 of income in England, £10,000.00 into a pension attracts £2,000.00 of relief — 20.00% — and all of it arrives automatically. On £60,000 the same contribution attracts £3,946.00, of which £1,946.00 has to be claimed. On £110,000 it attracts £6,000.00, or 60.00%, because the contribution also restores personal allowance that had been withdrawn. The calculator above works it out for your own figures.
- Why is pension tax relief 60% between £100,000 and £125,140?
Because a contribution in that range does two jobs. The personal allowance is withdrawn by £1 for every £2 of income above £100,000, and a gross pension contribution is deducted from the income that withdrawal is measured against. So the contribution is relieved at your band rate and it hands back allowance at the same time — on £110,000 in England, £10,000.00 restores £5,000.00 of personal allowance and the relief comes to 60.00% of the contribution. In Scotland the same contribution at the same income is relieved at 67.50%, because the band rates are different. Neither figure is typed into this page: both are measured against the rate schedules for the year.
- Do I have to claim higher-rate pension tax relief myself?
Under relief at source, yes — and this is the part that goes wrong most often. Your provider only ever reclaims the basic rate. Relief above that is given by extending your rate limits, which means it reaches you through a Self Assessment return or an adjustment to your tax code, and nothing prompts it: it does not appear on a pension statement, there is no reminder, and HMRC has said repeatedly that a great deal of it is never claimed. On £60,000 of income a £10,000.00 contribution leaves £1,946.00 to be claimed. Under a net pay arrangement there is nothing to claim, because the tax was never charged in the first place.
- Is pension tax relief different in Scotland?
The relief above the basic rate is, and the relief at source is not. A Scottish taxpayer's provider adds relief at the Scottish basic rate — the same 20.00% as the rest of the UK in the years this page offers — and the rest is claimed against Scottish rates, because the statute increases the Scottish rate limits rather than the UK ones. Scotland has more bands than the rest of the UK, so more of them move, and the totals differ: on £110,000, £10,000.00 attracts £6,000.00 of relief in England and £6,750.00 in Scotland. Choose your region above and the answer follows.
- How much can I put into a pension and get relief on?
Relief is limited to the greater of your relevant UK earnings for the year and the basic amount of £3,600 gross. Relevant UK earnings are broadly employment income and trading profits — a pension already in payment, the state pension, rental income and taxable benefits are all taxed as income and none of them count, which is why a retired person with a large pension income can still only relieve the basic amount. Someone with no earnings at all can contribute £3,600.00 gross and get £720.00 of it added by the provider, having paid no tax. A contribution above the limit is not refused; it simply attracts no relief. That is a separate limit from the annual allowance, which caps how much can be saved with tax privileges at all.
- Is this the same thing as the annual allowance?
No, and confusing the two is the most expensive mistake available here. The limit on this page caps your relief: go past it and the excess gets nothing. The annual allowance caps tax-privileged saving: go past that one and your contribution is still relieved in full, and then a charge is raised on the excess at your own marginal rate. The annual allowance also counts your employer’s contributions and any salary sacrifice, is reduced for high earners by a taper of its own, and can be topped up by carry forward from the three previous years. None of that is applied here. The pension contribution calculator on this site works it out.
- Does salary sacrifice get pension tax relief?
Not in the sense this page means, because there is nothing to relieve. Under salary sacrifice you give up part of your contractual pay and your employer pays that amount into the pension instead, so the money was never your income: no relief is claimed, nothing goes on a tax return, and no rate limit moves. It also saves National Insurance, which neither mechanism on this page does — a sacrifice reduces the pay National Insurance is charged on, while relief at source and net pay do not touch it. The salary sacrifice calculator on this site prices that route and sets it against a personal pension contribution.
- What does the calculator show on the figures it opens with?
On £110,000 of income in England for 2026/27, a £10,000.00 contribution to a personal pension attracts £6,000.00 of relief — 60.00% of the contribution, so the pot rises by £10,000.00 at a cost of £4,000.00. £2,000.00 of it is added by the provider automatically and £4,000.00 has to be claimed. The rate is that high because the income is inside the range where the personal allowance is withdrawn, and the contribution restores £5,000.00 of it.