Hundred SummersTapered annual allowance calculator: how much you can pay into a pension
Above £260,000 of adjusted income the £60,000 pension annual allowance tapers to as little as £10,000. Work out your threshold and adjusted income, your allowance, the room left this year, and any charge. 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 | |
|---|---|
| Income | £290,000 |
| Your contributions (relief at source) | £20,000 |
| Employer contributions | £15,000 |
| Results | |
|---|---|
| Threshold income | £270,000 |
| Adjusted income | £305,000 |
| Annual allowance | £37,500 |
| Contributions / room left | £35,000 / £2,500 |
The next question
Can I use unused allowance from earlier years? →Pension carry-forward 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
- The pension annual allowance taper, explained →How the £60,000 pension annual allowance shrinks for high earners: adjusted income over £260,000, threshold income over £200,000, the £1-for-£2 taper down to £10,000, with worked examples.
- The MPAA: the £10,000 trap that outlasts the decision that sprang it →Take one flexible pension withdrawal and your annual allowance drops from £60,000 to £10,000: permanently, with no carry-forward. What triggers the Money Purchase Annual Allowance, what doesn't, and who it ambushes.
The two tests
The taper applies only when threshold income is over £200,000 and adjusted income is over £260,000. Threshold income is roughly your income less your own contributions; adjusted income adds back everything, your employer's contributions included. The allowance then falls by £1 for every £2 of adjusted income over £260,000, to a floor of £10,000 at £360,000. Salary sacrifice doesn't escape the threshold test: since July 2015 the sacrificed pay is added back.
Carry-forward, and the £10,000 limit
Allowance you didn't use in the previous three tax years can be carried forward, provided you were in a pension scheme then; the carry-forward calculator works out how much, year by year. Once you have taken taxable money flexibly from a defined-contribution pension, the money purchase annual allowance of £10,000 applies to that saving instead, with no carry-forward. Below £125,140 of income the 60% tax trap calculator is the one to use.