Outside an ISA, dividends above the £500 allowance are taxed at 10.75%, 35.75% or 39.35% in 2026/27 — the basic and higher rates rose two points this April. Enter your dividend income and other income below: the calculator applies the personal allowance, the £500 dividend allowance and the band maths for you. Inside an ISA or SIPP, the same dividends are tax-free. Everything runs in your browser.
Your 2026/27 income
Uses 2026/27 figures: £12,570 personal allowance (tapered above £100,000 of income), £500 dividend allowance, dividend rates 10.75% / 35.75% / 39.35% (basic and higher rates rose 2 points from April 2026), higher-rate threshold £50,270. Assumes no Gift Aid/pension adjustments, no Scottish-rate nuances (dividend rates are UK-wide), and that dividends are your top slice of income (standard HMRC ordering). Estimates for general information — not tax advice. Verify with HMRC or an adviser.
The 2026/27 rates — and why other calculators get them wrong
The Autumn Budget 2025 raised the basic and higher dividend rates by two percentage points from April 2026: 8.75% became 10.75%, and 33.75% became 35.75% (the additional rate stays at 39.35%). Many calculators and articles still show the old figures. With the dividend allowance at just £500, the maths bites earlier than people expect: a basic-rate taxpayer with £4,000 of dividends outside wrappers now owes £376 — money an ISA would have kept at zero.
How dividend tax actually works
Dividends sit on top of your other income, and only the slice above your allowances is taxed. The order: your personal allowance (£12,570, tapered above £100,000 of income) covers income first; then the £500 dividend allowance takes the first slice of taxable dividends at 0% — but still occupies band space; whatever remains is taxed at the rate of the band it lands in. That “occupies band space” detail is why naive calculations come out wrong — and why this calculator does the band positioning properly.
What to do with the number
The result is a planning signal, not just a bill. If dividends outside wrappers are costing you real money each year, the structural fixes are worth more than the tactics: using the ISA allowance while it exists, and knowing your position before the Self Assessment deadline (dividends over £10,000 mean filing). For the record-keeping half of the job — logging every dividend with the gross/withholding/net split — pair this with our free dividend income tracker template. The tax context lives in our guides to Trading 212 tax and eToro tax.
About this tool
- All computation happens locally in your browser — no data is uploaded, stored or sent anywhere.
- Uses 2026/27 figures (personal allowance £12,570 with taper, dividend allowance £500, rates 10.75%/35.75%/39.35%, bands £37,700/£125,140), standard HMRC income ordering, no Gift Aid/pension adjustments. Estimates for general information — not tax advice. Figures refreshed each April.
Above the £500 dividend allowance: 10.75% at the basic rate, 35.75% at the higher rate and 39.35% at the additional rate. The basic and higher rates rose by two percentage points from April 2026 — older articles and calculators may still show 8.75% and 33.75%.
No — dividends received inside an ISA or SIPP are tax-free and don’t count toward the £500 allowance. The calculator is for dividends held outside wrappers (a general investment account).
If your dividends exceed £10,000 you must file a Self Assessment return; below that, HMRC can usually collect through your tax code if you ask, or through Self Assessment if you already file. Keeping a running log makes either path painless.
Yes — the calculator runs entirely in your browser. Nothing you type is uploaded, stored, or sent to any server.