We’re more than halfway through the tax year – are you making the most of your allowances?

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Yes, you read that right – we’ve now passed the halfway point for the 2025/26 tax year. So now could be the perfect time to check in with your yearly allowances to make sure you’re making the most of the tax benefits at your fingertips.

Remember, most allowances only last for the year, meaning anything you don’t use over the next six months could be lost once the new tax year starts on 6 April 2026. So here’s a quick reminder of some of your allowances to help you check on your progress.

Pension annual allowance

The pension annual allowance is the total amount that can be paid in across all your pension plans in a tax year before you may need to pay a tax charge. 

Right now, the annual allowance is £60,000. Normally, you can personally pay in up to 100% of your earnings – capped at £60,000 – and still get tax relief on those payments. But if more than £60,000 is paid in (including payments by you, your employer and any third party, plus tax relief that may have been added), you might have a tax charge to pay.

If you’re close to or have already reached your annual allowance this year but you want to pay some more into your pension plan, you might still have options. You may be able to carry forward some allowances from the previous three tax years if you haven’t used them. To find out more, read our annual allowance guide. 

Keep in mind, once you start taking money from your pension plan (anything over your 25% tax-free amount), your allowance will usually reduce to £10,000. This is called the ‘money purchase annual allowance’. You can find out more about it and how it’s triggered on MoneyHelper. Your allowance might also reduce if you earn more than £200,000. 

You can usually check how much has been paid into your pension plan in a tax year on your provider’s app or online services.

Individual Savings Account (ISA) allowances

ISAs come with a big tax benefit: you don’t have to pay any tax when you withdraw money from them – and that includes any growth you achieve from interest or investments. So it’s a good idea to make the most of your ISA allowances where you can.

The ISA allowance for 2025/26 is £20,000. So this is the maximum you can pay in across your ISAs in the tax year. For example, you could save up to £20,000 into a Cash ISA or a Stocks & Shares ISA, or a combination of both. 

For Lifetime ISAs (LISAs), you can pay in up to £4,000 in the current tax year, and this counts towards your £20,000 allowance. You get a 25% government bonus on top of anything you save into a LISA, which means each tax year you could get up to £1,000 on top of your savings. So now could be a good time to think about getting as much of that extra boost as you can before the tax year is up.

The Junior ISA has its own separate allowance, which is £9,000.

You can ask your ISA provider(s) how much you've paid into their ISAs this tax year and how much of the current year's allowance you have left.

How to make the most of your allowances

To get the most out of your allowances, you may want to think about paying in as much as you’re able to in the tax year. That way, you can take advantage of as many of the tax benefits as possible. That doesn’t necessarily mean paying in the full allowance; it just means paying in as much as is realistic for you at the time. Just remember, a pension and some types of ISAs are investments. Their value can go down as well as up and could be worth less than was paid in.

Taking the time to consider how much you’re paying in now and if there’s any way you could pay in more could go a long way. Even paying in as little as an extra £10 a month, or just keeping your payments the same instead of reducing them, could help in the long term. If you’re investing your money, there’s potential for it to grow over time due to something called ‘compounding’. Find out why compounding matters for your pension plan in our article.

If you have a Standard Life pension plan and want to change your pension payments or make a new one, you can usually do this online or through our app. If your employer set up your plan and you want to change your monthly payments, get in touch with them to find out how this works for you. 

Got an ISA? You can check with your ISA provider if you’re not sure how to pay in or change your payments.

Could your allowances change?

Your pension and ISA allowances could change in the future. 

On 26 November, the Chancellor is delivering her Autumn Budget. It’s a good idea to keep an eye on what comes out of the Budget in case there are changes that could impact your pension or ISA allowances. The contents of the Budget haven’t been announced yet, though.

If there are changes to pension or ISA allowances, we’ll usually keep you up to date on our website. 
 

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The information here is based on our understanding in October 2025 and shouldn’t be taken as financial advice.

Your own personal circumstances, including where you live in the UK, will have an impact on the tax you pay. Laws and tax rules may change in the future.

Standard Life accepts no responsibility for information on external websites. These are provided for general information.