Dividend Tax Calculator.
Dividends on top of your salary — the tax bill before you press pay.
2026/27 dividend rates — 10.75% basic, 35.75% higher, 39.35% additional — with the £500 allowance and your personal allowance applied in the right order. Dividend tax is settled through Self Assessment, usually the January after the money was spent: put a slice aside when the dividend is paid. Everything runs in your browser — your figures never leave it. Estimates are general information, not advice: ask us about your own position.
Before you press pay
Dividends sit on top — and the top is where the rates live.
Dividend tax is misunderstood for one structural reason: dividends are taxed last. They stack on top of your salary and other income, so the rate they suffer depends on where that stack crosses the band boundaries — a £30,000 dividend can be entirely at 10.75%, entirely at 35.75%, or split across both, purely depending on your salary. This calculator stacks correctly: salary through its bands first, then each slice of dividend at the rate the stack has reached, with the £500 allowance applied where it actually falls.
The rates are newly higher — April 2026 raised the ordinary and upper rates to 10.75% and 35.75% (39.35% additional rate unchanged), and the allowance remains a slender £500. The old instinct that dividends are “nearly tax-free at the basic rate” is a decade out of date; the planning value now lies in timing and splitting — using both spouses' bands where shareholdings genuinely support it, and choosing which tax year a dividend lands in.
Remember the bill arrives by Self Assessment: dividends above the allowance mean a return, with tax due the 31 January after the tax year ends. Pair this with the tax reserve calculator so the money is waiting, and with a proper voucher so the paperwork exists when anyone asks.
Common questions.
What are the dividend tax rates for 2026/27?
10.75% within the basic rate band, 35.75% in the higher rate band, and 39.35% in the additional rate band — the first two rose by two percentage points in April 2026. The first £500 of dividends is covered by the dividend allowance, and dividends within your unused personal allowance are tax-free.
How do dividends interact with my salary?
Dividends are taxed as the top slice of your income. Your salary uses up the personal allowance and lower bands first; dividends then start from wherever the stack has reached. A salary of £50,270 means every pound of dividend starts at 35.75% — which is why extraction planning looks at both together, never separately.
When do I pay tax on dividends?
Through Self Assessment: the tax on 2026/27 dividends is due by 31 January 2028, and if your bill is large enough, payments on account add instalments in January and July. Dividends over £500 generally mean you need to file — HMRC does not collect this automatically.
Can I use my spouse's tax bands for dividends?
Only through genuine shareholdings — dividends follow shares, so a spouse who holds shares receives dividends taxed at their own rates and allowances. Done properly at the structure level this is long-established planning; done as a paper exercise around payment time it invites challenge. Structure first, dividends second — advice worth taking before the share transfer, not after.
Keep going.
Dividend vs Salary
The full extraction picture — company tax and personal tax priced together.
Open →Dividend Voucher Generator
Paper the dividend properly — voucher and minute, autofilled from Companies House.
Open →Tax Reserve Calculator
Put the January money aside now, while it is painless.
Open →Prefer a human with the numbers?
Dividend timing and share structure are where a modest fee buys a visible saving — especially since the April 2026 rate rise.