When is the Autumn Budget 2026?
The Autumn Budget will be delivered on Wednesday 28 October 2026. Chancellor John Healey confirmed the date in a letter to the Treasury Select Committee published on 31 July 2026, and has asked the Office for Budget Responsibility to publish its economic and fiscal forecast on the same day. It is the first Budget of Andy Burnham's government and Healey's first as Chancellor, a little over three months after the change of Prime Minister.
Two earlier dates matter. Healey's speech to the Labour conference in Liverpool on 28 September is the clearest public signal of his priorities before the Budget itself. September's inflation figure, published by the Office for National Statistics in October, then fixes next April's benefit uprating and completes the triple lock calculation for the state pension.
This guide sets out what is already decided for your money this autumn and next April, what the Chancellor has ruled out, what is being rumoured, and what is worth doing before 28 October. We will update it, and every calculator on the site, once the Budget documents are published.
Key dates for your money this autumn
| Date | What happens |
|---|---|
| 28 September 2026 | Chancellor's conference speech in Liverpool |
| 1 October 2026 | VAT on household electricity cut from 5% to 0%; Ofgem price cap rises 4% to £1,723 for a typical dual-fuel household |
| Mid-October 2026 | September CPI published: sets April 2027 benefit uprating and the state pension rise |
| 28 October 2026 | Autumn Budget and OBR forecast |
| 1 January 2027 | Fuel duty rises 3p a litre; £2 single bus fare cap starts in England outside London |
| 1 March 2027 | Fuel duty rises a further 2p, back to 57.95p a litre |
| 6 April 2027 | New tax year: pensions join estates for inheritance tax, savings and property income tax rates rise 2 points, cash ISA limit falls to £12,000 for under-65s |
What has been ruled out
Labour's manifesto commitment not to raise the rates of income tax, employee National Insurance or VAT still stands, and Grant Thornton notes that those three taxes raise around 60% of all receipts. That leaves thresholds, wealth, savings, dividends and property as the places a Chancellor with an estimated £5 billion to £10 billion of headroom, down from £22 billion at Budget 2025, is likely to look. The government has also said it has no plans for a flat 10% inheritance tax on all estates, and no immediate plans to change stamp duty or council tax.
The commitment does not cover thresholds. The £12,570 Personal Allowance and the £50,270 higher-rate threshold are frozen until April 2031, so every pay rise pulls more income into tax and more people into the 40% band. The Institute for Fiscal Studies estimates that unfreezing the thresholds from April 2027 would cost about £8.4 billion a year, which is a fair measure of how much the freeze now raises. Andy Burnham has hinted that the Personal Allowance could be reviewed but called action "difficult given the financial circumstances", so expect the freeze to continue.
In practice, a basic-rate employee loses 28p of every extra £1 of pay to income tax and National Insurance, and 42p once earnings pass £50,270. Our take-home pay calculator shows the effect on your own salary, and the 60% tax trap calculator covers the withdrawal of the Personal Allowance between £100,000 and £125,140.
What is already confirmed for your bills
Several measures announced since July take effect before or around the Budget, so they are not up for debate on 28 October:
- VAT off electricity from 1 October 2026. The 5% VAT rate on household electricity falls to 0%, funded for the 2026/27 financial year, which the Department for Energy Security and Net Zero says saves an average household about £45 a year. Gas still carries 5% VAT. The saving is applied automatically, including on fixed tariffs and prepayment meters.
- Energy price cap up 4% from 1 October. Ofgem set the cap for October to December at £1,723 a year for a typical dual-fuel household paying by direct debit, £60 more than the previous quarter. Gas is up 8% while electricity is broadly flat because of the VAT cut, so all-electric homes see a rise of under 1%.
- Warm Home Discount and Winter Fuel Payment. Around six million households get £150 off electricity bills this winter. Households with someone born on or before 27 June 1960 receive a Winter Fuel Payment of £200, or £300 where someone is 80 or over; anyone with taxable income above £35,000 has it recovered through the tax system.
- Fuel duty. The 1p rise planned for 1 September was cancelled and the 5p cut now runs to 31 December 2026. Duty rises by 3p a litre on 1 January 2027 (to 55.95p) and by 2p on 1 March 2027 (to 57.95p), which unwinds the cut introduced in March 2022 unless the Budget changes the timetable again.
- £2 bus fares. Single fares in England outside London are capped at £2 from 1 January to 31 December 2027, replacing the £3 cap, backed by £400 million of funding according to the Department for Transport.
What is already law for April 2027 and beyond
The biggest changes to your finances in the next 18 months were legislated in the November 2025 Budget and Finance Act 2026. They will happen whatever the Chancellor says on 28 October.
| Measure | From | What it means |
|---|---|---|
| Unused pensions counted for inheritance tax | 6 April 2027 | Most unused pension pots and lump sum death benefits join the estate and can be taxed at 40% above the allowances. See our guide to the pension change and the inheritance tax calculator. |
| Savings income tax up 2 percentage points | 6 April 2027 | Interest outside an ISA is taxed at 22%, 42% and 47% instead of 20%, 40% and 45%. The £1,000 and £500 personal savings allowances are unchanged. |
| Property income tax up 2 percentage points | 6 April 2027 | Rental profits are taxed at 22%, 42% and 47%. |
| Cash ISA limit cut to £12,000 | 6 April 2027 | Savers under 65 can put at most £12,000 of their £20,000 ISA allowance into cash; the rest must go into stocks and shares. Over-65s keep the full £20,000 for cash. |
| Plan 2 student loan threshold frozen at £29,385 | April 2027 to April 2030 | Graduates repay 9% of everything above the frozen figure, so each pay rise adds to repayments. |
| State pension rises about 3.9% | April 2027 | Earnings growth of 3.9% is expected to be the highest leg of the triple lock, taking the full new state pension from £241.30 to about £250.70 a week (£13,036 a year), above the £12,570 Personal Allowance for the first time. Pensioners with no other income will not be sent Simple Assessment bills for 2027/28. |
| Personal Allowance and tax thresholds frozen | Until April 2031 | Fiscal drag continues for four more tax years. |
| High Value Council Tax Surcharge | April 2028 | Homes in England worth £2 million or more pay £2,500 a year, rising to £7,500 above £5 million. |
| Salary sacrifice pension cap | April 2029 | National Insurance relief on salary sacrifice pension contributions is limited to the first £2,000 a year. |
Already in force since April 2026, and relevant if you have not caught up: dividend tax rose to 10.75% (basic) and 35.75% (higher), Business Asset Disposal Relief rose to 18%, Venture Capital Trust relief fell to 20%, the two-child limit on Universal Credit ended, and the National Living Wage reached £12.71 an hour.
The rumours: what could be announced on 28 October
Capital gains tax
Rates went from 10% and 20% to 18% and 24% in October 2024, and talk of full alignment with income tax has quietened. The idea most often reported is ending the "uplift on death", under which assets are revalued at death so that the gain built up during life is never taxed. Which? puts the potential yield at £1.5 billion to £2 billion a year. Anyone planning to sell a business should note that the BADR rate is already 18%.
Inheritance tax
The Prime Minister has said he is willing to look again at the restriction of agricultural property relief for farmers, which took effect in April 2026. A flat 10% inheritance tax on every estate was floated in the press and denied by the government. The nil-rate band is already legislated to stay at £325,000 until April 2031, and the pension change from April 2027 is already law, so most families' exposure is set by what they own rather than by anything the Budget might add.
Pensions
Pension tax relief is the lever most often discussed and least often pulled: restricting higher-rate relief or cutting the 25% tax-free lump sum would raise billions but hit public sector workers hard. With the salary sacrifice cap already booked for 2029 and pensions entering inheritance tax in 2027, most forecasters expect no third pension change this year, but pre-Budget speculation tends to prompt a rush of contributions regardless.
Property
The High Value Council Tax Surcharge does not start until April 2028, and there are reports that its £2 million threshold could be lowered to £1.5 million, which would bring in roughly 100,000 more homes. A land value tax has been discussed but is described as unlikely for this Budget. Stamp duty and council tax banding are, for now, off the table.
Business, banks and the tax gap
A 20% business rates cut for pubs, social clubs and live music venues from April 2027 builds on the existing 15% relief and is expected to be confirmed. A levy on bank profits is being considered, and HMRC has a target of closing an extra £10 billion a year of the tax gap by 2029/30, which means more compliance activity for the self-employed and small companies.
Households
Reports suggest the Chancellor wants to announce a new first-time buyer ISA. A reversal of the Plan 2 student loan threshold freeze has been discussed, as has making some benefits, including mental health support, conditional on engagement with work. Railcard discounts for more groups are at a very early stage.
What it means for you
If you are employed
Your tax code will not change on Budget day, but the threshold freeze means a pay rise in line with inflation still leaves you paying a higher share of it in tax. Check what a rise or a change of hours does to your net pay with the take-home pay calculator, or with the pro-rata salary calculator if you are going part-time. If you work irregular hours, the holiday entitlement calculator shows the paid leave you are owed under the rules the Fair Work Agency now enforces.
If you are retired
From April 2027 the full new state pension alone will exceed the Personal Allowance, so anyone with a private pension or savings on top will pay income tax on more of it. Interest on savings outside an ISA is taxed 2 points higher from the same date. If you have an unused pension pot, run the inheritance tax calculator with the April 2027 rule switched on and off to see what it adds to your family's bill.
If you save or invest
The 2026/27 tax year is the last in which savers under 65 can put the full £20,000 into a cash ISA. From April 2027 interest outside an ISA is taxed at 22% or 42%, which makes the wrapper worth more, not less. Dividend tax has already risen; our Smart Money guides compare 22 ways to hold and extract money tax-efficiently.
If you are a landlord or own a second home
Rental profits are taxed 2 points higher from April 2027, the council tax surcharge on £2 million homes starts in April 2028, and capital gains tax is the tax most exposed to Budget-day change. Landlords already inside Making Tax Digital for income tax, which began in April 2026 for turnover above £50,000 and extends to £30,000 from April 2027, should check their quarterly reporting is on track.
If you run a company or a side hustle
Directors have already absorbed the dividend rate rise; the salary vs dividend calculator uses the 10.75% and 35.75% rates. Side hustlers should watch for any change to the £1,000 trading allowance, which has been unchanged since 2017, and for the extension of Making Tax Digital. The side hustle tax calculator shows what you owe today.
If you claim benefits
April 2027 rates for Universal Credit, PIP and other benefits will be set by September's inflation figure, published in October, with the Universal Credit standard allowance due to rise by more than inflation under the Universal Credit Act 2025. The two-child limit ended in April 2026. Use the benefits calculator to check what you can claim now; Policy in Practice estimates that more than £20 billion goes unclaimed each year.
Five things worth doing before 28 October
- Do not act on rumours. Tax changes normally apply from the date they are announced or from the next 6 April, and Budgets sometimes include anti-forestalling rules that catch transactions rushed through beforehand. Make decisions on the rules as they stand.
- Use this year's cash ISA allowance. If you hold cash savings and are under 65, the £20,000 cash limit falls to £12,000 in April 2027. Money already inside an ISA is unaffected.
- Check your pension nominations. Pensions left to a spouse or civil partner stay exempt from inheritance tax after April 2027; pensions left to children do not. An out-of-date expression of wish form can cost a family 40% of the pot.
- Know your take-home and your entitlements. Ten minutes with the take-home pay, benefits and holiday entitlement calculators tells you where you stand before anything changes.
- Plan for the April 2027 rate rises on savings and property income. Moving cash into an ISA, using a spouse's lower tax band, or paying down a buy-to-let mortgage all reduce the income the higher rates will apply to.
After the Budget
The Budget documents and the OBR forecast are published on GOV.UK as soon as the Chancellor sits down. We will update every calculator whose rates change and add a summary of the measures that affect pay, benefits, savings and estates to this article. If a figure on IncomeFix looks out of date after 28 October, email us and we will check it within two working days.