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Pension carry forward calculator
Unused allowance from the three prior years, consumed oldest-first — the statutory working shown line by line.
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.
This year, income, and the three prior years.
Versioned config per year — AA, taper threshold and MPAA all move.
Flexible access (e.g. UFPLS, flexi-access income) triggers the MPAA.
All money-purchase inputs: member + employer + tax relief.
From the DB PIA calculation (16× method) — not contributions paid.
Caps tax-relievable member contributions at 100% of earnings.
Net income minus member pension contributions. Below the threshold → no taper.
Net income plus all pension input (incl. employer). Drives the £1-for-£2 taper.
Unused allowance in the three prior years
Oldest year — consumed first.
Carry-forward needs registered-scheme membership in the year the allowance arose, and prior-year unused AA reflects any taper in THAT year — the full calculator derives both from the contribution history.
— How it's calculated
The three-year window
Unused annual allowance from the three immediately preceding tax years can be carried forward and added to the current year's allowance — current year first, then the oldest of the three, then forward. Allowance unused from a tapered year is the unused part of the TAPERED figure for that year, not the standard one.
PTM055100 (carry forward) · FA 2004 s.228A
Membership is the gate
Carry-forward only arises from a year in which the individual was a member of a registered pension scheme — any scheme, with or without contributions. A year with no membership at all contributes nothing, however long ago the scheme was joined.
PTM055100 (conditions)
The MPAA does not wipe carry-forward
A common error: treating a money-purchase annual allowance trigger as erasing the carry-forward pot. It does not. Carry-forward survives — it simply can never be added to the MPAA itself. It remains available for the default chargeable-amount test and for the defined-benefit alternative allowance.
PTM055100 · PTM056500 (MPAA interaction)
— Worked example
- Current-year allowance consumed first
- £60,000
- CF consumed from 2023/24 (oldest first)
- £20,000
- CF consumed from 2024/25
- £15,000
- CF consumed from 2025/26
- £5,000
- Chargeable excess
- £0
Computed live by the same engine the tool above runs. The £40,000 over the in-year allowance consumes the oldest year's headroom first — the statutory order in PTM055100 — leaving the newest year's allowance available next year.
— Related
- Annual allowance calculator — the whole position including taper and MPAA
- Carry forward in depth — the membership condition and the tapered-year trap
- The MPAA — what it actually does to carry-forward
- Taper and carry forward together: the order of operations
- Full pension calculator — derives unused AA from the contribution history
- 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.
3 free calcs / month · no card required · cancel any time.
For planning and illustration purposes only · Verify all inputs against source documents · This tool does not constitute financial or tax advice.