Dividend tax calculator — the top-slice arithmetic

The £500 allowance, then the April-2026 rates of 10.75% / 35.75% / 39.35% — with dividends stacked as the top slice of your income and the personal-allowance taper applied when total income crosses £100,000. The same function the Hundred Summers engine charges on unwrapped holdings every projected year. Your figures never leave your browser.

The stacking rule

Dividends are taxed as the top slice of income: your salary, pension and rent fill the bands first, and dividends land wherever the stack ends. A £10,000 dividend costs £1,021 for someone on £30,000 and £3,396 for someone on £60,000 — same dividend, different band. The allowance has shrunk from £5,000 (2017) to £500, pulling ordinary investors into self-assessment.

The escape routes are structural, not clever: ISAs and pensions pay no dividend tax at all, and moving £20,000 a year of existing holdings into an ISA ("bed and ISA" — mind the CGT on the sale) steadily shelters a portfolio. The full Hundred Summers plan charges this exact function on your unwrapped holdings in every projected year — and its insights rail totals what unwrapped money costs across your whole plan.