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A Personal Allowance is the amount of money you’re allowed to earn in a tax year before you start to pay Income Tax on it.
Almost everyone in the UK gets a Personal Allowance, and it’s well worth keeping track of the allowance you qualify for. It matters when it changes, and it matters when it stays the same.
Not everyone gets the same Personal Allowance, and yours can go up or down depending on your circumstances. Things like tax relief and certain state benefits, for instance, can shift your Personal Allowance and change the amount of tax-free earnings you can have.
If you’re earning less than your Personal Allowance, you’re probably not getting the most out of it. In that case, you can use the Marriage Allowance rules to transfer part of your allowance to your spouse or civil partner so they pay less tax. You can read about Marriage Allowance here.
Remember that tax years aren’t the same as calendar years. A tax year starts on the 6th of April, so that’s when your Personal Allowance applies from for the following 12 months.
The standard Personal Allowance for the 2024/25 tax year is £12,570. If you qualify for this, as most people will, it means that you won’t pay a penny of Income Tax on your earnings until you hit that threshold. In other words, if you’re earning over £12,570, only your income above the threshold will be taxed.
It’s worth remembering that the tax you owe is spread out over the year. If your circumstances change, this might mean you end up paying more tax than you should. This can happen, for example, if you stop work part-way through the tax year or if your pay itself drops. When this happens, you can get a tax refund to settle up.
There hasn’t been a change in the standard Personal Allowance for the 2024/25 tax year. In fact, it’s currently expected to stay fixed at £12,570 until April 2028.
The standard tax code for 2024/25 is 1257L. If you qualify for the normal Personal Allowance and don’t have any other circumstances affecting your tax, this is the code you’ll be given.
See our Tax Codes Explained page for more about how tax codes work.
Any changes to the 2024/25 UK tax bands or rates will be officially announced in the government’s Spring Budget. This is expected on the 6th of March, with alterations kicking in once the 2024/25 tax year starts on the 6th of April. Until then, the UK tax bands look like this:
| Band | Taxable income | Tax rate |
| Personal Allowance | Up to £12,570 | 0% |
| Basic rate | £12,571 to £50,270 | 20% |
| Higher rate | £50,271 to £125,140 | 40% |
| Additional rate | Over £125,140 | 45% |
In Scotland, the tax bands and rates are:
| Band | Taxable income | Scottish tax rate |
| Personal Allowance | Up to £12,570 | 0% |
| Starter rate | £12,571 to £14,732 | 19% |
| Basic rate | £14,733 to £25,688 | 20% |
| Intermediate rate | £25,689 to £43,662 | 21% |
| Higher rate | £43,663 to £125,140 | 42% |
| Top rate | Over £125,140 | 47% |
Your Personal Allowance tells you how much tax-free income you can have in a year. When it changes, you end up paying either more tax or less.
However, even when the Personal Allowance stays the same from one tax year to the next, it can still affect the tax you owe. For instance, if your pay for the 2024/25 tax year goes up, more of your total income will now be over the £12,570 threshold – meaning more tax to pay.
If you were earning below £12,570 in the previous tax year (and therefore not paying Income Tax), a rise in your yearly pay can shift you into the Basic Rate tax band. Of course, this still only applies to the portion of your income above the threshold. Even so, it does mean paying tax when you weren’t before.
One last thing to remember: Income Tax isn’t the only tax you pay on your earnings. There’s also National Insurance to consider, and that has its own set of rates and thresholds. See our National Insurance page for more information.
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