2025-26 against 2026-27
The same salary, run through both tax years, so the difference is a calculation rather than a headline. Each year's dataset was read from its own published tables — nothing was carried over from one year to the next — and the selector below reaches back a further year.
Difference in take-home pay
—
—
| Per year | 2025-26 | 2026-27 | Change |
|---|
How this was calculated
Both years' figures read from published tables, last verified 2026-08-08. Every source is listed.
What actually changed
Three things moved between the two years, and one very consequential thing did not.
Scotland moved its lower band boundaries
2 of the Scottish band boundaries changed, all at the lower end. That pushes income out of the more expensive bands and into the cheaper ones, so a Scottish taxpayer on an unchanged salary keeps slightly more than they did. How the Scottish bands compare with the rest of the UK.
Student loan thresholds rose
3 of the repayment thresholds went up. Repayments are a percentage of income above the threshold, so a higher threshold means a smaller deduction on the same pay — which is why the comparison above changes noticeably when you tick a plan. Each plan, and which one you are on.
Child Benefit went up
The eldest-child rate rose, worth about £52 a year more for a first child. If your income is in the range where the High Income Child Benefit Charge applies, part of that goes straight back — and the charge thresholds did not move. Where the charge starts and what it costs.
The rest-of-UK thresholds did not move at all
Not the Personal Allowance, not the basic rate limit, not the point the allowance starts to be withdrawn, not either National Insurance threshold. On an unchanged salary in England, Wales or Northern Ireland, the answer is the same to the penny — which is exactly why the comparison below reads as a flat zero for most salaries.
That is not the same as nothing happening. A frozen threshold means a pay rise is taxed at the marginal rate rather than the average one. In 2026-27 a rise of £2,000 on a salary of £40,000 leaves £1,440 of it in hand — 28% of the rise goes in deductions before anything is said about prices.
Between 2024-25 and 2025-26 the striking thing is what the employee never saw: their own deductions were frozen while the cost of employing them jumped.
The employer got the tax rise, not the employee
Every rest-of-UK figure on the employee's side — the Personal Allowance, the bands, both National Insurance thresholds and both rates — was identical across the two years, so the same salary comes out the same to the penny above. The employer's side is another story: the threshold where employer National Insurance starts fell from £9,100 to £5,000 and the rate rose from 13.8% to 15%, so employing someone on £35,000 cost £3,574 in employer NI in 2024-25 and £4,500 a year later. That cost lands on hiring and pay settlements rather than on the payslip, which is why this pair reads as a flat zero here and felt nothing like one. Where the employer's costs come out of a contract rate.
Scotland: the advanced rate's first year, then a nudge
2024-25 is the year the Scottish advanced rate arrived — the old higher band split in two, and both years here have six bands. Between the two, 2 of the lower boundaries rose, so a Scottish taxpayer on an unchanged salary kept slightly more in 2025-26; the upper boundaries did not move. How the Scottish bands compare with the rest of the UK.
Student loans, Child Benefit — and a charge that sat still
3 of the student loan thresholds rose, shrinking the deduction on the same pay. Child Benefit went up, worth about £23 a year for a first child. The High Income Child Benefit Charge thresholds did not move at all, because the regime that starts at £60,000 had only just arrived — 2024-25 was its first year. And for anyone selling assets, 2024-25 is the year that changed rules mid-stream: capital gains rates moved on Budget day, 30 October 2024, not at the year boundary. The current rates, and what changed.
The same salary, 2025-26 and 2026-27
The latest pair, whatever the selector above says: no student loan, no pension, standard tax code. Every figure below was calculated at build time by the engine from the two datasets.
| Salary | rUK change | Scotland 2025-26 | Scotland 2026-27 | Scotland change |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| £25,000 | +£0 | £21,548 | £21,559 | +£11 |
| £40,000 | +£0 | £32,223 | £32,255 | +£32 |
| £60,000 | +£0 | £43,576 | £43,607 | +£32 |
| £100,000 | +£0 | £65,226 | £65,257 | +£32 |
What a comparison like this cannot tell you
- It is not inflation-adjusted. Keeping the same number of pounds is not the same as being in the same position, and this page deliberately does not guess at a deflator.
- 2025-26 is a closed year. This exists to compare, not to file — the figures here are not a substitute for a return.
- A handful of 2025-26 figures could not be confirmed against a page carrying that year's label, and they are named openly rather than quietly used. The methodology page lists every one.
- Employer pension contributions, benefits in kind and anything deducted after tax are outside this comparison. They did not change between the years, so they would move both columns by the same amount.
Comparing two years
- Am I better or worse off than last year?
- On an unchanged salary the answer depends almost entirely on whether the thresholds moved, because a frozen threshold with rising pay is a tax rise nobody announces. The comparison above holds your figures still and lets only the rules change, which is the only way to see it.
- What is fiscal drag?
- The effect of leaving thresholds unchanged while pay rises. More of your income falls above each boundary every year, so the share you keep falls without any rate being altered. It is the largest single force acting on take-home pay at the moment and it never appears as a rate change.
- Which figures actually changed between the two years?
- Between 2025-26 and 2026-27, the dividend rates moved by two percentage points and the Scottish band boundaries shifted; between 2024-25 and 2025-26 the change fell on the employer's side of the payslip instead. Most other figures were held still — which, given pay rises, is what produces the difference in the table above. Every changed figure is listed with its source on the changelog.
- Can I use this to check an old payslip?
- For a rough check, yes. But a closed year is a matter for the return that was filed rather than for a calculator, and the figures here are not a substitute for it. Use it to understand a difference, not to settle one.