Guides
One trap per page, with the exact 2026/27 numbers and the pension contribution that fixes it. Every guide ends with the calculator preloaded for that scenario.
- The 60% tax trap: why £100k–£125k is the worst place to earn
Between £100,000 and £125,140 the personal allowance taper pushes your real marginal rate to 62% — or 69.5% in Scotland. Here's the mechanics and the fix.
- The £100k childcare cliff: how £1 of pay can cost you £8,000
Earn £100,001 and you lose free childcare hours and Tax-Free Childcare in full — a hard cliff, not a taper. What it costs a parent of two and the exact fix.
- Keep your child benefit: beating the £60k–£80k charge
The High Income Child Benefit Charge claws back 1% of your child benefit per £200 over £60,000. What it's worth, who's tested, and how salary sacrifice keeps it.
- Bonus sacrifice: turn a 62%-taxed bonus into pension at full value
A bonus that lands in the £100k–£125k zone keeps you 38p in the pound — or less with children. Exchanging it into your pension before payday keeps 100p.
- Student loans and the tax traps: the 51%–71% graduate rates
Plan 1, 2, 4, 5 and postgraduate loans add 6–15% to your marginal rate — and they stack with the child benefit charge and the 60% taper. The 2026/27 thresholds and what actually reduces them.
- Scotland's £100k trap: 69.5% marginal tax, but no childcare cliff
Scottish taxpayers face a harsher personal allowance taper — 67.5% plus NI — but Scotland's universal funded hours mean the £100k childcare cliff is much shallower. The 2026/27 bands and what changes.
2026/27 tax year, childcare with registered providers. Your nation sets the income tax bands (Scotland's six-band schedule vs rUK) and the childcare rules: England and Wales lose free hours over £100k, Scotland's funded hours are universal, Northern Ireland has Tax-Free Childcare only. Child benefit is charged on the household's higher earner, and childcare support needs both parents under £100k. This is a modelling tool, not financial advice — check your own position with HMRC or an adviser.