Methodology
Every figure, and where it came from.
A calculator you cannot check is just an opinion with a number on it. These are all the rates behind 2026/27, each linked to the GOV.UK page it was taken from, along with what the calculators deliberately do not model. This page is generated from the same table the calculators use, so it cannot fall out of step with them.
Rates last checked against GOV.UK on 2026-08-29.
Income tax
gov.uk/income-tax-rates- Personal allowance
- £12,570
- Allowance taper starts
- £100,000
- Allowance fully withdrawn
- £125,140
- Basic rate
- 20% on the first £37,700 of taxable income
- Higher rate
- 40% above £50,270
- Additional rate
- 45% above £125,140
Self-employed National Insurance
gov.uk/self-employed-national-insurance-rates- Class 4 lower limit
- £12,570
- Class 4 main rate
- 6% up to £50,270
- Class 4 upper rate
- 2% above £50,270
- Class 2
- Abolished as a compulsory charge. Voluntary at £4 a week
- Small profits threshold
- £7,105, above which Class 2 counts as paid
Corporation tax
gov.uk/guidance/corporation-tax-marginal-relief- Small profits rate
- 19% up to £50,000
- Main rate
- 25% from £250,000
- Marginal relief fraction
- 3/200 between the two limits
Dividends
gov.uk/tax-on-dividends- Dividend allowance
- £500
- Ordinary rate
- 11%, raised from 8.75% on 6 April 2026
- Upper rate
- 36%, raised from 33.75% on 6 April 2026
- Additional rate
- 39%
Employment National Insurance
gov.uk/guidance/rates-and-thresholds-for-employers-2026-to-2027- Employer rate
- 15% above £5,000
- Employee rate
- 8% between £12,570 and £50,270
- Employee upper rate
- 2% above £50,270
- Apprenticeship levy
- 1%
- Employment allowance
- £10,500, not applied here (see below)
- Registration threshold
- £90,000
- Deregistration threshold
- £88,000
- Standard rate
- 20%
- Cars and goods vehicles
- 55p per mile for the first 10,000 miles
- Cars, above the limit
- 25p per mile
- Motorcycles
- 24p per mile, with no step
What we leave out
Scotland. Scottish taxpayers have their own income tax bands with five rates rather than three. Every figure here uses the England, Wales and Northern Ireland bands, so a Scottish freelancer should treat the income tax portion as indicative only.
Student loan repayments. These behave like an extra marginal rate of 9% above a plan-specific threshold, and they are not modelled. If you are repaying a student loan, your real take-home is lower than shown.
Other income. Every calculator assumes the freelance work is your only income. A salary, rental income or dividends from elsewhere all stack underneath and push you into higher bands sooner.
The Employment Allowance. Worth £10,500 against employer National Insurance, but a company whose only employee is a single director cannot claim it. Since that describes almost every contractor company, it is deliberately not applied. If you employ someone else, your position is better than shown.
Payments on account. The figures show what you owe for a year, not when you pay it. Your first Self Assessment bill often includes a payment on account for the following year, which can feel like being charged one and a half times.
Pension tax relief. The day rate calculator treats a pension contribution as money you need on top of your take-home. In reality it attracts relief, so the true cost is lower. That makes the resulting rate conservative rather than optimistic, which is the direction we would rather err in.
When rates change
Tax years start on 6 April. Rather than editing figures in place, each year is stored as its own set, so older calculations stay correct and any change is visible in the history. The dividend rise in April 2026 and the mileage increase in the same month are both recorded that way. If you spot a figure that has moved and we have not caught it, that is worth telling us about.