State Pension Tax Calculator 2026/27

Yes — the State Pension is taxable income. It just isn't taxed at source. HMRC counts it towards your total income for the year, and if that total is above your personal allowance (£12,570 in 2026/27), you pay income tax on the excess.

Frozen thresholds and the triple lock are both perennial Budget questions, and the Autumn Budget on 28 October 2026 answered this one: the full new State Pension rises to £13,036.40 in 2027/28 — above the frozen £12,570 allowance for the first time — and a new Pension Tax Allowance cancels the tax for people whose income is at or near that level. The detail is below.

For years this rarely bit, because the State Pension sat comfortably below the allowance. That gap has almost closed. In 2026/27 the full new State Pension pays £241.30 a week — £12,547.60 a year, leaving just £22.40 of headroom. That crossing is now confirmed: from April 2027 the full new State Pension is £250.70 a week, £13,036.40 a year — £466.40 above the frozen allowance, which on its own would mean about £93.28 of tax. The Autumn Budget created a Pension Tax Allowance that cancels it, automatically and with no claim, for 2027/28 to 2029/30. It supersedes the Simple Assessment arrangement announced at Budget 2025.

Rates and thresholds shown are for England, Wales and Northern Ireland. Scotland sets its own bands — use the Scotland toggle in the calculator for a Scottish estimate.

It is a new reduction in the income tax you owe, announced at the Autumn Budget on 28 October 2026 and running for three tax years: 2027/28, 2028/29 and 2029/30. It exists because the triple lock finally pushes the full new State Pension above the frozen personal allowance in April 2027, which would otherwise hand a tax bill to people whose only income is the State Pension.

It is not a bigger personal allowance. HMRC is explicit about that — your personal allowance stays at £12,570. The Pension Tax Allowance is applied to the tax itself, it cannot be worth more than the tax you owe, and it never produces a refund.

At its full value it is worth up to £94. It then tapers: for every £3 of income above £13,036.40, it falls by £1. HMRC puts the point where it runs out at £13,319.

HMRC's own worked examples bear that out: somebody on exactly the full new State Pension of £13,036.40 would owe £93.28, and the allowance removes all of it; somebody on £13,400 is above the cut-off and pays the full £166.

You do not apply for it. HMRC says you will not need to contact them or make a claim — it is worked out automatically from the information they already hold about your State Pension age and your income.

Around 500,000 pensioners are expected to benefit in 2027/28, roughly 290,000 of them paying no income tax at all as a result.

No — and from April 2027 still no, though for a different reason. At £12,547.60, the full new State Pension is £22.40 under the £12,570 allowance, so on its own it produces a £0 tax bill in 2026/27. From 2027/28 it rises to £13,036.40, which is above the allowance — and the new Pension Tax Allowance cancels the roughly £93.28 of tax that would otherwise be due. But the margin is wafer-thin: any other taxable income — a small private pension, a few shifts of part-time work, or taxable savings interest — is taxed from the first pound, because your allowance is already almost entirely used up by the State Pension.

The State Pension is always paid gross (no tax taken off). If you owe tax, HMRC usually collects it in one of two ways: by adjusting the tax code on another pension or job so slightly more is deducted there, or — if you have no other PAYE income — through a Simple Assessment letter after the tax year ends, which you pay directly. Either way, it's worth checking your tax code and keeping some headroom aside.