Pension Carry Forward Calculator 2026/27
Find out how much you can pay into your pension this tax year by using unused annual allowance from the last 3 years, and which year's allowance runs out first.
Last updated: October 2026 · 2026/27 allowances
Previous 3 tax years
Total pension input each year: your gross personal contributions, employer contributions and any defined benefit growth. Your pension statements show this figure.
Tapered allowance this year? (high earners only)
Tapered allowance this year? (high earners only)
Tapered allowance this year? (high earners only)
Planned for 2026/27
Leave at 0 if you only have defined contribution pensions.
Salary, bonuses and self-employed profits. Not dividends, rent or interest.
Only needed if your income is above £200,000. Leave blank otherwise.
Available annual allowance in 2026/27
£140,000
£60,000 this year + £80,000 carried forward
How your 2026/27 contribution uses the allowance
| Tax year | Allowance | Input | Unused | Used now | Left |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 2023/24 | £60,000 | £20,000 | £40,000 | £40,000 | £0 |
| 2024/25 | £60,000 | £30,000 | £30,000 | £0 | £30,000 |
| 2025/26 | £60,000 | £50,000 | £10,000 | £0 | £10,000 |
| 2026/27 (used first) | £60,000 | £100,000 | £60,000 | £0 |
Carry forward used: £40,000, taken from the earliest year first.
Unused allowance left, and when it expires
How pension carry forward works in 2026/27
The annual allowance is the most that can go into your pensions each tax year with tax relief before a tax charge applies. For 2026/27 it is £60,000. It counts everything: your own contributions grossed up for tax relief, your employer's contributions, and the growth in any defined benefit pension.
Carry forward lets you add any allowance you did not use in the previous 3 tax years, as long as you were a member of a registered pension scheme at some point in each year you carry forward from. A member includes someone with a deferred pension or one already in payment, not only someone paying in. You must use this year's allowance in full first, and then the unused allowance from the earliest year.
Worked example: you paid in £20,000 in 2023/24, £30,000 in 2024/25 and £50,000 in 2025/26, against £60,000 a year. Unused allowance is £40,000 + £30,000 + £10,000 = £80,000. Add this year's £60,000 and you can pay in up to £140,000 in 2026/27 without a charge. A £100,000 contribution uses £60,000 of this year's allowance and £40,000 from 2023/24, leaving £30,000 from 2024/25 and £10,000 from 2025/26 for later.
Allowance you do not use in time is lost. Unused allowance from 2023/24 can last be used in 2026/27, so it expires on 5 April 2027.
Carry forward raises the annual allowance, but it does not raise the limit on tax relief for your own contributions. Personal contributions only get tax relief on up to 100% of your relevant UK earnings for the year, or £3,600 gross if you earn less and your scheme uses relief at source. Relevant earnings are things like salary, bonuses and self-employed profits; dividends, rental income and savings interest do not count.
Employer contributions are not limited by your earnings, which is why company directors often use carry forward through employer contributions from their own company. Salary or bonus sacrifice also counts as an employer contribution. See the salary sacrifice calculator and the bonus tax calculator for how much a sacrifice saves.
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Reviewed by Alexandre Bernier, LLM (UK), CFP®
Educational tool: estimates only. Not individual financial, investment, tax or legal advice. Using it does not create an adviser-client relationship. Rules and figures change; check them against current HMRC and GOV.UK guidance and speak to a qualified professional. Editorial policy →
Sources
Every rate and threshold used by this calculator is taken from the official pages below. If a figure here disagrees with one of these, the official page is right, please tell us.