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Lump sum and death benefit allowance (LSDBA) calculator
The death-benefit-side allowance: what an SIH or tax-free death benefit consumes, what remains, and the marginal-rate excess.
Free, no sign-up. Runs the same engine and the same versioned tax-year config the signed-in suite uses — nothing leaves your browser. How we verify the numbers.
The event, and what's already used.
Post-75 SIH and death benefits are taxable income, not allowance-tested — use the full workflow.
The lump sum being paid at this event.
From post-April-2024 events. Pre-2024 → TTFAC calculator first.
PCLS events consume both allowances; SIH/death-benefit consume LSDBA only.
Used to price any excess at the marginal rate.
Enhanced / Primary Protection need member-specific factors — use the full workflow.
The LSDBA framework applies from 2024/25.
— How it's calculated
The Lump Sum and Death Benefit Allowance
The LSDBA caps the total tax-free lump sums payable across the member's lifetime AND on death — £1,073,100 as standard. Every PCLS consumes both the LSA and the LSDBA; serious ill-health lump sums and tax-free death benefits (death before 75) consume the LSDBA only. Amounts above the remaining allowance are taxed on the recipient at their marginal rate.
PTM172000 · FA 2024 Sch 9
Pre-75 vs post-75
The allowance test applies to serious ill-health lump sums and death benefits only where the event is before age 75. Post-75, those payments are simply taxable income in the recipient's hands — no allowance is consumed and no excess arises. PCLS and UFPLS keep consuming allowance after 75.
PTM173000 (RBCEs) · PTM063400 (SIHLS)
Protection raises the ceiling
Fixed Protection 2016 keeps a £1,250,000 LSDBA; Individual Protection 2014/2016 set it to the protected LTA. Enhanced Protection leaves the LSDBA effectively uncapped. The tool above covers the fixed and individual regimes.
PTM176000 (protections under the new framework)
— Worked example
- Standard LSDBA
- £1,073,100
- Consumed by this event (capped at remaining)
- £1,073,100
- Remaining
- £0
- Excess — taxed on the beneficiary at marginal rate
- £126,900
- Estimated tax on the excess (beneficiary income £30,000)
- £51,436.5
Computed live by the same engine the tool above runs. The excess is taxed as the beneficiary's income at their marginal rate — under the pre-2024 regime this would have been a 55% LTA charge.
— Related
- The LSDBA: the £1,073,100 ceiling that bites on death before 75
- LSA calculator — the lifetime tax-free-cash side
- TTFAC calculator — pre-2024 crystallisations and the transitional deduction
- Full LSDBA workflow — post-75 events, UFPLS, beneficiary planning
- How every figure is verified against the HMRC corpus
— When you're ready
Save the calc to a client and get the branded compliance PDF — full working, legislative references, config version, sign-off trail.
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For planning and illustration purposes only · Verify all inputs against source documents · This tool does not constitute financial or tax advice.