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60% Tax Trap Calculator: the £100k Cliff and Child Benefit Charge (2026-27)

What is the 60% tax trap?

Between £100,000 and £125,140 of adjusted net income, the £12,570 personal allowance falls by £1 for every £2, so each extra £1 costs 60p in income tax (62p with NI). Go £1 over £100,000 and Tax-Free Childcare and working-parent funded hours also stop, which can make the next £1,000 cost more than £1,000.

Three rules use the same figure, adjusted net income: the Child Benefit charge from £60,000, the allowance taper from £100,000, and the childcare cliff at £100,000. Pension paid before tax, personal pension payments and Gift Aid all lower it.

Type your 2026-27 figures. The calculator shows your adjusted net income, the effective rate on your next £1,000 of salary, the charge, and the gross payment that would bring you back to £100,000 or £60,000.

Use the calculator All free tools

Built by Muhammad Shahzeb Anwar, MSc Industrial and Organizational Psychology. UK rules for 2026-27, with Scottish income tax bands; funded childcare hours are England's scheme.

The calculator

Check your adjusted net income and the cliffs

Runs in your browser. Nothing you type is stored or sent anywhere.

Your income, tax year 2026-27

Before any salary sacrifice.
Your payslip shows which.
What leaves your bank. It counts grossed up: £80 paid = £100.

Your family

0 if you have no partner.
Tax-Free Childcare top-up plus the value of working-parent funded hours. 0 if none.

The three cliffs, one figure

High Income Child Benefit Charge. If the higher adjusted net income in a couple is over £60,000, that person pays back 1% of the family's Child Benefit for every £200 above £60,000, so all of it at £80,000. Child Benefit for 2026-27 is £27.05 a week for the eldest child and £17.90 for each other child.

The personal allowance taper. The £12,570 allowance falls by £1 for every £2 above £100,000 and is gone at £125,140. In that band each £1 of income is taxed at 40% and also removes 50p of allowance taxed at 40%: 60% in all (67.5% in Scotland at the 45% advanced rate), plus 2% NI on pay.

The childcare cliff. Tax-Free Childcare (£2 for every £8 paid in, up to £2,000 a child a year) and England's funded hours for working parents stop if either parent's adjusted net income is over £100,000. There is no taper: £1 over is enough. Children aged 3 or 4 keep the separate 15 hours a week.

A worked example

Salary £108,000 with a £5,400 workplace pension taken before tax (net pay), so adjusted net income is £102,600. The personal allowance is £12,570 − £1,300 = £11,270. Income tax is £28,992 and NI £4,170.60. Two children's Child Benefit (£2,337.40 a year) is all taken back by the charge. The family loses £2,400 of Tax-Free Childcare and 30 funded hours worth £9,120 at £8 an hour.

A personal pension payment of £2,600 gross (£2,080 from the bank) brings adjusted net income to £100,000. Income tax falls by £1,040 and the £11,520 of childcare help comes back: on these numbers the family is £10,480 a year better off while £2,600 goes into the pension. That is the arithmetic of the rules, not a recommendation.

What lowers adjusted net income

Pension taken from pay before tax (net pay) and salary sacrifice never count as income. Personal pension payments under relief at source and Gift Aid donations are deducted grossed up: £80 paid counts as £100. They also widen your basic rate band by the same gross amount. Salary sacrifice saves NI too; from 6 April 2029 salary sacrifice above £2,000 a year will attract NI, but that does not change adjusted net income.

Common mistakes

  • Looking at salary instead of adjusted net income: a bonus can tip you over, a pension payment can bring you back.
  • Forgetting your partner: the childcare cliff applies if either of you is over £100,000, and the Child Benefit charge falls on whoever has the higher income.
  • Counting the net amount of a personal pension payment: adjusted net income falls by the gross amount.
  • Thinking the tax year is the calendar year: it runs from 6 April to 5 April.
Before you rely on this

What this will not tell you

This estimates 2026-27 income tax, employee NI and the Child Benefit charge on salary, with one workplace pension and one personal pension or Gift Aid figure. It does not cover benefits in kind, rental, self-employed, savings or dividend income, student loans, Marriage Allowance, pension annual allowance limits, or Scottish, Welsh and Northern Irish childcare schemes. The childcare value is the figure you type. Nothing you type leaves your browser.

Questions

Questions people actually ask

What is adjusted net income?

Your taxable income less pension paid before tax, less the grossed-up amount of personal pension payments and Gift Aid (£80 paid counts as £100). It is the figure used for the Child Benefit charge, the £100,000 allowance taper and the childcare limit.

Do I lose 30 hours free childcare if I earn over £100,000?

In England, working-parent funded hours stop if either parent's adjusted net income is expected to be over £100,000 in the tax year. A child aged 3 or 4 can still get the separate 15 hours a week.

Do I lose Tax-Free Childcare at £100,000?

Yes, if you or your partner expect adjusted net income over £100,000 for the tax year. Tax-Free Childcare pays £2 for every £8 you pay in, up to £2,000 a child a year (£4,000 if disabled).

How much Child Benefit do I pay back at £70,000?

Half. The charge is 1% for every £200 over £60,000: £10,000 over gives 50%. With one child (£27.05 a week, £1,406.60 a year) the charge is £703.

Who pays the High Income Child Benefit Charge?

The partner with the higher adjusted net income, even if the other partner receives the Child Benefit. If neither is over £60,000, nobody pays it.

How much pension do I need to get under £100,000?

Your adjusted net income minus £100,000, as a gross figure. Through a personal pension you pay 80% of it from your bank and the provider adds the rest. This calculator works it out; annual allowance limits still apply.

Is the 60% tax rate the same in Scotland?

The allowance taper works the same way, but Scotland's 45% advanced rate makes it 67.5% between £100,000 and £125,140 of income, plus NI on pay.

Where every rule comes from

Sources

Checked against GOV.UK and legislation.gov.uk on 2 November 2026. Rates change each April; if a source below has moved on, the source wins over this page.

  1. GOV.UK, Income Tax rates and allowances (2026-27, including Scotland): https://www.gov.uk/government/publications/rates-and-allowances-income-tax/income-tax-rates-and-allowances-current-and-past
  2. GOV.UK, Rates and thresholds for employers 2026 to 2027 (NI): https://www.gov.uk/guidance/rates-and-thresholds-for-employers-2026-to-2027
  3. GOV.UK, Child Benefit rates: https://www.gov.uk/child-benefit/what-youll-get
  4. GOV.UK, High Income Child Benefit Charge: https://www.gov.uk/child-benefit-tax-charge
  5. GOV.UK, Adjusted net income: https://www.gov.uk/guidance/adjusted-net-income
  6. GOV.UK, Tax-Free Childcare: https://www.gov.uk/tax-free-childcare
  7. GOV.UK, Tax-Free Childcare eligibility: https://www.gov.uk/tax-free-childcare/check-if-youre-eligible
  8. GOV.UK, Free childcare for working parents: eligibility: https://www.gov.uk/30-hours-free-childcare/eligibility
  9. National Insurance Contributions (Employer Pensions Contributions) Act 2026, section 1: https://www.legislation.gov.uk/ukpga/2026/15/section/1/enacted
Citation

Cite this tool

Free to use and free to quote. If a figure here is useful in something you are writing, a link back is all that is asked.

Muhammad Shahzeb Anwar, MSc Industrial and Organizational Psychology. 60% Tax Trap and £100k Childcare Cliff Calculator. Shahzeb Speaks. https://www.shahzebspeaks.com/60-percent-tax-trap-calculator/

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Want every £1,000 step, and the what-if for each way of paying?

The £60k-£125k Income Cliff Planner kit (Excel, Google Sheets and an offline HTML tool) adds benefits in kind and other income, salary sacrifice vs net pay vs personal pension vs Gift Aid, Tax-Free Childcare and funded hours worked out from your bill and your children's ages, a 101-row table of the effective rate on every extra £1,000 with a chart, before-and-after what-ifs, print and save, and a plain-English guide. Estimates only.

Get the full planner, $19