Scottish S tax codes and rates

If you live in Scotland, your wages and pensions are taxed at Scottish rates and your tax code starts with S, for example S1257L. For 2026/27 there are six bands, from a 19% starter rate to a 48% top rate. Lower and middle earners pay slightly less or slightly more than in England depending on their salary; from £43,663 upwards, Scottish taxpayers pay noticeably more. The £12,570 Personal Allowance is the same across the UK.

The 2026/27 Scottish bands

These apply to non-savings, non-dividend income: earnings, pensions and rental profit. The “gross” column assumes the standard £12,570 allowance.

Band	Gross income	Rate
Personal Allowance	Up to £12,570	0%
Starter	£12,571 to £16,537	19%
Basic	£16,538 to £29,526	20%
Intermediate	£29,527 to £43,662	21%
Higher	£43,663 to £75,000	42%
Advanced	£75,001 to £125,140	45%
Top	Over £125,140	48%

The Scottish Government says the higher, advanced and top thresholds stay frozen until 2028-29. The Personal Allowance is set by the UK Government and is frozen until 5 April 2031, and it tapers away above £100,000 in Scotland just as it does elsewhere.

Who counts as a Scottish taxpayer

You are a Scottish taxpayer if your main home is in Scotland. Where your employer is based does not matter. Someone who lives in Gretna and works at a hospital in Carlisle pays Scottish rates. Someone who lives in Berwick-upon-Tweed and teaches in the Scottish Borders does not.

If you have more than one home, the test is which one is your main home, which depends on where you actually live day to day. HMRC works out your status from the address it holds, so keep your address up to date in your personal tax account. If you move across the border mid-year, your status for the whole tax year depends on where you lived for the longest part of it; moving to or from Scotland covers this.

What the S codes mean

The S prefix tells payroll to use Scottish bands. Everything after it means the same as elsewhere.

• S1257L: standard Personal Allowance, Scottish rates.
• S0T: no allowance from this job, Scottish rates on all of it.
• SBR: all pay from this job taxed at the Scottish basic rate of 20%.
• SD0: all pay taxed at the intermediate rate (21%).
• SD1: all pay taxed at the higher rate (42%).
• SD2: all pay taxed at the advanced rate (45%).
• SD3: all pay taxed at the top rate (48%).

The D codes are used on second jobs where your main job already takes you into that band. They are numbered differently from the English D0 and D1, which is a common source of confusion when someone has one job each side of the border. Emergency versions look like S1257L M1.

Two worked examples

These leave out pension contributions to keep the arithmetic clear. Your actual taxable pay will be lower if you pay into a workplace pension through payroll.

NHS Scotland band 5 entry, £34,494. Taxable income above the allowance is £21,924.

Slice	Amount	Tax
Starter (19%)	£3,967	£753.73
Basic (20%)	£12,989	£2,597.80
Intermediate (21%)	£4,968	£1,043.28
Total	£21,924	£4,394.81

On the same salary in England the tax would be £21,924 × 20% = £4,384.80. The Scottish figure is about £10 a year more.

Now a teacher at the top of the Scottish main grade from 1 August 2026, £54,453. Taxable income above the allowance is £41,883. The starter, basic and intermediate slices are full (£753.73, £2,597.80 and £2,968.56), and the remaining £10,791 is taxed at 42%, which is £4,532.22. The total is £10,852.31. In England, the same salary would pay £9,213.20, so the Scottish taxpayer pays about £1,639 more.

The pattern holds generally: below the mid-£30,000s the difference is small either way, and above £43,662 it grows quickly. Scottish public sector pay scales are often higher than England’s for comparable jobs, which offsets some of this. See teacher pay in Scotland and public sector jobs in Scotland.

The 50% marginal rate between £43,663 and £50,270

National Insurance is UK-wide. Employees pay 8% between £12,570 and £50,270 and 2% above. In Scotland the 42% higher rate starts at £43,663, while full-rate NI continues to £50,270. On earnings in that gap, each extra pound loses 42p in income tax and 8p in NI, so you keep 50p. Above £50,270 NI drops to 2% and the combined rate falls to 44%.

This matters when you are weighing up overtime, extra sessions or a move up a pay band. The take-home pay calculator has a Scottish option.

Marriage Allowance in Scotland

The £1,260 transfer works in Scotland too. The person receiving it must pay tax at no more than the intermediate rate, which means income between £12,571 and £43,662. In England, Wales and Northern Ireland the upper limit is £50,270 instead.

When your code is missing the S

If you live in Scotland and your code has no S, payroll is using the rest of UK rates. On a lower salary that can mean slightly too little tax; on a higher one, too little by a larger margin, which HMRC will collect later. Check your address in your HMRC personal tax account and update it if it is wrong. HMRC then issues a corrected code to your employer.