60% tax trap calculator

Between £100,000 and £125,140 of adjusted net income, you lose £1 of your £12,570 Personal Allowance for every £2 you earn. That makes the tax on income in this band 60%, or 62% with National Insurance. Put in your figures to see what it costs you.

Getting out of the 60% band

Pension contributions and Gift Aid both lower adjusted net income, so they win back the Personal Allowance. Paying enough in to bring adjusted net income down to £100,000 restores all of it. Every £1 of salary sacrificed in this band saves 60p of income tax and 2p of National Insurance.

From April 2029 only the first £2,000 a year of salary sacrifice will be free of National Insurance, but the income tax saving stays the same. More on the 2029 change.

Above £125,140

Once the allowance has gone, the rate on the next pound drops back to 45%, the additional rate. So the band where a pension contribution saves the most tax is exactly £100,000 to £125,140.

If you have young children

Going over £100,000 also loses 30 funded hours and Tax-Free Childcare, which for many families costs far more than the extra tax. How the childcare limit works.

More guides

• How much pension to get under £100,000: calculator

  Work out how much more to pay into your pension to bring adjusted net income back to £100,000, and what it costs.

• The 60% tax trap between £100,000 and £125,140

  Why income between £100,000 and £125,140 is taxed at 60%, and how pension contributions get you out of it.

• Losing funded childcare at £100,000

  How 30 funded hours and Tax-Free Childcare stop when either parent goes over £100,000, and what stays.

• Salary sacrifice, net pay and relief at source

  The three ways pension contributions are made, and how each one lowers your adjusted net income.

• The High Income Child Benefit Charge

  How Child Benefit is clawed back between £60,000 and £80,000, and why you should still claim.

• What is adjusted net income?

  The income figure behind the £100,000 childcare limit, the Personal Allowance taper and the Child Benefit charge.

• Budget 2026: what it means for parents near £100,000

  What the 28 October 2026 Budget changed, and didn't, for families around the £100,000 childcare limit.

• Salary sacrifice from April 2029: the £2,000 National Insurance cap

  From April 2029 only £2,000 a year of pension salary sacrifice is free of National Insurance. Why it still keeps you under £100,000.

• Bonus season: sacrificing a bonus to stay under £100,000

  How to put part of a bonus into your pension so it doesn't push you over £100,000, and when to ask.

Sources

• Income Tax rates and Personal Allowances (GOV.UK)
• Adjusted net income (GOV.UK)

Checked 31 October 2026 for England. This guide is general information, not financial advice.