Hundred SummersInherited pension calculator: what a beneficiary actually keeps
Income tax by the owner’s age at death and the beneficiary’s own band, lump sum against beneficiary drawdown over a chosen number of years, and the April 2027 inheritance tax layer: the net figure and the effective rate. Your figures never leave your browser.
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Worked example
Computed when this page was built by the same engine that runs the calculator above, so the figures below and the live tool can never disagree. Change any input above to see your own.
| Inputs | |
|---|---|
| Pot left | £300,000 |
| Age at death / year | 80 / 2027 |
| Left to | A child (not a spouse), estate's nil-rate band already used |
| Beneficiary's own income | £40,000 |
| Taken as | Beneficiary drawdown over 10 years |
| Results | |
|---|---|
| Inheritance tax (from April 2027) | £120,000 |
| Income tax as drawn (death at 75 or over) | £51,460 |
| The beneficiary keeps | £128,540 |
| Share of the pot lost to tax | 57% |
The next question
Will the estate pay inheritance tax too? →Inheritance tax calculator
Or answer it with everything else: the full Hundred Summers plan connects your pay, pensions, savings, property, tax and spending year by year, and stress-tests them across 500 simulated market histories.
Read the guides
- Pensions and inheritance tax from April 2027 →The biggest pension rule change in a decade: unused pension pots join the estate for inheritance tax from April 2027; what changes, the double-tax effect after 75, and how it rewrites the 'spend the pension last' doctrine.
- What happens to your pension when you die →Nominations and scheme discretion, the age-75 line that decides whether your beneficiaries pay income tax, beneficiary drawdown, what defined benefit schemes pay, and how the April 2027 inheritance tax change rewrites the answer.
- The 25% tax-free lump sum: take it now, take it in slices, or leave it →The £268,275 lump sum allowance, PCLS versus UFPLS, the recycling rule, why the recurring 'take it before the Budget' panic usually costs money, and how April 2027 changes the case for leaving it in.
The age-75 line and the 2027 layer
Two dates decide the tax. If the owner died before 75, funds designated within two years pass free of income tax; only lump sums above the £1,073,100 lump sum and death benefit allowance are taxed. From 75 every pound drawn is the beneficiary’s income at their marginal rate, so how it is drawn matters enormously: a lump sum lands in one year, beneficiary drawdown spreads it and leaves the rest growing tax-free. From 6 April 2027 unused funds also count in the estate for inheritance tax: nothing to a spouse or civil partner, 40% on the part above the nil-rate band the rest of the estate leaves, and income tax then applies to what remains.
What follows for the owner
For the person still alive, the calculator is a planning tool in reverse: keep nominations current, use the spouse exemption first, consider spending or gifting from the pension where the plan can afford it, and weigh whether the 2027 change alters the old “pension last” order. The death benefits guide and the 2027 guide set out the choices; the inheritance tax calculator prices the whole estate with pensions switched in.
Sources
- HMRC, Tax on a private pension you inherit.
- HMRC, Lump sum and death benefit allowance.
- HM Treasury, Autumn Budget 2024: inheritance tax on unused pension funds from April 2027; Inheritance Tax thresholds.
- HMRC, Income Tax rates and Personal Allowances; Scottish rates from gov.uk.