Scottish Income Tax: Every Band and Rate Since 2016
The power arrived in stages. The Scotland Act 2012 created the Scottish Rate of Income Tax from April 2016, letting Holyrood substitute its own figure for 10p of each UK rate; the Scotland Act 2016 then handed over full control of rates and bands on earned income from April 2017. Since then the Scottish Parliament has set them fresh each year through a Scottish Rate Resolution. The rates apply to non-savings, non-dividend income — salaries, self-employment profit, pensions and rent — for anyone whose main home is in Scotland (their tax code gains an S prefix). Savings interest, dividends, the Personal Allowance and National Insurance stay on UK-wide rules, which matters more than most people realise: a Scottish taxpayer's dividends are taxed at the UK's 8.75%/33.75%/39.35%, not at Scottish rates.
Official pages show only the current year, and the full run has to be stitched together from a decade of budget factsheets. Here it is.
The bands year by year, 2018/19 to 2026/27
Thresholds below are total income, assuming the standard Personal Allowance (£11,850 in 2018/19, £12,500 for the next two years, £12,570 — frozen — ever since). The five-band structure launched in 2018/19; the advanced rate made it six from 2024/25.
| Tax year | Starter 19% to | Basic 20% to | Intermediate 21% to | Higher rate | Advanced rate | Top rate |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 2018/19 | £13,850 | £24,000 | £43,430 | 41% to £150,000 | — | 46% |
| 2019/20 | £14,549 | £24,944 | £43,430 | 41% to £150,000 | — | 46% |
| 2020/21 | £14,585 | £25,158 | £43,430 | 41% to £150,000 | — | 46% |
| 2021/22 | £14,667 | £25,296 | £43,662 | 41% to £150,000 | — | 46% |
| 2022/23 | £14,732 | £25,688 | £43,662 | 41% to £150,000 | — | 46% |
| 2023/24 | £14,732 | £25,688 | £43,662 | 42% to £125,140 | — | 47% |
| 2024/25 | £14,876 | £26,561 | £43,662 | 42% to £75,000 | 45% to £125,140 | 48% |
| 2025/26 | £15,397 | £27,491 | £43,662 | 42% to £75,000 | 45% to £125,140 | 48% |
| 2026/27 | £16,537 | £29,526 | £43,662 | 42% to £75,000 | 45% to £125,140 | 48% |
Sources: the Scottish Government's rates-and-bands pages and annual budget factsheets for each year, listed in full at the end of this page. The top rate applies above £150,000 until 2022/23 and above £125,140 from 2023/24. The £43,662 intermediate ceiling — where the 42% rate begins — has not moved since 2021/22.
Read the table by columns and the strategy is plain. The starter and basic bands creep upward (sharply in 2026/27, when the starter ceiling jumped from £15,397 to £16,537 and the basic from £27,491 to £29,526), delivering small annual savings to every taxpayer. The £43,662 line has been frozen for six years running, pulling more earners into 42% each year as wages rise. And the top end has been squeezed three times since 2023 — rates up a penny, the top threshold cut to £125,140, then a whole new 45% band carved out above £75,000.
Before 2018: one frozen threshold started it
Devolved income tax has a longer prehistory than most people remember. The Scotland Act 1998 gave the new Parliament a "tartan tax" power to vary the basic rate by up to 3p — never once used. The Scottish Rate of Income Tax followed in 2016/17: Holyrood set it at exactly 10p, the figure it replaced, so every bill came out identical to the rest of the UK. The first real divergence came in 2017/18, and it was done without touching a single rate: Scotland froze its higher-rate threshold at £43,000 while the UK Government moved the rest of the country to £45,000. For the first time since income tax was introduced in 1799, where you lived in Great Britain changed what income tax you paid — worth £400 a year on any salary of £45,000 or more. The five-band system followed a year later, and the table below picks up the milestones.
| Milestone | What changed |
|---|---|
| 1999 | Scotland Act 1998 power to vary the basic rate by ±3p — never used |
| 2016/17 | Scottish Rate of Income Tax begins; set at 10p, so bills match the rest of the UK exactly |
| 2017/18 | Higher-rate threshold frozen at £43,000 against £45,000 elsewhere — the first divergence |
| 2018/19 | Five bands: 19p starter and 21p intermediate created, higher and top rates rise to 41p and 46p |
| 2023/24 | Higher and top rates rise again to 42p and 47p; top-rate threshold cut to £125,140 |
| 2024/25 | Sixth band: the 45% advanced rate on £75,000–£125,140; top rate reaches 48p |
What the divergence costs at £50,000, year by year
A single salary tracked through every year of the system shows how quickly a frozen threshold compounds. The figures below are the extra income tax a Scottish taxpayer paid on a constant £50,000 against someone on the same salary in England, Wales or Northern Ireland, using each year's actual bands on both sides.
| Tax year | Extra tax in Scotland | Driver |
|---|---|---|
| 2016/17 | £0 | Rates and bands identical |
| 2017/18 | £400 | £43,000 threshold freeze against £45,000 |
| 2018/19 | £824 | Five bands arrive; 41p higher rate |
| 2019/20 | £1,544 | Rest-of-UK threshold leaps to £50,000; Scotland holds at £43,430 |
| 2020/21 | £1,542 | Little moves on either side |
| 2021/22 | £1,494 | Scottish threshold edges up to £43,662 — its last move to date |
| 2022/23 | £1,489 | Starter and basic bands uprated 3.1% |
| 2023/24 | £1,552 | Higher rate rises to 42p |
| 2024/25 | £1,542 | Starter and basic bands uprated; advanced rate lands above £75,000 |
| 2025/26 | £1,528 | Starter and basic bands rise ~3.5% |
| 2026/27 | £1,496 | Starter and basic bands widened well beyond inflation |
The story of that line: one £400 step from a frozen threshold, one £400 step from the new bands, then a £700 leap when the rest of the UK raised its threshold to £50,000 and Scotland stayed put. Since 2019/20 the gap at this salary has barely moved — hovering around £1,500 — because both countries have mostly frozen the thresholds that matter to it. What has changed since then happened above £75,000, where the advanced and top rates opened gaps this chart is too low-paid to see: about £2,800 at £90,000 and £5,900 at £150,000 in 2026/27.
Three salaries under both systems in 2026/27
| Salary | Income tax in Scotland | Rest of UK | Difference |
|---|---|---|---|
| £30,000 | £3,451 | £3,486 | −£35 |
| £50,000 | £8,982 | £7,486 | +£1,496 |
| £100,000 | £30,732 | £27,432 | +£3,300 |
The crossover in 2026/27 sits at about £33,500: below it the 19% starter band leaves Scots marginally better off (never by more than about £40 a year), above it the 21p, 42p, 45p and 48p rates pull increasingly hard the other way. On £100,000 the difference is £3,300 — take-home of £65,257 against £68,557. Two marginal-rate quirks are worth knowing. Between £43,662 and £50,270, Scottish 42% tax overlaps with 8% National Insurance (NI thresholds are UK-wide), producing a 50% marginal rate on salaries that are still basic-rate elsewhere. And between £100,000 and £125,140 the UK-wide allowance taper multiplies the 45% advanced rate into an effective 67.5% — nearly 70% with NI — against 62% in the rest of the UK, which is why salary sacrifice is even more valuable north of the border. See the full breakdown at any salary on the £50,000 and £100,000 Scotland pages, the salary index, or year against year in the tax year comparison.
What stays UK-wide
Holyrood's power covers rates and bands on earned income, and nothing else. The Personal Allowance (£12,570) and its taper above £100,000 are set by Westminster, as is National Insurance — whose 8% band runs to £50,270 regardless of where the Scottish 42% begins. Savings interest and dividends are taxed at UK rates and bands even for Scottish taxpayers, along with the Personal Savings Allowance, Capital Gains Tax and inheritance tax. The High Income Child Benefit Charge and its £60,000–£80,000 taper apply UK-wide, as do pension tax relief rules — with the twist that relief follows your Scottish marginal rate, so a 21% intermediate-rate taxpayer can claim an extra 1% and a 45% advanced-rate payer an extra 25% beyond the basic 20% given at source. Whether you count as a Scottish taxpayer follows your main home during the tax year, not where you work, and shows up as an S at the front of your tax code.
Sources
Current and historic bands: Scottish Government, Scottish Income Tax: rates and bands (with per-year pages), the 2026/27 technical factsheet, the 2025/26, 2024/25 and 2023/24 factsheets, and Scottish Income Tax 2018–2019: rates and bands. Early years and evaluation: Scottish Income Tax: 2018/19 policy evaluation (gov.scot). Framework: Scotland Act 2012, Scotland Act 2016 and GOV.UK — Scottish Income Tax. Gap figures are computed from the published bands of both jurisdictions for each year, assuming the standard Personal Allowance; verify any figure via our methodology and rates page.
This page is a factual reference, checked against the Scottish Government and legislation.gov.uk publications listed above. Figures assume the standard Personal Allowance and non-savings income only. It is general information, not tax or financial advice — verify your own position against GOV.UK, mygov.scot or a qualified adviser.