How we work the numbers

Corporation tax on company profits.

Both thresholds are divided by the number of associated companies, so a second company can raise the rate on the first.

Tax rates on dividends above the allowance.

The basic and higher rates rose for 2026 to 2027. Any salary-versus-dividend sum built on the old numbers is out of date.

Dividend income you can receive before tax.

Employer National Insurance and the threshold it starts at.

A director paying themselves a salary pays this on top of income tax and employee NI.

The reduction in an employer's annual National Insurance bill.

Not available to a company whose only employee is a single director.

The turnover at which VAT registration becomes compulsory.

Rolling 12 months, not your accounting year.

The reduced capital gains rate when selling a business.

The rate has risen twice in two years. Any exit plan built on 10% is out of date.

Benefits an employer can provide without tax, National Insurance or reporting.

All four conditions must hold: it costs £50 or less, it is not cash or a cash voucher, it is not a reward for work or performance, and it is not in the employment contract. Fail any one and the whole benefit is taxable, not the excess.

National Insurance for the self-employed.

Below £7,105 you can pay voluntary Class 2 to protect your State Pension record.

Extra tax-free savings interest for people with low other income.

Often overlooked by company directors taking a small salary.

Income tax rates and bands in England, Wales and Northern Ireland.

Scotland sets its own bands and rates.

How the personal allowance is withdrawn above £100,000.

Produces an effective 60% marginal rate on income between £100,000 and £125,140 in England, Wales and Northern Ireland. Scottish rates differ.

What adjusted net income is, and what reduces it.

Includes foreign income. It is not the same as gross salary or taxable pay.

Class 1 National Insurance deducted from an employee's pay.

A director's National Insurance is worked out over the whole tax year rather than pay period by pay period, which is why a director's salary can be planned against the annual thresholds.

Giving up cash pay for a non-cash benefit, which reduces the pay both tax and National Insurance are charged on.

It cannot take cash earnings below the National Minimum Wage. Pension contributions, workplace nurseries and cycle-to-work are among the benefits that need no valuing or reporting; most others still do.

What Gift Aid adds for the charity, and what a higher rate taxpayer can reclaim.

GOV.UK's own example: donate £100, the charity claims Gift Aid to make it £125, and a 40% taxpayer personally claims back £25. The reclaim is through Self Assessment or a tax code change. It does not happen automatically.

Personal allowance one spouse or civil partner can transfer to the other.

The lower earner must have income below the personal allowance and the higher earner must be a basic rate taxpayer (income between £12,571 and £50,270, or £12,571 and £43,662 in Scotland). It is not available where the higher earner pays higher rate tax.

The standard annual allowance for tax-relieved pension contributions.

Tapers down where threshold income is over £200,000 and adjusted income is over £260,000.

The incomes at which the pension annual allowance starts to taper.

Both tests must be met before the allowance is reduced.

The floor the tapered annual allowance reduces to.

Reached where adjusted income is high enough; the threshold and adjusted income limits differ for earlier tax years.

Unused pension annual allowance that can be carried forward.

It cannot be used against the money purchase annual allowance. Contributions are still limited by earnings in the year they are made.

The reduced annual allowance that applies once a defined contribution pension has been flexibly accessed.

Triggered by flexibly accessing a defined contribution pension. Unused allowance from earlier years cannot be carried forward against it, and the MPAA itself cannot be carried forward.

The full new State Pension, and the record needed for it.

35 years applies to a National Insurance record starting after April 2016. Anybody contracted out before 2016 typically needs more.

The total that can be paid into ISAs in a tax year.

The annual Junior ISA subscription limit.

The child can take control at 16 and withdraw at 18. It is their money, not yours.

Lifetime ISA limits and the government bonus.

Pay in before 50, open before 40. Withdrawing for anything other than a first home or age 60 carries a charge.

The capital gains tax-free allowance.

Capital gains tax rates on most assets.

Capital gains tax on assets given to a spouse or civil partner.

Not available if you separated and did not live together at all in that tax year, or where the asset is trading stock. The gain is not cancelled. The recipient inherits the original cost, so their eventual gain runs from it.

Savings interest you can receive before tax.

Stamp duty on a home you will own outright, England and Northern Ireland.

Scotland and Wales charge their own taxes instead.

First-time buyer stamp duty relief.

A cliff: one pound over £500,000 and the whole relief goes.

The surcharge on an additional residential property.

The stamp duty surcharge for a buyer who is not resident in the UK, England and Northern Ireland.

Residence here is not the same test as for income tax. A buyer is non-resident for this purpose if they were present in the UK on fewer than 183 days in the 12 months before the purchase. A refund can be claimed if they then spend 183 days here in the 12 months after it. It stacks with the additional-property surcharge rather than replacing it.

When selling your own home is free of capital gains tax.

All of: one home lived in as the main home throughout, no part let (a lodger is fine), no part used exclusively for business, grounds and buildings under 5,000 square metres, and not bought to make a gain. A couple can have only one main residence at a time.

Income from letting furnished accommodation in your own home that is not taxed.

The home must be one you live in, and it does not apply to a property divided into separate flats. Below the threshold the exemption is automatic; above it, a tax return is needed to claim it.

How mortgage interest is relieved for an individual letting residential property.

The reduction is 20% of the lowest of three amounts: the finance costs, the property business profits, and adjusted total income above the personal allowance. Because interest is no longer deducted, rental profit is higher for every other purpose, including the £100,000 and £60,000 thresholds.

The inheritance tax nil-rate band, and the rates above it.

The additional allowance when a home passes to direct descendants.

Reduced by £1 for every £2 an estate is worth above the £2 million taper threshold.

Gifts you can make each year that leave your estate immediately.

Small gift and wedding gift exemptions.

The £250 cannot be combined with another allowance for the same person.

How tax on a gift falls away over seven years.

Taper relief only applies where gifts made in the seven years before death exceed the £325,000 threshold. It reduces tax on the gift, not the value of the gift.

Unused inheritance tax threshold passing to a surviving spouse or civil partner.

This is the source of the widely quoted £1m for a couple, which requires the residence nil-rate band as well and therefore a home passing to children or grandchildren. It has to be claimed.

Regular gifts made out of income, which leave the estate immediately.

The payments must be affordable after normal living costs and come from regular income rather than capital. There is no seven-year wait, which is what makes it different from every other gift. Records need to be kept, because the executors have to prove the pattern.

The reduced inheritance tax rate for an estate leaving enough to charity.

It applies to some assets rather than automatically to the whole estate, and the 10% is of the net value.

Unused pension funds and death benefits entering the estate for inheritance tax.

Death in service benefits from a registered scheme, and dependants' scheme pensions from a defined benefit or collective money purchase arrangement, are excluded. Personal representatives rather than scheme administrators become liable for reporting and paying.

Free childcare for working parents in England, and the income at which it is lost.

England only. Scotland, Wales and Northern Ireland run different schemes with different rules.

The Tax-Free Childcare top-up, and the income at which it is lost.

Cannot be held at the same time as Universal Credit or childcare vouchers. Runs UK-wide, unlike the free hours.

The income at which Child Benefit starts to be clawed back.

Annual income thresholds and deduction rates for student loan repayment.

Median household total wealth in Great Britain, by age of household head.

These are household figures by age of the household head, not individual figures, and ONS total wealth includes physical wealth such as vehicles and contents. They are stated in April 2020 to March 2022 prices, so they understate today's cash amounts.

Median household wealth excluding private pensions, in cash and in real terms, since 2006.

Real-terms figures are in April 2020 to March 2022 prices, adjusted using CPIH. Excludes private pension wealth, which is the largest single component for many households.

What household wealth in Great Britain is made of.

Three quarters of it sits in two things that never appear in a bank account.

The gap between the wealthiest and least wealthy regions of Great Britain.

Median household total wealth, so it includes property and pensions.