Tax in the UK rarely sits in one box. A limited company director thinks about corporation tax, dividend tax, employer National Insurance and the Employment Allowance in the same breath. A landlord juggles rental income tax, Section 24 mortgage relief and Capital Gains Tax on disposal. A sole trader needs Class 4 National Insurance, payments on account and the trading allowance to all line up. The calculators on this page break each calculation into its own clean tool, then let you stack them when your situation needs more than one.
Every calculator on AccountingStack is updated for the 2026/27 tax year using HMRC published rates. Where a rate, allowance or threshold has been frozen until April 2031, we say so. Where a future change is already legislated, we flag it inside the relevant calculator. The maths is the maths; what changes is the framing, and that framing is the point of having a tool aimed at your specific situation rather than a generic salary calculator.
What the 2026/27 figures look like
Several headline figures matter across most calculators on this page. The personal allowance stays at £12,570. The basic-rate band runs to £50,270. The dividend allowance is £500. The Capital Gains Tax annual exempt amount is £3,000. Class 4 self-employed NI is 6% between £12,570 and £50,270, then 2% above. Employer NI is 15% above the £5,000 secondary threshold, with the Employment Allowance worth up to £10,500 per company. Corporation tax is 19% on profits to £50,000, 25% above £250,000, with marginal relief in between producing a 26.5% effective rate on profits in the band.
Those figures sit behind almost every UK tax decision. Each calculator on this page applies them to a specific question.
How to choose the right calculator
If you run a limited company, start with Salary vs Dividends to set your director remuneration mix, then layer in Corporation Tax to size your company tax bill on the retained profits.
If you are employed, Salary Take-Home covers your gross-to-net journey including PAYE, employee NI, pension and student loan deductions. Add Pension Tax Relief if you are a higher-rate taxpayer who pays into a relief-at-source pension and may be owed a rebate.
If you are self-employed, Self-Employed Take-Home brings together income tax, Class 4 NI and your allowable expenses. Payments on Account tells you what HMRC will demand in advance for the following tax year.
If you own property, Rental Income Tax handles your annual landlord position, Buy-to-Let Mortgage Relief shows the impact of the Section 24 finance cost restriction, and CGT on Residential Property and Stamp Duty cover the bookends of buying and selling.
If you are a contractor, IR35 Take-Home puts inside-IR35 and outside-IR35 take-home pay side by side using the same day rate, so you can see the real cash impact of a status determination.
Stacking calculators for whole-of-tax-year planning
Most real decisions sit across more than one calculator. A common stacked workflow for a limited company director:
- Salary. Use Director Optimal Salary to set the director’s PAYE salary at the most efficient point given whether you can claim the Employment Allowance.
- Employer NI. Use Employer NI to confirm the employer NI bill on that salary, including the Employment Allowance offset.
- Corporation tax. Use Corporation Tax to size the company tax on the profit remaining after salary, employer NI and other costs.
- Dividends. Use Dividend Tax on the dividend you propose to take from the post-tax profit.
- Total. Compare to Salary vs Dividends, which folds all four into one number for the year.
A landlord’s stack runs: Rental Income Tax for annual income, Buy-to-Let Mortgage Relief for the Section 24 effect, then CGT on Residential Property when a property is sold.
A sole trader’s stack runs: Self-Employed Take-Home, then Self-Employed NI for the standalone Class 2 and Class 4 picture, then Payments on Account to plan the cash flow for the next bill.
Key takeaways
- Every calculator uses HMRC published 2026/27 rates and is updated whenever a rate or threshold changes.
- The personal allowance, basic-rate band, dividend allowance and CGT annual exempt amount are frozen until April 2031, which means tax rises in real terms each year as wages grow.
- Limited company directors need at least three calculators (director salary, dividend tax, corporation tax) to model a full remuneration year. Salary vs Dividends bundles them.
- Landlords need three calculators in sequence (rental income, mortgage relief, CGT) to see a full property year, because Section 24 changes the effective rate paid above the basic-rate threshold.
- Sole traders should always pair a take-home calculation with a payments-on-account calculation, because the second tax-year payment is what catches new self-employed people out.
Frequently asked questions
Are these calculators a substitute for an accountant? No. They are decision-support tools. They use HMRC published rates and reasonable assumptions, but your real Self Assessment, corporation tax return or CGT return needs facts that only you and your accountant know in full. Use the calculators to plan and to sense-check professional advice, not to replace it.
Do the calculators cover Scotland and Wales? Income Tax is devolved in Scotland and is treated separately on the Income Tax and Salary Take-Home pages. Wales currently uses the same income tax bands as England and Northern Ireland. Capital Gains Tax, dividend tax, corporation tax and stamp duty all have UK-wide or England-and-Northern-Ireland scope as appropriate.
Why is 2026/27 the default tax year? The 2026/27 tax year runs from 6 April 2026 to 5 April 2027. This is the live tax year you are earning income in right now. The 2025/26 tax year is the one most people will file a Self Assessment return for during 2026, and several calculators include a 2025/26 toggle for that reason.
How often are the calculators updated? After every Budget and Spring Statement and whenever HMRC publishes a change to a rate, threshold or allowance. The footer of each calculator shows when it was last reviewed.