Relief by salary
Pension tax relief on an £80,000 salary
The calculator opens on £80,000 with £12,000 a year through a net pay workplace scheme. Switch to relief at source, sacrifice or Scotland to compare the cost of the same contribution.
Independent site, not a government service. Relief is claimed through your pension provider, your payroll or HMRC (Self Assessment or the GOV.UK claim service).
Example, not your result yet· change a figure to see yours
Goes into your pension
£12,000
Costs you £7,200: 40% comes from tax and NI relief (higher rate taxpayer).
| Taken from your pay before tax | £12,000 |
| Income Tax saved | £4,800 |
| Cost to your take-home pay | £7,200 |
At £80,000 the salary above £50,270, £29,730 of it, is taxed at 40% in England, Wales and Northern Ireland in 2026/27, so a contribution of that size or less is relieved at 40% throughout. Through a net pay scheme, £12,000 a year saves £4,800 of Income Tax straight away and costs £7,200 of take-home pay. A Scottish taxpayer on £80,000 pays the 45% advanced rate on income above £75,000 and 42% below it (GOV.UK, Scottish rates): the same contribution saves £5,190 and costs £6,810. Employee NI here is 2% on salary above £50,270, so salary sacrifice adds little for the employee, but the employer saves 15% and may pass some of it on. From April 2029 only the first £2,000 of sacrifice keeps that NI saving (HM Treasury and HMRC), which matters most at this level of contribution.
Figures checked by Radif Partners · Editorial policy · How the sums are done
All three methods at £80,000
| Into the pension | Relief at source | Net pay | Salary sacrifice now | Sacrifice from April 2029 | Relief (RAS) |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| £5,000 | £3,000 | £3,000 | £2,900 | £2,960 | 40% |
| £12,000 | £7,200 | £7,200 | £6,960 | £7,160 | 40% |
| £20,000 | £12,000 | £12,000 | £11,600 | £11,960 | 40% |
| £29,730 | £17,838 | £17,838 | £17,243 | £17,798 | 40% |
| £40,000 | £26,054 | £26,054 | £24,638 | £26,014 | 35% |
Up to £29,730 gross the relief rate stays at 40%, and the last row shows it drop once contributions reach into income taxed at 20%. The gap between net pay and sacrifice is the 2% employee NI, small at this salary. The gap between now and April 2029 grows with the size of the sacrifice.
England against Scotland on the same salary
| Into the pension | Cost, rest of UK | Cost, Scotland | Relief, rest of UK | Relief, Scotland |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| £5,000 | £3,000 | £2,750 | 40% | 45% |
| £12,000 | £7,200 | £6,810 | 40% | 43.25% |
| £20,000 | £12,000 | £11,450 | 40% | 42.75% |
| £29,730 | £17,838 | £17,093 | 40% | 42.5% |
| £40,000 | £26,054 | £23,819 | 34.87% | 40.45% |
The first £5,000 of a Scottish contribution is relieved at 45%, the next part at 42%, then 21% in the intermediate band. A Scottish taxpayer therefore saves more on a moderate contribution but reaches lower rates sooner on a large one.
The 2029 change at this salary
Sacrificing £12,000 a year saves you £240 of NI now and £40 from 6 April 2029; your employer's saving falls from £1,800 to £300. Income Tax relief does not change. For a contribution of this size the employee loses little, but the employer loses most of its incentive, which is why some may stop topping up. The guide to the 2029 cap sets out the choices. At £100,000 a new effect starts, explained on the £100,000 page.
Timing a contribution
Relief is given for the tax year in which the payment reaches the scheme. Someone on £80,000 who expects a pay rise next year can split a large payment across both years to stay within the 40% slice each time, rather than paying it all in one year where part would only get 20%. For relief at source, payments made by 5 April count for the year then ending, and the claim can follow later. For net pay and sacrifice, the deduction must be in a payroll run of that tax year. A Scottish taxpayer should run the calculator in both modes to see the effect of the 45% advanced rate, which starts at £75,001 of income.
If both partners in a couple earn, the one with more income in the 40% band gets more relief per pound. A couple on £80,000 and £30,000 gets 40% on the first partner's contributions and 20% on the second's, so moving savings to the higher earner's pension raises the relief without changing what the household pays in.