← Calculators/Tax year 2026/27·Last reviewed
Pension annual allowance calculator
Standard allowance, the high-earner taper, MPAA and carry-forward in one screen — with the chargeable excess shown, not implied.
Free, no sign-up. Runs the same engine and versioned tax-year config as the signed-in suite — the pension and bond calculation workbench UK paraplanners use to produce compliance-annex PDFs. Your calculator figures stay in this browser unless you choose to share or rerun them in the signed-in workbench. How we verify the numbers.
— In short
The pension annual allowance is the most that can be paid into your pensions each tax year with tax relief — £60,000 as standard. Total pension input — every money-purchase contribution plus any defined-benefit input amount — above the allowance plus available carry-forward is the chargeable amount, taxed at your marginal rate through the annual allowance charge.
ParaplanAI calculator illustration
Pension Annual Allowance
Tax year 2026/27 · Last reviewed 20 Jul 2026
This year, income, and the three prior years.
Versioned config per year — AA, taper threshold and MPAA all move.
The annual-allowance charge is levied at the member's marginal rate on non-savings income, so a Scottish taxpayer is charged on the Scottish bands (PTM056110).
Flexible access (e.g. UFPLS, flexi-access income) triggers the MPAA.
All money-purchase inputs: member + employer + tax relief.
Employer contributions (incl. salary sacrifice) count toward the AA but are NOT capped by your relevant earnings.
From the DB PIA calculation (16× method) — not contributions paid.
Caps tax-relievable MEMBER contributions at the greater of 100% of earnings and £3,600 gross. Employer contributions sit outside this cap. Pension, property, savings and dividend income are not relevant UK earnings.
Net income LESS the gross of the member's relief-at-source contributions (net-pay and salary-sacrifice ones are already out of net income — don't deduct twice), PLUS any pay given up under a salary sacrifice made on or after 9 July 2015. At or below the gate → no taper, whatever the adjusted income.
Net income plus all pension input (incl. employer). Drives the £1-for-£2 taper.
Pension input in the three prior years
Oldest year — consumed first.
Enter the pension input (all contributions) for each prior year — the tool derives the unused allowance as that year’s annual allowance minus the input, so a membership year with no contributions carries the full allowance forward (PTM055100). Untick “scheme member” for any year the client held no registered-scheme membership — that year is excluded from carry-forward. Prior-year taper isn’t applied here; the full pension workbench (free account) derives it from the contribution and income history.
For planning and illustration purposes only. Verify all inputs against source documents. This tool does not constitute financial or tax advice.
Print this quick illustration now. Signed-in users can add a client or file reference before saving it as a PDF — the branded compliance annex, with the full working and HMRC references on every page, comes from the signed-in workflow.
Keep the working
Save this as a branded compliance annex PDF.
A free account saves this calculation to a client record and renders the annex — 3 a month, no card.
Multiple schemes, or prior-year statements to work from? The pension workbench takes the full contribution history and extracts the figures from uploaded documents.
— How it's calculated
The annual allowance test
Total pension input for the year — every money-purchase contribution (member, employer and tax relief) plus any defined-benefit input amount — is tested against the applicable annual allowance plus available carry-forward. Input above that total is the chargeable amount, taxed at the member's marginal rate through the annual allowance charge.
PTM051100 (annual allowance) · FA 2004 s.227–229
Taper and MPAA both bite here
High earners lose allowance £1 for every £2 of adjusted income over the taper line — but only when threshold income also exceeds its gate. Members who have flexibly accessed a money-purchase pot face the MPAA on the DC side instead: a hard cap with no carry-forward against it, while the DB side keeps the alternative allowance. The tool runs the same engine as the signed-in product, so both interactions are priced, not approximated.
PTM057100 (taper) · PTM056510 (MPAA)
The 100% earnings rule is separate
Tax relief on a member's own contributions is capped at the greater of 100% of their relevant UK earnings and the £3,600 gross basic amount — so a member with no relevant earnings at all can still get relief on £3,600 gross a year. It is a different test from the annual allowance, applied to a different base: employer contributions are outside it entirely (they count for the annual allowance but never consume the earnings limit), and pension, property, savings and dividend income are not relevant UK earnings. A member can breach one test without the other; the tool checks both.
— How to calculate the pension annual allowance charge
Step 1
Total the pension input
Add every money-purchase contribution (member, employer and tax relief) plus any defined-benefit pension input amount for the tax year.
Step 2
Find the applicable allowance
Start from the standard annual allowance, then apply the high-earner taper where adjusted income and threshold income both exceed their gates, down to the taper floor.
Step 3
Add carry-forward
Add unused annual allowance from the three previous tax years, used oldest year first.
Step 4
Apply the MPAA if triggered
If the member has flexibly accessed a money-purchase pot, test money-purchase input against the MPAA (no carry-forward against it) and the rest against the alternative annual allowance.
Step 5
Compute the charge
Pension input above the total available allowance is the chargeable amount, taxed at the member’s marginal rate as the annual allowance charge.
— Worked example
- Applicable annual allowance (no taper at this income)
- £60,000
- Carry-forward available
- £45,000
- Total allowance
- £105,000
- Pension input tested
- £70,000
- Chargeable excess
- £0
Computed live by the same engine the tool above runs. The £10,000 over the in-year allowance is absorbed by carry-forward, consumed from the oldest year first — no charge arises.
— Frequently asked questions
What is the pension annual allowance?
It is the maximum pension input you can make in a tax year with tax relief before an annual allowance charge applies — £60,000 as standard. It is reduced by the taper for high earners, and the £10,000 money purchase annual allowance replaces it on the money-purchase side once a pot has been flexibly accessed.
How does carry-forward work with the annual allowance?
You add unused annual allowance from the three previous tax years to the current year, using the current year first and then the oldest of the three. Carry-forward only arises from a year in which you were a member of a registered pension scheme.
When does the annual allowance taper apply?
Only when both income tests are failed: threshold income above its gate and adjusted income above the taper line. Above both, the allowance reduces by £1 for every £2 of adjusted income over the line, down to the year-specific floor.
What is the annual allowance charge?
Where total pension input exceeds the available allowance plus carry-forward, the excess is the chargeable amount and is taxed at your marginal rate. The charge effectively removes the tax relief given on the excess input.
Is the annual allowance the same as the 100% of earnings limit?
No. Tax relief on a member’s own contributions is separately capped at the greater of 100% of their relevant UK earnings and the £3,600 gross basic amount — a different test, on a different base. Employer contributions are outside that limit but still count towards the annual allowance, and pension, property, savings and dividend income are not relevant UK earnings. A member can breach one test without the other, so both are checked.
— Related
- Pension annual allowance: the complete guide
- Carry forward calculator — the three-prior-year working in detail
- Tapered annual allowance calculator — the two income tests
- MPAA calculator — the £10,000 cap and the default-vs-alternative test
- The MPAA — what triggers it and what it does to carry-forward
- Full pension calculator — contribution history, extraction, the compliance PDF (free account)
- How every figure is verified against the HMRC corpus
— When you're ready
Put this calculation in the client file.
ParaplanAI is the paraplanner's calculation workbench: the same engine as this free tool, plus document extraction, full multi-event workflows, and a branded compliance annex PDF with the step-by-step working and its HMRC references — the file a compliance officer signs.