Already confirmed
Legislated · April 2027+These aren't Budget-day surprises — they're already announced for the 2027/28 tax year and beyond. If any affect you, they're worth acting on now, not in October.
The ISA shake-up
The overall £20,000 ISA allowance stays, but from April 2027 the amount you can hold in a cash ISA is set to fall for under-65s, and uninvested cash sitting in a stocks & shares ISA is due to be taxed. The nudge is clear: move idle cash into investments or use it inside the wrapper.
Bed & ISA calculator →Landlords: +2% on rental profit
From April 2027, income tax on rental profits rises by two percentage points for individual landlords in England (20%→22%, 40%→42%, 45%→47%). It applies to individuals, not company-held property, and Scotland has said it won't follow. If you let property, your after-tax yield changes.
Check your tax band →Pensions fall into inheritance tax
From April 2027, unused pension pots are brought within your estate for inheritance tax — reversing years of pensions being a tax-efficient way to pass wealth on. For anyone with a sizeable SIPP and an IHT-exposed estate, this reshapes the plan.
IHT on pensions calculator →Scotland's £1m+ council-tax bands
Holyrood has confirmed new council-tax bands for homes worth over £1m, due by April 2028, with a consultation on the exact rates underway — Scotland's own answer to the "mansion tax" question, on a lower threshold than England's.
The property-tax debate →On the table
Rumoured · not confirmedThese are the measures being trailed, leaked and speculated about in the run-up. None are confirmed — treat them as "what to watch," not what to do. We'll mark each one confirmed or dropped on the day. Each links to a calculator so you can see what it would mean for you.
Inheritance tax replaced by a care levy
The one worth understanding properly, because "scrapping inheritance tax" sounds like good news and might not be. The idea is a flat levy on every estate at death — 10% is the figure most often quoted — replacing inheritance tax and funding a National Care Service costed at up to £18.7bn a year. It was first floated in 2009 and dropped after being labelled a death tax; Downing Street has declined to rule it out, while the government says it has no plans for it.
Why it matters more than the headline: today most estates pay nothing, because the first £325,000 is free and a home left to children can add £175,000 on top. A levy charged on all estates would reach people who currently pay nothing at all — so abolishing inheritance tax could mean more families paying, not fewer, with the biggest estates paying less.
Nothing is committed: no rate, no threshold and no start date have been announced, and the more recent language is a "progressive care levy" rather than a flat 10%. Treat the number as illustrative.
What care actually costs →A capital gains tax rise
CGT was last raised in 2024 (to 24% on most gains) and there's persistent talk of another increase, and of aligning it closer to income tax. If you're sitting on gains outside an ISA, the annual exemption and timing matter more than ever.
CGT calculator →The pension lump sum
Persistent speculation about cutting the tax-free pension lump sum — currently up to £268,275 — with some previews floating a figure as low as £100,000. Also on the radar: trimming pension tax relief, which costs the Treasury around £50bn a year. Unconfirmed, but the most-watched pension question of the Budget.
What your lump sum is worth →Dividend tax
Talk of moving dividend tax rates closer to income tax, on top of an allowance that's already been cut to just £500 a year. Relevant if you draw dividends from your own company or hold shares outside a wrapper.
Dividend tax calculator →Wealth & property taxes
Ruled out on 9 September: Number 10 has said the reports that council tax and stamp duty would be replaced by a 0.48% annual charge on your home's value aren't true, and that stamp duty isn't being reformed on 28 October. Nothing changes for you there — council tax works the way it always has, and you'll pay the same stamp duty when you next buy. A mansion tax on the priciest homes is still talked about, and the £2m threshold is the number to watch, but nothing is committed. The calculator stays up because this idea has come back three times now.
Property tax calculator →Unlikely to move
Manifesto-protectedHeadline income tax, VAT & National Insurance rates
The government's manifesto ruled out raising the headline rates of income tax, VAT and employee National Insurance, and that's expected to hold. But watch the quieter lever: frozen thresholds. Because allowances aren't rising with inflation, more of your income is pulled into tax — and into higher bands — every year. That "fiscal drag" is a tax rise in everything but name, and it's the one most likely to affect you without a single rate changing.
See how the freeze affects you →See what any of this does to your actual plan
The Budget matters because of what it does to your numbers. WealthR tracks your net worth, pensions, tax and forecasts in one place — so when a change lands, you can see the effect on your own picture, not a headline. Free, no bank linking.
How to read the run-up
Budgets aren't decided on the day — they're trailed for weeks. Expect a steady drip of previews, think-tank papers and "sources say" stories through October, each one attaching a specific number to a specific idea. Most won't happen. The job between now and the 28th isn't to react to every rumour; it's to know which changes would actually touch your situation, so that when the Chancellor confirms one, you already understand it.
That's what this page is for. The confirmed section is safe to act on today. The on the table section is a watch-list, not a to-do list — but it tells you which calculators to have open when the speech starts. And on the afternoon of 28 October, once the Red Book is out, we'll replace every "rumoured" with what actually happened and what it means for you.
Work out your own numbers
Most of the speculation above only matters if it touches your situation. These are free, no signup, and set up for the current 2026/27 rules — so you can see your starting point before anything moves on the 28th.
Property: proportional property tax · stamp duty (England & NI) · LBTT (Scotland) · LTT (Wales)
Pensions: carry forward · salary sacrifice · tax on the State Pension · pension IHT from 2027
Savings and investments: cash ISA limit · tax on savings interest · dividend tax · bed & ISA
Longer reads on the two live property questions: what a 0.48% proportional property tax would cost, and what a 1.28% land value tax would cost.
Common questions
When is the Autumn Budget 2026?
What is already confirmed for April 2027?
What might change at the Budget?
Will the tax-free pension lump sum be cut?
Will income tax, VAT or National Insurance rates go up?
Is this page financial advice?
Last checked 17 September 2026. This page will be updated live on Budget day, 28 October 2026.