Long-form, slow-cooked guides on UK money — written for people who actually want to understand the numbers, not be sold a product.
The complete UK allowance stack — ISA £20,000, LISA £4,000 + 25% bonus, Marriage £1,260, savings interest, dividends £500, CGT £3,000, Child Benefit taper, pensions £60,000, and the two £1,000 side-income allowances — each explained with a full guide.
A new permanent UK Mortgage Guarantee Scheme launched in July 2025, replacing the temporary scheme that closed June 2025. Buyers can use a deposit as small as 5% on properties up to £600,000. Here is what the published rules say, who can use it, and which lenders take part.
Council tax is not being abolished. The November 2025 Budget kept it and added a new High Value Council Tax Surcharge (mansion tax) of £2,500-£7,500 a year on homes worth over £2 million, collected from April 2028. Council tax administration is also being reformed for the first time since 1993. Here is what every figure means.
Scotland charges LBTT, not stamp duty: 0% to £145,000, then 2–12%. First-time buyers get relief to £175,000; second homes pay 8% ADS. Worked examples.
Wales charges LTT, not stamp duty: 0% to £225,000, then 6–12%. No first-time buyer relief; additional properties pay 5–17%. Worked examples and tables.
Month-by-month log of UK house price readings: £270,000 average and 3.8% annual growth in April 2026 (HM Land Registry), 2.7% to May 2026 (ONS UK HPI), and the Lloyds index's 0.2% June rise.
Calculate stamp duty on UK property purchases with our free calculator. Updated for the post-1 April 2025 SDLT thresholds (£125k standard, £300k first-time buyer) and the 5% additional-property surcharge.
First-time buyers in England and Northern Ireland pay 0% SDLT up to £300,000 and lose all relief above £500,000. Maximum saving £5,000. Updated for the post-1 April 2025 thresholds.
Bank Rate stands at 3.75% (BoE IADB, effective 28 July 2026). A decision-by-decision log of MPC votes, the gilt-sales programme, and what a hold or a cut changes on a monthly mortgage payment.
UK two-year fixed mortgage rates peaked at 5.90% on 12 April having climbed from 4.83% at the start of March (Moneyfacts) before falling to 5.54%. Zoopla put London first-time buyers at +£232/month at peak, the north east at +£66. Here's what the data shows.
A new permanent UK Mortgage Guarantee Scheme launched in July 2025, replacing the temporary scheme that closed June 2025. Buyers can use a deposit as small as 5% on properties up to £600,000. Here is what the published rules say, who can use it, and which lenders take part.
Help to Buy in England closed to new applicants in October 2022 and completed in March 2023. There is no like-for-like replacement. Five separate schemes now share the ground Help to Buy used to occupy. Here is what each one offers and who qualifies.
From 6 April 2027, most unused pension funds will fall inside the deceased's estate for Inheritance Tax. Here is what changes, who it affects, and how the calculation differs from the pre-2027 treatment.
The Bank of England base rate is the interest rate the central bank pays commercial banks on reserves. Learn how the Monetary Policy Committee sets it, what its 3.75% level today means, and how the decision flows through to tracker mortgages, fixed-rate deals, and savings accounts.
A gilt is a UK Government sterling liability that has never missed an interest or principal payment. Learn how conventional and index-linked gilts work, and what gilt yields mean for fixed-rate mortgage pricing.
Compare fixed vs variable mortgages with December 2025 rates. Discover which saves you more with 2-year fixes at 3.55%, 5-year at 3.76%, and trackers from 4.50%.
Discover if mortgage overpayments are right for you. Learn how to save £34,000+ in interest with December 2025 rates, clear your mortgage years early, and avoid penalties.
Calculate UK mortgage payments with worked examples at mid-2026 rates. Bank of England base rate 3.75%, average UK house price £270,000, December 2025 best 2-year fixes from 3.55%.
Deposit requirements for first-time UK buyers in 2026. 5-20% options at current mid-2026 rates, Lifetime ISA mechanics, Shared Ownership, and realistic saving timelines.
How much you can borrow under UK lender affordability rules in 2026. Income multiples, the post-FPC stress-test landscape, and worked examples at mid-2026 rates from £25k to £100k+.
HMRC projections put 7.7 million people in the 40% higher-rate band and 1.3 million in the 45% additional-rate band for 2026/27 — both up by about a third since 2023/24. What the thresholds mean for your take-home pay.
The complete UK allowance stack — ISA £20,000, LISA £4,000 + 25% bonus, Marriage £1,260, savings interest, dividends £500, CGT £3,000, Child Benefit taper, pensions £60,000, and the two £1,000 side-income allowances — each explained with a full guide.
The 2025/26 tax year runs 6 April 2025 to 5 April 2026. When additional income from online selling or renting out part of your home means telling HMRC, per gov.uk.
You can get up to £1,000 each tax year in tax-free allowances for property or trading income (gov.uk) — and if you have both, you get £1,000 for each. Who the trading and property allowances cover, full relief vs partial relief, and when you must still tell HMRC.
The UK pension annual allowance is £60,000 this tax year (HMRC), covering all your private pensions together. High earners face a taper once threshold income passes £200,000 and adjusted income passes £260,000, and unused allowance can be carried forward from the previous 3 tax years.
UK student loan repayments are 9% of income over your plan's threshold (6% for Postgraduate Loans) — with thresholds from £21,000 to £33,795 depending on plan (gov.uk). Here are the current thresholds, the rates, and HMRC's worked examples including holding two loans at once.
The UK Dividend Allowance for the current tax year is £500 (HMRC), with dividends above the allowance taxed at 10.75% basic / 35.75% higher / 39.35% additional. ISA dividends and dividends within the Personal Allowance are tax-free. Here's the mechanic with an HMRC worked example.
The UK Capital Gains Tax Annual Exempt Amount is £3,000 for 2026/27 (HMRC), with £1,500 for trusts. Basic-rate taxpayers pay 18% or 24% depending on the size of the gain; higher and additional-rate taxpayers pay 24%. Here's the mechanic with HMRC worked examples.
HMRC's High Income Child Benefit Charge (HICBC) claws back Child Benefit when the higher earner in a couple earns over £60,000 in the 2024/25 tax year onwards, tapering to full clawback at £80,000. Here's the taper mechanic, the HMRC worked example, and the opt-out that preserves NI credits.
The UK Personal Savings Allowance lets basic-rate taxpayers earn £1,000 of interest tax-free, higher-rate taxpayers £500, and additional-rate taxpayers £0 (HMRC). It sits on top of a separate £5,000 starting rate for savings that tapers to zero above £17,570 of other income.
Marriage Allowance lets the lower earner transfer £1,260 of their Personal Allowance to a spouse or civil partner (HMRC), saving up to £252 a year. Here's the eligibility rules, the £214 worked example from HMRC, the Scottish band, and how backdating to 2022/23 works.
For UK incomes between £100,000 and £125,140 the Personal Allowance reduces by £1 for every £2 over £100,000 (HMRC), interacting with the 40% Higher rate to produce a higher effective marginal rate. Here is how the two rules combine and which levers reduce it.
Council tax is not being abolished. The November 2025 Budget kept it and added a new High Value Council Tax Surcharge (mansion tax) of £2,500-£7,500 a year on homes worth over £2 million, collected from April 2028. Council tax administration is also being reformed for the first time since 1993. Here is what every figure means.
The standard UK Inheritance Tax rate is 40% on estates above the £325,000 nil-rate band. Homeowners passing the property to direct descendants may use a £500,000 threshold. From 9 January 2026, HMRC charges 7.75% interest on unpaid IHT. Here is what every figure means.
Workers earning between the £10,000 auto-enrolment trigger and the £12,570 personal allowance receive no income tax relief on their pension contributions if their employer's scheme uses the net-pay method. The same workers in a relief-at-source scheme get a 20% top-up. Here is how to tell which scheme you are in and what the difference is worth.
Complete UK income tax guide for 2025/26 with updated Scottish bands. Calculate tax on £25k-£150k salaries, understand the 60% tax trap, and compare England vs Scotland.
Complete National Insurance guide for 2025/26 with April 2025 changes. Employee NI unchanged (8% + 2%), employer NI raised to 15% with £5,000 threshold, £10,500 allowance.
Complete student loan repayment guide for 2025/26. Calculate repayments on all 5 plans with updated thresholds: Plan 1 £26,065, Plan 2 £28,470, Plan 5 £25,000.
Calculate your UK take-home pay for 2026/27. Personal allowance £12,570, NI 8%/2%, student loan thresholds updated for the new tax year. Worked examples from £20k to £150k.
Complete guide to UK tax bands for 2026/27. Personal allowance frozen at £12,570 until April 2031, the 60% tax trap, Scottish bands, and exactly what you'll pay on your salary.
Santander's new Regular Saver pays a market-leading 8% AER on up to £200 a month. How the variable rate is built, what you could earn, and how it compares with first direct's fixed alternative.
A Lifetime ISA lets you save up to £4,000 each year until you're 50, and the government adds a 25% bonus up to £1,000 per year (gov.uk). You must open it between 18 and 40, the £4,000 counts inside your £20,000 ISA allowance, and withdrawals outside the qualifying reasons carry a 25% charge.
The UK ISA allowance for 2026/27 is £20,000 (HMRC), split as you choose across cash, stocks and shares, innovative finance and Lifetime ISAs. The Lifetime ISA takes up to £4,000 of it with a 25% government bonus; Junior ISAs have a separate £9,000 limit. Here are the published rules.
A 4.5% nominal savings rate sounds attractive. With UK CPI inflation at around 3.4% in 2026, the real return (what your money is actually worth after inflation) is closer to 1.1%. Here is how the calculation works and how to read it across different rate environments.
A 3.80% Premium Bonds prize fund rate is tax-free. For a higher-rate taxpayer who has used their Personal Savings Allowance, that equates to a 6.33% gross taxable savings rate. Here is the calculation and the cases where Premium Bonds are and are not the right home for cash.
From 6 April 2027 the Cash ISA allowance falls from £20,000 to £12,000 for savers under 65. The Stocks and Shares ISA allowance stays at £20,000. Here is what the change means, who it affects, and why the 2026/27 tax year is the last full Cash ISA window for under-65s.
A 25% withdrawal charge on a Lifetime ISA does not just claw back the 25% government bonus. The charge applies to the full fund value, which means the saver loses 6.25% of their own contributions on every non-qualifying withdrawal. Here is how the calculation works.
Understand compound interest with worked UK examples: £10,000 grows to £16,289 in 10 years at 5.00% AER. Learn the formula and the strategies that maximise growth.
Cash ISA vs regular savings, compared after tax for basic, higher and additional rate taxpayers — worked comparison at a December 2025 rate snapshot (ISA 4.52% vs taxable 5.00%).
Save £10,000 in a year by combining regular savers, easy access accounts and smart budgeting. Worked plan using a December 2025 rate snapshot (7.50% regular saver, 5.00% easy access) earning £250+ bonus interest.