Quick answer
The Autumn Budget will be delivered on Wednesday 28 October 2026 by Chancellor John Healey, with the Office for Budget Responsibility publishing its forecast the same day.
The rates most people ask about are not expected to move. The government has committed to the 2024 manifesto pledge not to raise the rates of Income Tax, employee National Insurance or VAT, and those three taxes make up close to 60% of all receipts. What is already doing the work is the freeze: Income Tax thresholds stay fixed until April 2031, so pay rises pull more of your income into higher bands without any rate changing.
This page separates what is confirmed from what is speculation. It will be updated with the actual figures on the day.
What is actually confirmed
Only a handful of things are settled before the Chancellor stands up. Everything else in the press is forecasting.
| Item | Position before the Budget |
|---|---|
| Date | Wednesday 28 October 2026 |
| Chancellor | John Healey |
| OBR forecast | Published the same day |
| Income Tax, employee NI, VAT rates | Manifesto commitment not to raise them |
| Income Tax thresholds | Frozen until April 2031 |
| Personal Allowance | £12,570 |
| Basic rate limit | £37,700 |
| Corporation Tax main rate | Capped at 25% for the Parliament |
The backdrop is a tighter one than last year. Fiscal headroom has fallen from around £22bn at Budget 2025 to estimates between £5bn and £10bn, which is why so much of the commentary assumes money has to come from somewhere.
The rates are not the story. The freeze is
If you only read one section, make it this one.
Income Tax thresholds have been frozen and will stay frozen until April 2031. The Personal Allowance stays at £12,570 and the basic rate limit at £37,700, which puts the higher-rate threshold at £50,270. None of those numbers rise with inflation.
That matters because pay does rise. Every time your salary goes up, a larger share of it sits above a fixed threshold, so your average tax rate climbs even though no rate has changed. This is usually called fiscal drag, and it is the quiet mechanism moving more people into higher-rate tax each year.
A worked example makes it concrete. On a £48,000 salary in 2026/27, all of your income sits below the £50,270 higher-rate threshold. A 6% pay rise takes you to £50,880. The £610 above the threshold is now taxed at 40% rather than 20%, and National Insurance on that slice drops from 8% to 2%. Nothing in the tax tables changed; only your salary did.
You can see exactly where you fall with our take-home pay calculator, or check the current bands in our guide to UK Income Tax bands and rates.
What is being speculated about
Everything in this section is forecasting by commentators and accountancy firms, not government policy. None of it has been announced. Treat it as a list of what to watch on the day rather than a list of what will happen.
- Restoring inflation-linked thresholds from April 2027. This is under debate. The Institute for Fiscal Studies estimates it would cost around £8.4bn a year, so it would almost certainly need offsetting rises elsewhere.
- Capital Gains Tax. The main rate is 24%, raised from 20% in October 2024. Some commentators suggest aligning CGT with Income Tax rates, but no proposal has been announced, and HMRC modelling reportedly suggests a rise above 24% could raise less rather than more.
- Inheritance Tax. The Prime Minister is reported to be willing to look again at the 2024 curtailment of agricultural property relief. Whether business property relief is affected is unclear.
- Property and land taxes. A Land Value Tax is considered unlikely at this Budget. Stamp duty and council tax are not expected to be abolished, though incremental reform has not been ruled out.
- Sector levies. A bank surcharge or further oil and gas levies have been floated.
- Business rates reform. Wider reform, including changes to Small Business Rates Relief, has been promised for this Budget, but no detail has been published.
The government has also said it aims to raise an extra £10bn a year by 2029/30 through HMRC enforcement rather than new taxes, which is a recurring theme in recent Budgets.
What is already law and starts later
Two changes are already legislated and will not be news on the day, but they affect planning now.
Salary sacrifice pension contributions, from April 2029. Only the first £2,000 a year sacrificed into a pension keeps its National Insurance exemption. Anything above that is treated as earnings for National Insurance, for both you and your employer. Income Tax relief is untouched and you can still pay in as much as you like. Our full guide to the 2029 salary sacrifice cap works through what the excess actually costs at four salaries.
Dividend, savings and property income rates changed in April 2026. These took effect at the start of the current tax year as a Budget 2025 measure, so they are current policy rather than a prediction. Our dividend tax calculator uses the 2026/27 rates.
Business rates for hospitality. A 20% cut for pubs, social clubs and live music venues in England was announced on 23 July 2026 and takes effect from April 2027, on top of the 15% relief already in place for 2026/27. Hotels, restaurants, cafés and cinemas are not included.
What this means for your own figures
Nothing you do before 28 October changes what the Chancellor announces, and there is rarely a good reason to make a hurried financial decision ahead of a Budget. Three things are genuinely worth doing.
- Know your current position. If you do not know which band your next pay rise falls into, the Budget coverage will be hard to interpret. Run your salary through the take-home pay calculator first.
- Check whether you are near a threshold. The £50,270 higher-rate threshold and the £100,000 point where the Personal Allowance starts to taper are the two that catch people out. Our adjusted net income calculator shows where you sit against the £100,000 taper.
- Wait for the detail before acting. Announcements on the day are frequently different in scope from what was briefed beforehand, and most measures come with start dates months or years away.
When this page will be updated
The Budget is delivered on 28 October 2026. This page will be updated with the confirmed measures, the figures that actually changed, and what each one does to take-home pay, with every number taken from the official Budget documents rather than from coverage of them.
Rates on this page are for the 2026/27 tax year and apply to England, Wales and Northern Ireland unless stated. Scotland sets its own Income Tax bands. This is general information, not financial or tax advice.