How much is the Personal Allowance?
The standard Personal Allowance is £12,570 for both 2025/26 and 2026/27. It goes down by £1 for every £2 that your adjusted net income is above £100,000, so it reaches zero at £125,140. The Personal Allowance is the amount of income you can receive before paying Income Tax.
Figures checked against gov.uk on . General information, not tax advice.
At a glance
- Standard Personal Allowance
- £12,570 (2025/26 and 2026/27)
- Reduction starts above
- Adjusted net income of £100,000
- Reduction
- £1 for every £2 over £100,000
- Allowance reaches zero at
- £125,140
A worked example of the taper
Illustrative only: if your adjusted net income is £110,000, you are £10,000 over the £100,000 limit. The allowance falls by half of that, £5,000, leaving £7,570 instead of £12,570. At £125,140 or more the allowance is nil, which is why the effective tax rate on income between £100,000 and £125,140 is higher than the headline 40%.
Why adjusted net income, not salary
The test is adjusted net income, which counts total taxable income before the Personal Allowance and after certain reliefs. A pension contribution or Gift Aid donation can lower it and so restore part of the allowance.
The allowance feeds into your tax code, where it appears as the number in a code such as 1257L, and it can be transferred in part through Marriage Allowance.