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Pension Annual Allowance
Calculator 2026/27

Check how much can go into your pensions in 2026/27 before a tax charge, including the taper for high earners, unused allowance from the last 3 years and the lower limit after you start taking money from a pension.

Tax year 2026/27
Defined contribution: what you and your employer pay in, plus tax relief, across all your pensions. Defined benefit: use the pension input amount on your scheme's statement.
Roughly your taxable income for the year minus the pension contributions you pay yourself. Pay given up through salary sacrifice still counts. Leave blank if it is clearly under £200,000.
Roughly your taxable income before any pension contributions, plus what your employer pays into your pension. How to work out both figures (GOV.UK).
For example, taken cash from a pension pot or from a flexi-access drawdown fund. A £10,000 money purchase annual allowance then applies.

What the annual allowance is

The annual allowance is the most that can go into your pensions in a tax year (6 April to 5 April) without a tax charge. For 2026/27 it is £60,000. It covers all your pensions together and counts everything paid in: your own contributions, your employer's contributions and the tax relief added. With a defined benefit (final salary or career average) scheme, what counts is how much your pension grew in the year. Your scheme works this out and calls it your pension input amount.

There is a separate limit on tax relief. You only get tax relief on your own contributions up to 100% of your relevant UK earnings (mostly pay from a job or self-employment). Employer contributions are not limited by your earnings, but they do count towards the annual allowance.

The tapered annual allowance for high earners

Your allowance is reduced if both of these apply:

It falls by £1 for every £2 of adjusted income over £260,000, but never below £10,000. Threshold income is roughly your income after the pension contributions you pay yourself (pay given up through salary sacrifice is added back). Adjusted income is roughly your income before any pension contributions, plus your employer's contributions. GOV.UK sets out the exact steps for both.

For example, with adjusted income of £300,000 and threshold income of £250,000, you are £40,000 over £260,000. Your allowance falls by £20,000, from £60,000 to £40,000. With adjusted income of £400,000 it would fall by £70,000, so the £10,000 minimum applies instead. With threshold income of £190,000 there is no taper at all, whatever your adjusted income.

Carry forward: using unused allowance from the last 3 years

If you did not use all your allowance in any of the 3 previous tax years, you can add what is left to this year's allowance. You must have been a member of a registered pension scheme in each year you carry forward from. This year's allowance is used first, then unused allowance from the earliest year. For 2026/27 the 3 previous years are 2023/24, 2024/25 and 2025/26, and the allowance was £60,000 in each of them.

Worked example

You live in England, your threshold income is £150,000 (so there is no taper) and £75,000 goes into your pensions this year. In the last 3 years you paid in:

Your total available is £60,000 + £20,000 + £10,000 = £90,000. The first £60,000 of this year's £75,000 uses this year's allowance, and the other £15,000 comes from 2023/24. You could still pay in £15,000 without a charge. The calculator gives the same figures.

The money purchase annual allowance

Once you flexibly access a pension, for example by taking cash from a pension pot or from a flexi-access drawdown fund, a lower limit of £10,000 a year applies to what goes into your defined contribution pensions. This is the money purchase annual allowance. You cannot use carry forward to go above it. If you also build up a defined benefit pension, other rules apply to that part, so check the GOV.UK guidance or ask your scheme.

If you go over

The amount over your allowance is added to your taxable income and taxed at your own Income Tax rates, so it depends on your marginal rate. This is the annual allowance charge. You report it on a Self Assessment tax return. Your pension scheme must pay the charge for you (often called Scheme Pays) if the charge is over £2,000, your savings in that scheme alone are over the annual allowance, and you ask it by the deadline. Your pension provider will send you a statement if you go over the allowance in its scheme. You may want to check your figures with your provider, HMRC or an accountant.

Related calculators

See what paying into a pension costs you each month with the pension contribution calculator, which compares salary sacrifice with relief at source. The take home pay calculator shows your pay after pension, tax and National Insurance, and the income tax calculator shows your tax by band. Every 2026/27 rate is on UK tax rates.

How this is worked out

We start from the £60,000 allowance and apply the taper if your threshold income is over £200,000 and your adjusted income is over £260,000. We then add any unused allowance from 2023/24, 2024/25 and 2025/26, and compare the total with your pension savings this year, using this year's allowance first and then the earliest year. If you go over, the charge estimate adds the excess on top of your threshold income and works out the extra Income Tax at 2026/27 rates, or uses the rate you choose.

What this calculator assumes

  • The 2026/27 tax year. The allowance rules are the same across the UK; the charge estimate uses England, Wales and Northern Ireland or Scottish Income Tax rates, as you choose.
  • Your pension savings figure is the total for the tax year across all your pensions, including tax relief, or your pension input amount for a defined benefit scheme.
  • If you leave your income blank, your allowance is not tapered. The rough income guide uses only the figures you enter, not every item in the full rules.
  • Carry forward only counts years you fill in. The allowance for each of those years is £60,000 unless you enter a lower, tapered figure.
  • If you have flexibly accessed a pension, all your savings this year are treated as going into defined contribution pensions, with a £10,000 limit and no carry forward.
  • The charge is an estimate only. It uses your threshold income as a stand-in for your taxable income and the standard Personal Allowance taper, and ignores any other income, reliefs or tax already paid.

Sources

Rates checked against GOV.UK on 12 October 2026. Read how we calculate or tell us about a mistake.

Frequently asked questions

The annual allowance for 2026/27 is £60,000. It covers everything paid into your pensions in the tax year by you, your employer and through tax relief, across all your schemes. For a defined benefit scheme it is the growth in your pension that year. Tax relief on your own contributions is also limited to 100% of your relevant UK earnings.

Your allowance is tapered if your threshold income is over £200,000 and your adjusted income is over £260,000. It falls by £1 for every £2 of adjusted income over £260,000, down to a minimum of £10,000. If your threshold income is £200,000 or less, there is no taper, whatever your adjusted income.

You can carry forward unused annual allowance from the 3 previous tax years, as long as you were a member of a registered pension scheme in each of those years. This year's allowance is used first, then unused allowance from the earliest of the 3 years. You cannot carry forward unused money purchase annual allowance.

If you flexibly access a pension, for example by taking cash from a pension pot or from a flexi-access drawdown fund, a lower limit of £10,000 a year applies to what goes into your defined contribution pensions. This is the money purchase annual allowance, and you cannot use carry forward to go above it.

The amount over your allowance is added to your taxable income and taxed at your Income Tax rates. This is the annual allowance charge. You report it on a Self Assessment tax return. Your pension scheme must pay the charge for you if the charge is over £2,000, your savings in that scheme are over the annual allowance, and you ask by the deadline of 31 July of the year after the following tax year.