As you may well be aware, the personal allowance (the amount that you are able to earn before being taxed) has remained static for a number of years and has caused what is known as fiscal drag, bringing more people into the tax paying brackets.

The personal allowance for the tax year 2025/2026 is no different and remains at £12,570 per person.

You may be able to have a slightly higher personal allowance if your spouse has transferred some of theirs to you, or you may have a slightly different amount if you have overpaid or underpaid tax in previous years, but in essence that is the amount that applies to everyone (including those under the age of 18).

There has been a lot of talk about increasing the personal allowance either for everyone or specifically for groups of people like pensioners. It has been quite a few years since those over a certain age were allowed an additional personal allowance and there are no signs of this happening in the near future.

There have also been calls to increase the personal allowance to a much higher level but at the moment that seems unlikely due to the treasury wanting to raise more money.

Things may change in the autumn budget, which would give enough time to implement a change for 2026/27 but until then the personal allowance remains at £12,570.