Budget 2017

The Chancellor Philip Hammond has announced in his 2017 Budget today that the UK personal allowance 2018/19 will increase with effect from April 2018 to £11,850.

This is the amount that people can earn before having to pay any tax on earnings above that level.

An increase of £350 in the personal allowance means an extra £70 a year (or £5.83 a month) in the pocket of a basic rate tax payer.

Currently the personal allowance sits at £11,500 for the year 2017/18 and so this is an increase of 3.04%.

The eventual aim that has been proposed by the government is to get the personal allowance to £12,500 a year.

The higher rate tax bracket will also be increase from £45,000 to £46,350. The aim is for this to be increased eventually to £50,000.

You can find all of the current personal allowance rates in the tables on this page (these will be updated as they are announced).

Also announced in the Budget today was the increase in the National Minimum Wage of 4.4%, rising from £7.50 an hour to £7.83 an hour with effect from April 2018.

October 2018 Update

Check out the change to the personal allowance for 2019/2020 here.