Tax calculator for Scotland (2026/27).

On a £35,000 salary in Scotland for 2026/27, you pay £4,501 Scottish Income Tax and £1,794 National Insurance, leaving take-home pay of about £28,705 a year — roughly £2,392 a month. That is £15.07 a year more Income Tax than someone on the same salary in England, Wales or Northern Ireland.

Scotland has six bands of Income Tax on non-savings, non-dividend income: the starter rate of 19% up to £16,537, the basic rate of 20% up to £29,526, the intermediate rate of 21% up to £43,662, the higher rate of 42% up to £75,000, the advanced rate of 45% up to £125,140, and the top rate of 48% above that. The UK-wide £12,570 personal allowance still applies before the starter rate begins, so nobody pays Scottish Income Tax on their first £12,570 of earnings.

Exactly £33,493. Below that you pay slightly less Income Tax in Scotland than an identical earner in England, Wales or Northern Ireland — but the most you can ever save is £39.67 a year, because the 19% starter rate only covers £3,967 of income. Above £33,493 the 21% intermediate rate has eaten that saving and you start paying more. The gap then widens quickly: at £50,000 a Scottish taxpayer is roughly £1,496 a year worse off, and at £130,000 about £5,331 worse off.

Yes. Scottish Income Tax follows where your main home is, not where your employer is based or where you physically do the work. If your only or main residence is in Scotland for most of the tax year, you are a Scottish taxpayer, HMRC gives you a tax code beginning with S, and you pay Scottish rates on employment, self-employment and rental income wherever it arises. A Glasgow-based employee working remotely for a London firm pays Scottish rates; an Edinburgh firm's employee who lives in Berwick does not.

No. National Insurance is reserved to Westminster, so the rates and thresholds are identical across the whole UK. Employees pay 8% between £12,570 and £50,270 and 2% above that; self-employed people pay Class 4 at 6% and 2% across the same thresholds. Only Income Tax on non-savings, non-dividend income is devolved. That is why this calculator shows NI separately and compares only the Income Tax figure against the rest of the UK — the Income Tax line is the only part Holyrood actually controls.

Because two thresholds are out of step. The Scottish higher rate of 42% starts at £43,663, but the National Insurance Upper Earnings Limit — where employee NI drops from 8% to 2% — is set by Westminster at £50,270. Between those two points you pay 42% Income Tax and 8% NI at the same time, a 50% marginal rate on every extra pound. The equivalent English earner pays 20% plus 8%, so 28%. It is the single sharpest pinch point in the Scottish system, and it affects a lot of ordinary salaries.

Between £100,000 and £125,140 your £12,570 personal allowance is withdrawn at £1 for every £2 you earn. In Scotland that lost allowance is taxed at the 45% advanced rate, on top of the 45% you already pay on the income itself — an effective 67.5% Income Tax rate, or 69.5% once 2% National Insurance is added. Earning £1,000 more in this band leaves you with about £305. Pension contributions and salary sacrifice are the usual ways out, because they reduce the adjusted net income the taper is measured against.

Yes. The personal allowance is set by Westminster and applies UK-wide, including Scotland. It tapers by £1 for every £2 of adjusted net income above £100,000 and disappears entirely at £125,140, so higher earners lose it regardless of which side of the border they live on. The calculator applies the taper automatically.

No — and this catches out a lot of Scottish company directors. Dividend income is taxed at UK-wide rates (10.75%, 35.75% and 39.35% for 2026/27 after the Autumn Budget 2025 increases), not Scottish ones. Savings interest is also reserved. However, your Scottish non-savings income still counts when working out which dividend band you land in, so the two interact. If you take a small salary and the balance in dividends, your Scottish rates matter less than you might expect.

Sole traders and partners pay exactly the same Scottish Income Tax bands as employees — the devolution rule covers profits as well as wages. The difference is National Insurance: you pay Class 4 at 6% on profits between £12,570 and £50,270 and 2% above, rather than Class 1 at 8%. Class 2 is no longer compulsory. Select 'Self-employment' in the calculator and it switches NI class for you. Everything is then reported through Self Assessment, and you tick the Scottish taxpayer box on the return.

Yes to both, and neither is Income Tax. Property purchases in Scotland pay Land and Buildings Transaction Tax (LBTT) to Revenue Scotland instead of SDLT, with an 8% Additional Dwelling Supplement on second homes and buy-to-lets. Council tax is set by each of the 32 Scottish local authorities and is based on the value your home would have sold for on 1 April 1991, in bands A to H — nothing to do with your income at all. This calculator covers Income Tax and National Insurance only.

No. It applies the standard 2026/27 Scottish bands, the personal allowance taper and employee or self-employed National Insurance to a single income figure. It does not model taxable benefits in kind, multiple employments, a non-standard tax code, gift aid, or the interaction between salary and dividends. If any of those apply — or if you are near one of the marginal rate traps and want to plan around it — speak to a Chartered Certified Accountant.