How UK income tax works
Earn £60,000 in Leeds and you pay £11,432 in income tax. Earn the same in Glasgow and the bill is £13,182.05.
The gap is down to Scotland setting its own bands and rates. Everywhere else in the UK uses the same ones, and the rest of this page is about how they work.
Slices, not cliffs
Nobody pays 40% on their whole salary. Each rate applies only to the pay that sits inside its band. The first £12,570 is your personal allowance, which is why the table starts there.
| Up to £12,570 | 0% |
| £12,571 to £50,270 | 20% |
| £50,271 to £125,140 | 40% |
| £125,141 and above | 45% |
Scotland's bands
Scotland sets its own rates for most earnings. For 2026/27 they are:
| Up to £12,570 | 0% |
| £12,571 to £16,537 | 19% |
| £16,538 to £29,526 | 20% |
| £29,527 to £43,662 | 21% |
| £43,663 to £75,000 | 42% |
| £75,001 to £125,140 | 45% |
| £125,141 and above | 48% |
£60,000 worked out by hand
Take the English figures first. The first £12,570 is free of tax. The next £37,700 is taxed at 20%, which is £7,540. That leaves £9,730, taxed at 40%, which is £3,892. Add them up and you get £11,432.
Income tax is only the first deduction. National Insurance comes off too, and perhaps a pension or a student loan. The £60,000 salary page puts them all in one place.
What 1257L on your payslip means
Your employer does not work out your allowance. HMRC sends a tax code, and for 2026/27 the usual one is 1257L. Drop the last digit from your allowance, add a letter, and that is the code: £12,570 becomes 1257, and L means the standard allowance.
Other codes are worth recognising. M means you have received part of your partner's allowance through Marriage Allowance, and N means you have given part of yours away. BR and D0 tax everything from a job at the basic or higher rate, and HMRC usually uses them for a second job. A code ending W1 or M1 is an emergency code. It turns up when you start a new job without a P45, and it taxes each pay packet as though you earned that amount every week or month. If you have overpaid, you get it back once HMRC catches up. Your current code is in your personal tax account.
What these pages do not cover
The figures here assume pay from one job. Interest, dividends, rent and self employed profits are taxed under other rules, so they are left out.
Above £100,000
Past £100,000 the allowance shrinks by £1 for every £2 you earn. It is gone entirely at £125,140. Across that stretch the tax on each extra pound is about 62p once National Insurance is added. We cover it in the £100,000 tax trap.
Keep reading
National Insurance explainedHow a pension changes your take home payHow student loan repayments workThe £100,000 tax trapHow UK tax codes work