Pension Carry-Forward Calculator

A high earner with three lean pension years behind them could, in principle, put £180,000 or more into a SIPP in a single tax year by stacking unused annual allowance from the previous three years on top of this year's £60,000. That is the rule the pension carry-forward calculator is built to model.

It is also the rule HMRC publicises least. Most people only find it when they sell a business, get a bonus they were not expecting, or sit down with a regulated adviser after a windfall. By then they are usually scrambling to backfill the documentation.

This page is general information about how the carry-forward rules work, not personal financial or tax advice. Pension contributions are long-term decisions with tax consequences that depend on your individual circumstances. Speak to a regulated financial adviser or qualified accountant before making any contribution decision based on what the calculator shows.

Contents

• What pension carry-forward is
• Who actually qualifies
• How the calculator works out your number
• Worked example: £150k earner with three lean years
• The tapered allowance for high earners

What pension carry-forward is

Carry-forward is the HMRC rule that lets you use unused annual allowance from the previous three tax years on top of this year's allowance. For 2026/27 the standard annual allowance is £60,000, frozen at that level since Jeremy Hunt raised it from £40,000 in April 2023. If you have three full prior years of unused £60,000 allowances sitting behind you, the theoretical ceiling in a single tax year is £240,000 of relievable pension contributions.

The rule exists because the UK pension system was not built for people with lumpy income. The annual allowance assumes a steady salary and steady contributions. Carry-forward is the relief valve for everyone whose income arrives in bursts: the self-employed, contractors, business owners, anyone with bonus-heavy compensation, and anyone who has just sold an asset or received an inheritance. Without it, a windfall year would be punished by an arbitrary cap that has nothing to do with how much you can actually afford to save.

There is one wrinkle that catches people out. You use this year's allowance first, then the oldest unused year next, then the next oldest, and so on. Anything older than three tax years is gone forever. In 2026/27 the oldest year you can still touch is 2023/24. Once 6 April 2027 rolls around, 2023/24 is lost and 2024/25 becomes the oldest year on the table. The window is constantly moving.

Who actually qualifies

The single condition most people miss: you must have been a member of a UK registered pension scheme in each of the prior tax years you want to carry forward from. Not contributing in those years is fine. Membership alone is enough.

For employees this is rarely a problem. Auto-enrolment puts most workers into a workplace scheme by default, and that scheme counts. Once you have been auto-enrolled, the membership clock starts ticking and your carry-forward eligibility builds up year by year, whether you are paying in or not.

The group that gets caught out is the self-employed. If you spent 2023/24 and 2024/25 as a sole trader without ever opening a SIPP or a stakeholder pension, you have no scheme membership for those years, and no carry-forward to claim from them. You will see this most often with contractors who only get serious about pensions when they have a big year coming up and discover that the £180k of room they thought existed simply is not there.

One structural option people with irregular income consider is opening a registered pension scheme early, even with a small contribution, purely to start the carry-forward clock. The Trading 212 SIPP is one low-cost option among several UK SIPP providers worth comparing on charges, fund range, and service. Once scheme membership exists, the unused allowance accrues in the background. Whether this is the right move for you depends on your circumstances and is worth discussing with a regulated adviser.

How the calculator works out your number

The pension carry-forward calculator takes six inputs: this year's contribution so far, your contributions in each of the previous three tax years, your gross UK relevant earnings for this year, and (optionally) your adjusted income if you are anywhere near the taper.

From those it works out:

1. This year's annual allowance. Standard £60,000, unless adjusted income is above £260,000, in which case it tapers down by £1 for every £2 of additional adjusted income, to a £10,000 floor at £360,000+ of adjusted income.
2. Unused allowance from each of the previous three years. £60,000 minus what you contributed that year (assuming you were not tapered then; if you were, the input you supply should already reflect the tapered figure).
3. Total available room this year. This year's allowance plus all three years of unused allowance, minus what you have already paid in this year.
4. The earnings cap. Total relievable personal contributions cannot exceed 100% of your UK relevant earnings for the year. The final figure shown is the lower of the two.

The output is an estimate of the maximum additional contribution that could still attract tax relief this year on the inputs you provide. It is general information only, not financial or tax advice, and the calculator deliberately does not model employer contributions in the prior-year totals (employer contributions count against the allowance but not against the 100%-of-earnings cap). If your employer has been paying into your scheme, fold those amounts into the contribution boxes for each year so the unused figures are accurate. Confirm any contribution decision with a regulated adviser or accountant before acting.

Worked example: £150k earner with three lean years

A consultant earning £150,000 has been paying £30,000 a year into a SIPP for each of the last three tax years. The annual allowance has been £60,000 the whole time, so they have £30,000 of unused allowance from each year.

• This year's allowance: £60,000
• Unused from 2025/26: £30,000
• Unused from 2024/25: £30,000
• Unused from 2023/24: £30,000
• Total room before the earnings cap: £150,000

UK relevant earnings are £150,000, so the earnings cap does not bite. In principle the consultant could contribute up to £150,000 this tax year and the contribution would fall within the relievable limit.

The headline tax saving depends entirely on individual circumstances - marginal rates, the interaction with the personal allowance taper between £100,000 and £125,140 (see the 60% tax trap page), Scottish or rest-of-UK rates, and any other income or reliefs in play. The illustrative arithmetic for a 45% marginal earner could be tens of thousands of pounds, but the actual figure is not something to take from a worked example on a website.

Anyone considering a contribution at this scale should run it past a qualified accountant or regulated financial adviser before pulling the trigger. The documentation HMRC may want to see if they query the position (scheme membership evidence for each prior year, contribution records, earnings evidence) is also what people most often miss.

The tapered allowance for high earners

If your adjusted income is above £260,000, the £60,000 annual allowance starts to taper down. The mechanic: £1 reduction in allowance for every £2 of adjusted income above £260,000, floored at £10,000 of allowance once adjusted income hits £360,000.

Adjusted income is taxable income plus employer pension contributions. This is the bit that blindsides senior employees with generous workplace schemes: a £230,000 salary plus £40,000 of employer pension contributions is £270,000 of adjusted income, and the taper has already started biting before the year even begins.

Carry-forward still works alongside the taper, but with a twist. You can only carry forward whatever allowance was actually available in each of the prior three years, after the taper applied to that year. If you were tapered to £30,000 in 2024/25 and contributed £30,000, you have £0 of carry-forward from that year, not £30,000. The calculator lets you enter prior-year contributions directly, so if you were tapered then, enter the contribution figure that reflects how much room was available after the taper.

The salary sacrifice optimiser and the 60% tax trap calculator are useful sense-checks alongside this one if you are anywhere near £100k. The interaction between tapered allowance, personal allowance withdrawal, and salary sacrifice is where the bigger numbers sit, and also where most of the avoidable mistakes happen. A regulated adviser is the right place to confirm any specific course of action.

Read Next:

• SIPP vs Workplace Pension
• UK Pensions Explained
• Trading 212 SIPP: A Low-Cost Pension
• Salary Sacrifice Optimiser
• Pension Match Calculator
• 60% Tax Trap Calculator