Scottish income tax bands (2026/27)

Scotland sets its own income tax rates and bands for wages, pensions and most other income. The Personal Allowance is the same across the UK, but above it Scotland uses more bands than England, Wales and Northern Ireland. Depending on your salary, you may pay a little less or quite a lot more. This guide sets out the bands for the current year and compares them with the rest of the UK.

Who is a Scottish taxpayer

You’re a Scottish taxpayer if you live in Scotland. It’s about where you live, not where you work: someone living in Glasgow and commuting to Carlisle pays Scottish income tax, while someone living in Carlisle and working in Glasgow doesn’t.

If you have more than one home, what matters is your main place of residence. If you can’t identify a main home, it depends on where you spend more days during the tax year. GOV.UK’s guide to Scottish Income Tax explains the rules in more detail, including what happens when you move part way through a year.

HMRC tells your employer to use Scottish rates by putting an S at the start of your tax code. For most people that’s S1257L.

Scottish income tax bands

These are the Scottish bands for the current tax year, assuming you get the standard Personal Allowance:

Assumes the standard Personal Allowance of £12,570. The allowance shrinks by £1 for every £2 of income over £100,000.

As in the rest of the UK, each rate applies only to the slice of income in that band. The Personal Allowance is also reduced by £1 for every £2 of income over £100,000, so it disappears entirely at £125,140.

How Scotland compares with the rest of the UK

The starter rate means people on lower salaries pay slightly less than they would elsewhere. The intermediate rate of 21%, and higher rates that start lower down, mean that people earning more pay more. Here’s the difference at three common salaries, with no pension or student loan:

On £30,000, a Scottish taxpayer pays £3,451 of income tax a year, compared with £3,486 elsewhere. On £50,000, the gap is £1,496 a year, mainly because the Scottish higher rate applies to income over £43,662, well below the higher-rate threshold of £50,270 in the rest of the UK.

Who sets the rates

The Scottish Government proposes the rates and bands each year in its budget, and the Scottish Parliament approves them in a Scottish rate resolution, normally before the tax year starts on 6 April. HMRC collects the tax and passes it to the Scottish Government. The Personal Allowance and the taper above £100,000 are set by the UK Government, so they are the same in Scotland. Our guide to this year’s tax changes shows how the Scottish bands moved.

National Insurance in Scotland

National Insurance is the same across the UK. Because the upper earnings limit for NI is £50,270 but the Scottish higher rate starts lower, Scottish taxpayers between those two points pay the higher rate of income tax and the full main rate of NI on the same slice of income. On a £50,000 salary, the combined marginal rate means you keep only £50.00 of each extra £100, compared with £72.00 elsewhere.

Pension tax relief in Scotland

Pension contributions get tax relief at your highest Scottish rate, but how you receive it depends on the type of scheme:

• Net pay and salary sacrifice schemes give you relief automatically at your own rate, because the contribution comes out before tax.
• Relief at source schemes add relief at the basic rate of 20%. If you pay the starter rate, you still get the full basic-rate relief and don’t have to pay back the difference. If you pay the intermediate, higher, advanced or top rate, you can claim the extra relief from HMRC. GOV.UK sets out how much extra relief Scottish taxpayers can claim at each rate.

Our guide to pension tax relief explains how to claim, and the salary sacrifice calculator works for Scottish taxpayers too.

Moving to or from Scotland

If you move to or from Scotland, your status for the whole tax year depends on where you lived for longer during that year. Someone who moves from Edinburgh to Manchester in August, for example, will usually be treated as a taxpayer in the rest of the UK for that year, because they lived there for more of it. Tell HMRC about your new address as soon as you move so your tax code can be updated. If you’ve paid tax at the wrong rates, it will be put right after the end of the year, either through your tax code or through a refund or a tax calculation letter.

Scottish codes for second jobs

If you have more than one job, the code for your second job may be one of the Scottish no-allowance codes. SBR taxes everything at the basic rate, SD0 at the intermediate rate, SD1 at the higher rate, SD2 at the advanced rate and SD3 at the top rate. Our tax codes guide explains how these work.

Higher earners in Scotland

Above the Scottish higher-rate threshold, the gap with the rest of the UK widens. The advanced rate of 45% applies to income over £75,000, and the top rate of 48% applies once the Personal Allowance has gone. In the taper band above £100,000, Scottish taxpayers lose their allowance in the same way as everyone else, so the effective rate on income in that band is higher than in the rest of the UK. On a £110,000 salary, a Scottish taxpayer keeps £30.50 of each extra £100, compared with £38.00 elsewhere. Pension contributions and salary sacrifice can be especially valuable at these levels.

Working out your Scottish take-home pay

Choose “Scotland” in our take-home pay calculator to see your pay with Scottish rates, or enter a code starting with S. You can also use the reverse salary calculator to find the salary you need in Scotland for a given monthly take-home figure, or the pay rise calculator to see how much of a rise you would keep under the Scottish bands.

Scottish student loans are also handled differently: if you studied in Scotland, you’re likely to be on Plan 4. See our guide to student loan repayments.