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Salary, wages, pension income, rental profit or self-employed profit, before tax. This is the only income the Scottish rates apply to.

Interest from bank and building society accounts and from bonds — not from an ISA, which is tax free and does not belong in any box here. Charged at UK rates, not Scottish ones.

Dividends from shares or from your own company, again outside an ISA. Charged at UK dividend rates, not Scottish ones.

Scottish rates and bands are set by the Scottish Parliament each year; the savings and dividend rates are set at Westminster.

This page works out income tax. It does not include National Insurance, which is not devolved — for salary in and net pay out, use the take home pay calculator for Scotland.

Your Scottish tax, and what it would be elsewhere in the UK

Income tax in Scotland: £9,718.30

On the same income in England, Wales or Northern Ireland it would be £8,168.25 so you pay £1,550.05 more in Scotland, which is 2.92% of your total income.

This is income tax, not take-home pay. National Insurance is deducted from earnings as well and it is not devolved — identical across the whole UK — so it appears nowhere on this page and changes nothing about the comparison above. For salary in and net pay out, use the take home pay calculator for Scotland.

Where the difference comes from

The same income, run twice. Only one of these rows is devolved, and it is the only one that moves for the usual reason.

Charged onYour incomeScotlandRest of the UKDifference
Earned income — devolved£50,000.00£8,982.05£7,540.00£1,442.05
Savings interest — UK-wide£1,000.00£200.00£92.00£108.00
Dividends — UK-wide£2,000.00£536.25£536.25none
Total income tax£53,000.00£9,718.30£8,168.25£1,550.05

The savings or dividend row differs, and no savings or dividend rate is devolved. That is not a contradiction. The law lets the personal allowance be set against whichever income reduces the bill most, and the best place to put it depends on the rates sitting underneath each kind of income — one of which is Scottish. So the allowance can land differently either side of the border and move a UK-rated line by a few pounds. The rates on that line are still the UK ones.

Your income tax, band by band

Income is taxed in a fixed statutory order — earnings first, then savings interest, then dividends — so each kind starts wherever the one below it finished. That is why the same £1,000 of interest costs different amounts to two people with different salaries.

Earned income, on the six Scottish bands

BandIncome in this bandRateTax
Starter rate£3,967.0019.00%£753.73
Basic rate£12,989.0020.00%£2,597.80
Intermediate rate£14,136.0021.00%£2,968.56
Higher rate£6,338.0042.00%£2,661.96

These six bands are the devolved part. The full table of all six, reached or not, is on the income tax calculator for Scotland.

Savings interest, on UK-wide bands

BandIncome in this bandRateTax
Personal savings allowance£500.000.00%£0.00
Higher rate£500.0040.00%£200.00

The starting rate for savings and the personal savings allowance appear here as nil-rate rows when they apply. Both are UK figures, and the personal savings allowance is set by which UK band your total income reaches — so a Scottish intermediate-rate taxpayer gets the basic-rate allowance.

Dividends, on UK-wide bands

BandIncome in this bandRateTax
Dividend allowance£500.000.00%£0.00
Upper rate£1,500.0035.75%£536.25

The dividend allowance is a nil-rate band rather than a deduction: the dividends it covers still occupy space in the bands, so it does not push the rest of them down into a cheaper one.

Your allowances, as the engine allocated them: Personal allowance £12,570.00 of £12,570.00; Starting rate for savings £0.00 of £0.00; Personal savings allowance £500.00 of £500.00; Dividend allowance £500.00 of £500.00. The personal allowance is not simply set against earnings — the law permits it to be allocated across income types in whichever way produces the lowest bill, and the engine searches that rather than assuming an order.

What Scotland sets, and what it does not

“Scottish tax” is a phrase that covers one line of six. Everything else on your bill is set at Westminster and is the same wherever in the UK you live.

Tax or figureSet byWhat that means for your bill
Income tax on earnings, pensions and rental profitThe Scottish ParliamentSix Scottish bands instead of three UK ones. This is the only line on the page that moves if you cross the border.
Income tax on savings interestThe UK ParliamentCharged at the UK basic, higher and additional rates, and the personal savings allowance is set by which UK band you reach — so a Scottish intermediate-rate taxpayer counts as a UK basic-rate one for it.
Income tax on dividendsThe UK ParliamentCharged at the UK ordinary, upper and additional dividend rates, with the same dividend allowance as everywhere else in the UK.
Capital gains taxThe UK ParliamentNot devolved at all. Scottish income tax bands do not decide which capital gains rate a gain meets; the UK basic-rate band does.
National InsuranceThe UK ParliamentReserved to the UK Parliament. The thresholds and rates are identical across the whole UK, and it is not included on this page at all.
The personal allowance, and the taper that withdraws it on a high incomeThe UK ParliamentA UK figure. Scotland sets the rates and thresholds above the allowance, not the allowance underneath them.

Where your next pound of earnings goes

  • Income tax on your next £1 of earnings in Scotland: 42.00%.
  • The same pound in the rest of the UK: 40.00%.

Both figures are measured by the engine against your own income rather than read off a rate table, which is why inside the personal allowance taper above £100,000 they can exceed every rate printed on this page: there each extra £1 of income also withdraws 50p of allowance, so a pound of earnings exposes £1.50 to tax and the effect multiplies whichever band rate applies. They probe earned income only. The cost of your next pound of savings interest or of dividends is a different question, and the answer to it is a UK rate in both columns.

Five things this figure does not know

It does not include National Insurance

Not devolved, not included, and deducted from earnings as well — so £43,281.70 is what is left after income tax and not what reaches your bank account. It also changes nothing about the Scotland-versus-rest-of-UK comparison above, because it is identical on both sides of it.

It does not know about student loan repayments

Collected alongside income tax, and absent here — including Plan 4, the plan most Scottish graduates repay on, whose threshold differs from the plans used elsewhere in the UK.

It does not know about your pension contributions

This page passes the engine no pension contribution, so relief at source — the mechanism by which a contribution extends the basic-rate band and shelters higher-rate income — never gets applied, even though the engine models it. Anyone contributing is shown more income tax here than they will owe, in both columns. The pension tax relief calculator works out the band extension.

It does not tax capital gains

Capital gains tax is not devolved and is not on this page. A gain is stacked on top of taxable income and meets the UK basic-rate band, not a Scottish one — the capital gains tax calculator does that.

It does not know your tax code or your other allowances

The standard personal allowance is assumed. The marriage allowance, the blind person’s allowance, a benefit in kind and an underpayment collected through PAYE all move it — and ISA income does not belong in any box on this page, because it is tax free and entering it would tax income that bears none.

Worked example

Two people in Edinburgh with the same £50,000. One earns it; the other takes it as dividends from her own company. One of them pays Scottish rates and the other does not, and the pair make the whole point of this page.

Mhairi is employed on £50,000. Her income tax is £8,982.05. On the same salary in England it would be £7,486.00 — a difference of £1,496.05, all of it from the devolved bands:

Mhairi’s income tax, on the six Scottish bands
BandIncome in bandRateTax
Starter rate£3,967.0019.00%£753.73
Basic rate£12,989.0020.00%£2,597.80
Intermediate rate£14,136.0021.00%£2,968.56
Higher rate£6,338.0042.00%£2,661.96
Income tax£8,982.05

Catriona takes £50,000 of dividends and no salary. Her income tax is £3,969.98 — and in England, Wales or Northern Ireland it is £3,969.98. Not a penny different. Dividend rates are set at Westminster and apply across the whole UK, so living in Scotland changes her bill by nothing at all:

Catriona’s income tax, on UK-wide dividend bands
BandIncome in bandRateTax
Dividend allowance£500.000.00%£0.00
Ordinary rate£36,930.0010.75%£3,969.98
Income tax£3,969.98

Most people are somewhere in between. A salary of £50,000 with £1,000 of interest and £2,000 of dividends comes to £9,718.30 in Scotland against £8,168.25 elsewhere. Of that £1,550.05 difference, £1,442.05 comes from the salary — and the interest and the dividends contribute £108.00.

None of these figures include National Insurance, which is not devolved, or a student loan repayment, or a pension contribution. All three would change what each of them actually keeps, and none of them would change the comparison — because none of them differ in Scotland either.

Methodology and sources

The calculation, in order

  1. Add the three incomes. That total decides the personal allowance, which is a UK figure of £12,570 and tapers away above £100,000 at £1 for every £2 of income.
  2. Allocate that allowance across the three kinds of income in whichever way produces the lowest bill, as the law permits. The engine searches the allocation rather than assuming one.
  3. Tax what is left in the statutory stacking order: earnings first, then savings interest, then dividends. Each kind starts wherever the one below it finished.
  4. Use the Scottish six-band schedule for earnings, and the UK schedules for savings interest and dividends.
  5. Run all of that a second time with the rest-of-UK earned schedule and identical income, and subtract. That difference is what the page is for.

What is devolved

Tax or figureSet by
Income tax on earnings, pensions and rental profitThe Scottish Parliament
Income tax on savings interestThe UK Parliament
Income tax on dividendsThe UK Parliament
Capital gains taxThe UK Parliament
National InsuranceThe UK Parliament
The personal allowance, and the taper that withdraws it on a high incomeThe UK Parliament

Rates and allowances

Figure2025/262026/27
Personal allowance£12,570£12,570
Personal allowance taper starts at£100,000£100,000
Earned income — ScotlandStarter 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 £125,140Starter 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
Earned income — England, Wales and Northern IrelandBasic rate 20.00% from £0; Higher rate 40.00% from £37,700; Additional rate 45.00% from £125,140Basic rate 20.00% from £0; Higher rate 40.00% from £37,700; Additional rate 45.00% from £125,140
Savings interest — the same schedule in bothBasic rate 20.00% from £0; Higher rate 40.00% from £37,700; Additional rate 45.00% from £125,140Basic rate 20.00% from £0; Higher rate 40.00% from £37,700; Additional rate 45.00% from £125,140
Dividends — the same schedule in bothOrdinary rate 8.75% from £0; Upper rate 33.75% from £37,700; Additional rate 39.35% from £125,140Ordinary rate 10.75% from £0; Upper rate 35.75% from £37,700; Additional rate 39.35% from £125,140
Dividend allowance£500£500
Starting rate band for savings£5,000 at 0.00%£5,000 at 0.00%
Personal savings allowance — basic / higher / additional£1,000 / £500 / £0£1,000 / £500 / £0

Thresholds in that table are taxable income, after the personal allowance. The savings and dividend rows are read from the Scottish region and are the UK schedules, which is the fact this page exists to make visible rather than an accident of presentation. The personal savings allowance in particular is set by which UK band your total income reaches, so a Scottish intermediate-rate taxpayer is a UK basic-rate taxpayer for it.

What this page does not model

  • National Insurance. Not devolved and not included, so this is not take-home pay.
  • Capital gains tax. Also not devolved; a gain stacks on taxable income and meets the UK basic-rate band.
  • Student loan repayments, including Scotland’s Plan 4.
  • Pension contributions. No pension input on this page, so no band extension for relief at source — though the engine behind it models both.
  • Tax codes, the marriage allowance and the blind person’s allowance, all of which move the personal allowance.

Where the figures come from

The rates and allowances in the table above were verified against gov.uk and gov.scot 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

Do you pay more tax in Scotland?

It depends entirely on which kind of income you have, which is why a single answer to that question is always wrong for somebody. On £50,000 of salary in 2026/27, Scottish income tax is £8,982.05 against £7,486.00 in England, Wales or Northern Ireland. On £50,000 of dividends and no salary, the two are £3,969.98 and £3,969.98 — because dividend rates are not devolved. Lower earners in Scotland also pay slightly less than they would elsewhere, because of the starter rate. Put your own figures in the calculator above and it will tell you which side you are on.

Which taxes are devolved to Scotland?

Of the taxes on this page, one: income tax on non-savings, non-dividend income — earnings, pensions, rental profit and self-employed profit. The Scottish Parliament sets the rates and thresholds for that and nothing else here. Income tax on savings interest and on dividends, capital gains tax, National Insurance and the personal allowance itself are all reserved to the UK Parliament and are the same wherever in the UK you live.

Do Scottish tax rates apply to my dividends?

No. Dividends are charged at the UK ordinary, upper and additional dividend rates, with the same dividend allowance, wherever in the UK you live. This is the single most common mistake made about Scottish tax, and it matters most to company directors paying themselves in dividends: their income tax on those dividends does not change if they move to or from Scotland. The same is true of savings interest and of capital gains.

Does living in Scotland change my personal savings allowance?

Not directly, and the way it works surprises people. The personal savings allowance is set by which band your total taxable income reaches — but the bands used for that test are the UK ones, not the Scottish ones. So a Scottish taxpayer who is on the intermediate rate for their salary counts as a UK basic-rate taxpayer for the personal savings allowance and gets the full amount. Being a Scottish higher-rate taxpayer does not, on its own, halve your savings allowance.

How many income tax bands does Scotland have?

Six on earned income — starter, basic, intermediate, higher, advanced and top — where England, Wales and Northern Ireland have three. Each pound is charged at the rate of the band it falls in, so crossing a threshold changes the rate on the next pound and on nothing underneath it. The income tax calculator for Scotland shows all six bands with the gross income ranges gov.scot publishes.

Is this my take-home pay?

No. This page works out income tax. National Insurance is deducted from earnings as well, is not devolved, and is not included here, so what reaches your bank account is lower than the figure shown. Use the take home pay calculator for Scotland for salary in and net pay out, including National Insurance and a monthly figure.

Does where I work or where I live decide it?

Where you live. HMRC decides whether you are a Scottish taxpayer from the address it holds for you and tells your employer by issuing a tax code beginning with S. Somebody living in Berwick and commuting to Edinburgh is not a Scottish taxpayer; somebody living in Dumfries and commuting to Carlisle is. If you have moved recently it is worth checking the code on your payslip, because a stale one is a common payroll error.

Why does the calculator show a difference on a line that is not devolved?

Because of where the personal allowance lands. The law lets the allowance be set against whichever income reduces the bill most, and the best allocation depends on the rate schedule sitting under each kind of income — one of which is Scottish. So on some mixes of salary, interest and dividends the allowance falls differently either side of the border and a UK-rated line moves by a few pounds. No dividend or savings rate has changed; the allowance simply sheltered a different pound. The calculator computes both positions in full rather than asserting the two must be equal.

Should ISA income go in these boxes?

No. Interest and dividends inside an ISA are tax free and are not part of your taxable income at all, so entering them would tax income that bears none and overstate your bill. The same is true of the tax-free lump sum from a pension. Only enter income that is taxable.