The complete map of where each income tax rate kicks in for 2025/26: the tax-free allowance, the basic, higher and additional rate bands, and how Scotland and Wales differ. All frozen, all explained.
Income tax in the UK is built from a stack of bands, and for the 2025/26 tax year every one of those bands sits exactly where it did the year before. Knowing precisely where each rate begins is the difference between guessing at your tax bill and forecasting it to the pound, which matters more than ever now that the thresholds are frozen and quietly dragging more income into higher rates each year.
This guide covers every rate and threshold for 2025/26 across the whole of the UK, how the bands stack on top of one another, the separate systems used in Scotland and Wales, and worked examples for both employees and sole traders. The numbers themselves are simple; the way they interact is where most people go wrong.
For taxpayers in England, Wales and Northern Ireland, income tax on earnings, self-employment profit and pensions is charged using four bands. Each rate applies only to the slice of income that falls inside its band, not to your whole income, a point worth repeating because it is the single most common misunderstanding.
| Band | Taxable income (2025/26) | Rate |
|---|---|---|
| Personal Allowance | £0 to £12,570 | 0% |
| Basic rate | £12,571 to £50,270 | 20% |
| Higher rate | £50,271 to £125,140 | 40% |
| Additional rate | Over £125,140 | 45% |
The basic rate band itself is £37,700 wide. Because it sits on top of the £12,570 allowance, the higher rate begins at £50,270 (£12,570 + £37,700). These are the headline figures most people need, and you can plug your own salary into our salary and income tax calculator to see how they apply to you in seconds.
A frequent worry is that "earning a bit more pushes me into a higher band and I take home less." That is a myth. Tax is marginal: only the income above each threshold is taxed at the higher rate. If you earn £1 over £50,270, only that £1 is taxed at 40%, not your entire income.
The distinction that matters is between your marginal rate (the rate on your next pound) and your effective rate (tax as a percentage of total income). Someone on £60,000 has a 40% marginal rate but an effective rate closer to 19%, because most of their income is taxed at 0% and 20% first.
Take Priya, an employee earning £60,000 with a standard 1257L tax code:
Her total income tax is £11,432, an effective rate of around 19% even though her top, marginal rate is 40%. Earning another £1,000 would cost £400 in tax, never more than the £1,000 itself.
The four headline bands hide a fifth, unofficial rate that catches a growing number of people. Once your adjusted net income passes £100,000, your Personal Allowance is withdrawn by £1 for every £2 of income above that figure, vanishing entirely at £125,140.
Each £1 of lost allowance becomes taxable at 40%, on top of the 40% you already pay on the income itself. The result is an effective 60% marginal rate on income between £100,000 and £125,140. Pension contributions and Gift Aid reduce adjusted net income, so they are the usual tools for escaping this trap. It is a genuine quirk of the system: there is no explicit "60% band" in any HMRC table, yet it is exactly what happens in that £25,140 stretch.
Scotland is where the UK income tax map fractures. Scottish taxpayers (identified by an S prefix on their tax code, such as S1257L) keep the same £12,570 Personal Allowance, which is reserved to Westminster, but pay tax under six bands rather than four on their non-savings, non-dividend income.
| Scottish band (2025/26) | Taxable income | Rate |
|---|---|---|
| Starter rate | £12,571 to £15,397 | 19% |
| Basic rate | £15,398 to £27,491 | 20% |
| Intermediate rate | £27,492 to £43,662 | 21% |
| Higher rate | £43,663 to £75,000 | 42% |
| Advanced rate | £75,001 to £125,140 | 45% |
| Top rate | Over £125,140 | 48% |
The practical effect is significant. A Scottish higher-rate taxpayer starts paying 42% at £43,663, well below the £50,270 point used elsewhere, and the top rate of 48% is three points higher than the rest of the UK's 45%. A Scottish taxpayer on £80,000 pays noticeably more income tax than an English taxpayer on the same salary. Savings interest and dividends, however, are still taxed at UK-wide rates that Holyrood cannot change.
Welsh taxpayers carry a C prefix (for example C1257L). Since 2019 the UK rates have been reduced by 10p for Welsh residents, and the Senedd then adds its own rate back on. For 2025/26, as in every year so far, Wales has set all three rates at 10p, producing 20%, 40% and 45% bands identical to England and Northern Ireland.
So a Welsh taxpayer and an English taxpayer on the same income pay the same income tax this year. The difference is that the power to diverge now exists, and a portion of the tax is allocated to the Welsh budget. For most people the C code is a flag, not a surcharge.
Freezing thresholds while wages climb is sometimes called a "stealth tax," and the label is fair. If the Personal Allowance and higher-rate threshold had risen with inflation since 2021, the higher rate would now begin well above £60,000 rather than at £50,270.
The consequences are concrete:
The rates haven't moved in years, but the thresholds being frozen means your tax bill probably has. Fiscal drag is the most expensive tax change nobody voted for.
Income tax bands apply to self-employment profit in exactly the same way as to a salary. Consider Tom, a self-employed electrician in Leeds with a taxable profit of £55,000 for 2025/26:
His income tax is £9,432. On top of that, as a sole trader Tom also pays Class 4 National Insurance on his profits, which is charged separately and does not affect the income tax bands. You can model the full self-employed picture, income tax and National Insurance together, with our sole trader tax calculator.
From April 2026, Making Tax Digital for Income Tax begins phasing in. Sole traders with qualifying income above £50,000 must keep digital records and submit four cumulative quarterly updates plus a final declaration. The £30,000 threshold follows in April 2027 and £20,000 in April 2028. Crucially, MTD changes how and when you report, not the rates or thresholds: Tom still pays tax using the same 0%, 20%, 40% and 45% bands. TapTax keeps the running record and submits the quarterly updates to HMRC for you.
TapTax connects to your bank, categorises expenses automatically, and submits quarterly updates to HMRC. Free plan, no card required.
