The Pension Annual Allowance
Written and reviewed by the Pension Tax Accountants editorial team. Last reviewed 29 July 2026.
The annual allowance is the total that can be paid into your pensions in a tax year while still attracting tax relief. For 2026/27 it is £60,000. Go over it and a tax charge claws back the relief on the excess.
The figure that matters is not only what you pay in yourself. The annual allowance counts every pension input for the year, including employer contributions and, for a defined benefit scheme, the growth in the value of your promised pension. Adding those together is where most surprises come from.
We are accountants, so this guide deals only with the tax: how the allowance works, how the charge is calculated, and how it is reported. Whether a particular contribution is right for you is a regulated financial advice question for an FCA authorised adviser.
What the Annual Allowance Covers
For 2026/27 the annual allowance is £60,000. It is not a limit on what you are allowed to contribute, it is the ceiling on the contributions that attract tax relief in the year. The gov.uk annual allowance guidance sets out the same figure.
The allowance is measured across all of your registered pension schemes together, not scheme by scheme. Personal contributions, employer contributions and the pension input amount of any defined benefit pension are all added into the one total.
How Employer Contributions Count
A common misreading is that only your own payments count. They do not. Every pension input for the year counts toward the £60,000, and for many company directors the employer contribution is the largest part. The statutory framework sits in the Finance Act 2004, which defines the pension input amount for each type of scheme.
For a defined benefit scheme the input is not the cash paid in but the increase in the capital value of your promised pension over the year. That figure can jump when your salary or service rises, which is why defined benefit members can breach the allowance without paying in anything extra themselves.
The Annual Allowance Charge
If total inputs exceed the allowance, the excess is subject to the annual allowance charge. The excess is added on top of your other income for the year and taxed as the top slice, at 20%, 40% or 45% depending on the band it falls into. It is not charged at a single flat rate.
The charge is reported through Self Assessment. Before that, you need to know your inputs for the year and whether any unused allowance from earlier years is available to soak up the excess, which is what carry forward does.
Paying the Charge Through Scheme Pays
You do not always have to pay the charge from your own pocket. Under scheme pays, the pension scheme settles the charge and reduces your benefits to match. Where the charge is more than £2,000 and your inputs to that scheme exceed £60,000, the scheme must offer mandatory scheme pays. Below those thresholds a scheme may still offer it voluntarily.
Scheme pays has its own deadlines and notification rules, so it is worth confirming the numbers early rather than at the filing deadline.
Where the Line Sits with Regulated Advice
This guide explains how the tax is calculated and reported. It does not tell you whether to make a contribution, which scheme to use, or how to invest. Those are regulated financial advice questions for an FCA authorised adviser.
One tax point does come first, though. The tapered annual allowance can reduce the £60,000 for higher earners, so it is worth checking before relying on the standard figure.