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Scottish Tax Calculator 2026/27

Take-home a month£0

Your details

£

Your pay before tax — enter it for whichever period suits you.

Scotland has different income tax bands.

Select any plans you're repaying.

Your estimated take-home pay

Your estimated take-home pay is £0 per month, from £0 gross.

Estimates only, based on the 2026/27 tax year. This is a guide, not financial advice — for your personal situation consult a qualified accountant or HMRC.

Where your money goes

A full breakdown of your 2026/27 deductions.

You keep0%
Take-home pay
£0.000.0%

Amounts shown a month. Percentages are a share of your gross salary.

How your income tax is worked out

Personal allowance
£12,570
Taxable income
£0
Effective deduction rate
0.0%

Scotland sets its own income tax rates and bands, so a Scottish payslip does not match an English one on the same salary. The Scottish taxpayer setting is already switched on below — enter your salary to see your take-home pay under Scotland's six bands for 2026/27.

Last updated 25 July 2026 · reviewed by the TaxBreakdown team

How to use this Scottish tax calculator

Enter your gross salary and the calculator applies the Scottish income tax bands straight away — the Scottish taxpayer switch is on by default on this page, so there is nothing to remember. Add a pension contribution or a student loan plan (Plan 4 for most Scottish graduates) and the results update as you type. If you move to another part of the UK, switching the toggle off gives you the comparison figure, or use the standard salary calculator.

Scotland's 6 income tax bands for 2026/27

Scottish income tax has 6 bands, against three in the rest of the UK, and they start with a 19% starter rate that does not exist elsewhere. They sit on top of the same £12,570 Personal Allowance, which is set by the UK government and applies across the whole UK.

Scottish income tax bands, 2026/27
Scottish bandTaxable incomeRate
Personal AllowanceSet UK-wide, not by ScotlandUp to £12,5700%
Starter rate£12,571 to £16,53719%
Basic rate£16,538 to £29,52620%
Intermediate rate£29,527 to £43,66221%
Higher rate£43,663 to £75,00042%
Advanced rate£75,001 to £125,14045%
Top rate£125,141 and above48%

The single biggest structural difference is where the higher rate starts. In Scotland the 42% higher rate bites above £43,662; in England, Wales and Northern Ireland the 40% higher rate does not start until £50,270. That gap of roughly £6,608 of income, taxed 22% higher, is where most of the difference between the two systems comes from.

Scotland compared with the rest of the UK

The starter rate leaves a Scottish taxpayer slightly ahead at low incomes, and the intermediate, higher and advanced rates take it back above that. The turning point for 2026/27 is an income of £33,494 — below that a Scottish taxpayer pays slightly less income tax than someone on the same salary in England, and above it they pay more. That figure is found by the calculator engine scanning the two band tables, so it moves automatically whenever the bands do.

Both columns below come from the same take-home engine with no pension and no student loan, so National Insurance is identical on each row and only the income tax differs.

Take-home pay in Scotland compared with the rest of the UK, 2026/27
SalaryScottish income taxRest-of-UK income taxTake-home in ScotlandDifference a year
£20,000£1,446£1,486£17,959+£40
£30,000£3,451£3,486£25,155+£35
£40,000£5,551£5,486£32,255−£65
£50,000£8,982£7,486£38,024−£1,496
£65,000£15,282£13,432£46,407−£1,850
£90,000£26,232£23,432£59,957−£2,800

What Scotland does not control

Only the rates and bands on non-savings, non-dividend income are devolved. Everything else on a Scottish payslip is set UK-wide:

  • National Insurance. Reserved to the UK government — the same £12,570 Primary Threshold, the same £50,270 Upper Earnings Limit and the same 8% and 2% rates as everywhere else. See the National Insurance calculator.
  • The Personal Allowance. £12,570 UK-wide, including the taper that removes it between £100,000 and £125,140.
  • Dividend and savings rates. Dividend income and savings interest are taxed at UK rates wherever you live, with the UK-wide dividend allowance of £500. A Scottish company director pays Scottish rates on salary and UK rates on dividends — the dividend tax calculator covers that side.
  • Student loans. Repayments run through PAYE on the same UK-wide basis. Scottish graduates normally repay under Plan 4 (Scotland), at 9% of earnings above £33,795.

Are you a Scottish taxpayer?

You are a Scottish taxpayer if your only or main home was in Scotland for most of the tax year. It turns on where you live, not where your employer is based or where the work is done — someone living in Edinburgh and working remotely for a London firm pays Scottish rates, and someone living in Carlisle and commuting to Dumfries does not.

HMRC works your status out from the address on your record and flags it with an S prefix on your tax code, for example S1257L. If you have moved to or from Scotland and your code has not changed, tell HMRC: an out-of-date address means you are being taxed under the wrong band table, and the difference is corrected later rather than avoided.

Frequently asked questions

Related calculators

Sources & methodology

The Scottish rates and bands come from gov.uk and the Scottish Government's own published figures for the 2026/27 tax year; National Insurance, the Personal Allowance and student loan thresholds come from HMRC. Every worked figure on this page is generated by the calculator engine rather than typed in. For a full explanation of the method, see our methodology page.

Last reviewed by the TaxBreakdown team on 25 July 2026. Estimates are based on the 2026/27 tax year and are a guide, not financial advice.