Pension annual allowance calculator
How much you can put into a pension this year, after the taper that reduces it for high earners.
- Standard allowance
- £0
- Reduced by the taper
- £0
- Allowance this year
- £0
- Threshold income
- £0
- Adjusted income
- £0
Two tests, and you have to fail both
The allowance is £60,000 for most people. It only tapers if both of these are true: threshold income above £200,000, and adjusted income above £260,000. Pass either test and you keep the full allowance however large the other number is.
Threshold income is broadly your income less your own contributions. Adjusted income is broadly your income plus your employer's. They pull in opposite directions on purpose: the pair is designed to catch total pension input rather than salary alone.
How far it falls
Above £260,000 of adjusted income the allowance drops by £1 for every £2, until it reaches a floor of £10,000. That floor arrives at £360,000 of adjusted income, and nothing above that reduces it further.
The employer's money counts too
Everything paid in counts, whoever paid it, because none of it has been taxed. A generous employer scheme uses allowance you might have wanted for yourself, and it raises adjusted income, which can be what triggers the taper in the first place. People with defined benefit pensions are caught most often, because the deemed input can be far larger than anything visibly leaving their pay.
What this does not do
Carry forward. You can use unused allowance from the previous three tax years if you were in a scheme then, which frequently rescues a one-off large contribution. This page shows the current year alone, so treat an excess here as a prompt to check the three years behind you rather than a bill.
It also does not handle the money purchase annual allowance, the lower limit that applies once you have flexibly accessed a pension. If you have started drawing income from a pot, your limit is different and this will overstate it.
Common questions
- What is the difference between threshold income and adjusted income?
- Threshold income is broadly your income less your own pension contributions. Adjusted income is broadly your income plus what your employer puts in. The taper only applies if you fail both tests, which is why a high earner whose employer contributes modestly can escape it entirely. Getting the two the wrong way round is the commonest mistake in this calculation.
- What happens if I go over the allowance?
- The excess is added to your taxable income for the year and taxed at your marginal rate, which removes the relief you got on it. You declare it through Self Assessment. If the charge is large enough your scheme may be able to pay it for you out of the pension, which is called Scheme Pays.
- Can I use allowance from previous years?
- Yes. Carry forward lets you use unused allowance from the previous three tax years, provided you were a member of a pension scheme in those years. That frequently rescues a one-off large contribution, and this page does not attempt it: it shows the current year only.
- Does the employer contribution really count against me?
- Yes, and this surprises people. Everything paid in counts towards the allowance, whether it came from you or your employer, because nobody has been taxed on any of it. A generous employer scheme uses up allowance you might have wanted for your own contributions.
- Is this the same as the lifetime allowance?
- No. The lifetime allowance was abolished in April 2024 and replaced by separate limits on tax-free lump sums. The annual allowance is a yearly limit on what goes in, and is unaffected by that change.