The same company profit paid into your pension, as salary or as a dividend, and what each route leaves you after tax.
Put in a sum of company profit before corporation tax. The calculator follows it three ways: into your pension as an employer contribution, out as extra salary, and out as an extra dividend.
An employer pension contribution is normally deductible for corporation tax, carries no National Insurance, and is not taxed on you when it is paid in. Salary is deductible too, but the company pays employer National Insurance at 15% above £5,000 a year, and you pay income tax and employee National Insurance at 8% or 2%. A dividend is paid out of profit after corporation tax and is then taxed in your hands.
Your income tax is worked out on top of the salary and dividends you have already taken this tax year, at the 2026/27 rates for England, Wales and Northern Ireland: a £12,570 personal allowance, 20% to £50,270, 40% to £125,140 and 45% above, with dividends taxed at 10.75%, 35.75% and 39.35% after a £500 allowance. Corporation tax is 25% or 19%, whichever you pick. Rates checked on gov.uk on 13 October 2026. The Budget on 28 October 2026 can change them.
It cannot tell you how much to pay in, what the pension will be worth or when you will draw it. It does not check your annual allowance, the taper or carry forward, and it leaves out marginal relief for company profits between £50,000 and £250,000 and student loan repayments.
This is information. It is not a personal recommendation. Whether any of it is right for you depends on your circumstances. Tax treatment depends on your circumstances and on current rules, which can change. The Financial Conduct Authority does not regulate tax advice.
Nothing is taxed when the company pays the contribution in. When you take money out of the pension it is taxed as income, apart from a tax-free part, normally 25%. The pension column shows what goes in.
No. It warns you when the sum is over £60,000, the standard annual allowance in 2026/27. Unused allowance from the three previous tax years can often be carried forward, and the taper reduces the allowance on higher incomes.
Marginal relief puts the company's rate between 19% and 25%. The calculator does not work out marginal relief, so pick the nearer of the two rates or ask your accountant for the company's own rate.
Yes. The company claims it as an expense, no National Insurance is due on it, and your salary does not cap it.
Read the answer →A limited company can pay into a director's pension and deduct the payment from its profits for corporation tax.
Read the answer →A relevant life premium paid by your company, against the company profit needed to pay the same premium yourself from a dividend or a salary.
Work it out →The tax on the gain from selling your shares, with Business Asset Disposal Relief at 18% up to the £1 million lifetime limit.
Work it out →Whether your pensions will cover the retirement you want, and by how much they miss.
Work it out →The first conversation takes about twenty minutes and is at no cost to you. Tell us what is on your mind: a pension you have lost track of, a fixed rate ending, a will you keep meaning to write.