Moving to or from Scotland: what happens to your tax

Scottish income tax follows where you live, wherever your employer is based. If your main home is in Scotland you are a Scottish taxpayer and your tax code starts with S. In the year you move, you count as a Scottish taxpayer for the whole tax year if you lived in Scotland for longer in that year than anywhere else in the UK. National Insurance, the Personal Allowance and the rates on savings and dividends are the same across the UK.

How HMRC decides where you live

HMRC asks where your main place of residence is. For most people that is the home they live in. With homes on both sides of the border, it is the one you treat as your main home, which depends on things like where your family lives and where you spend most of your time.

The tax year runs from 6 April to 5 April. Move from England to Scotland on 1 September and you will have spent more of the year in Scotland, so you are a Scottish taxpayer for the whole year, including the months you lived in England. Move the other way on the same date and you pay rest of UK rates for the whole year. Your status covers the full tax year and is never split between the two systems.

Telling HMRC

Update your address through your HMRC personal tax account or the HMRC app as soon as you move. HMRC then sends your employer a new code, adding or removing the S prefix. Telling your employer helps, but payroll needs the code from HMRC before anything changes.

Without an update to HMRC, your employer may keep using the wrong rates. The difference gets put right later through a P800 calculation or a change to next year’s code. Our guide to Scottish tax codes explains the S codes, including SBR and SD0 to SD3.

How the rates compare

Gross income	Scotland 2026/27	England, Wales, NI 2026/27
£12,571 to £16,537	19% (starter)	20%
£16,538 to £29,526	20% (basic)	20%
£29,527 to £43,662	21% (intermediate)	20%
£43,663 to £50,270	42% (higher)	20%
£50,271 to £75,000	42% (higher)	40%
£75,001 to £125,140	45% (advanced)	40%
Over £125,140	48% (top)	45%

These figures assume the standard £12,570 Personal Allowance. Gov.scot says the higher, advanced and top thresholds stay frozen until 2028-29.

What the move is worth in practice

Worked out from the bands above, Income Tax for a year on the standard allowance comes to roughly:

• on £35,000: about £4,501 in Scotland and £4,486 elsewhere, a difference of around £15
• on £60,000: about £13,182 in Scotland and £11,432 elsewhere, a difference of around £1,750

Up to roughly £33,000 a year, Scottish taxpayers pay slightly less, because the 19 per cent starter rate saves a little more than the 21 per cent intermediate rate costs. The gap opens at the higher rate, which starts at £43,663 in Scotland and £50,270 elsewhere. Between those two figures a Scottish taxpayer pays 42 per cent tax and 8 per cent National Insurance, a marginal rate of 50 per cent, because NI only drops to 2 per cent at £50,270.

Public sector pay in Scotland is often set separately and can be higher, so the tax difference is only part of the picture. NHS Scotland bands and Scottish teachers’ pay scales differ from England’s. Our guides to teacher pay in Scotland and public sector jobs in Scotland cover this.

What stays the same

A move across the border leaves several things untouched:

• National Insurance rates and thresholds
• the Personal Allowance of £12,570 and its withdrawal above £100,000
• tax on savings interest and dividends, which use UK rates
• the High Income Child Benefit Charge, from £60,000

Student loans follow your loan plan and ignore where you live. A Plan 4 loan from studying in Scotland stays Plan 4 if you move to England, and a Plan 2 loan stays Plan 2 if you move to Scotland. See our page on Plan 4 student loans.

Wales and Northern Ireland

Welsh taxpayers have a C prefix, and in 2026/27 the Welsh rates give the same total tax as England. Northern Ireland uses the same rates as England with no prefix. Moving between England, Wales and Northern Ireland therefore changes nothing in the tax rate, though Welsh residents still need the C code.

If your address and tax code disagree, or HMRC has treated you as Scottish for a year when you were not, contact HMRC through your personal tax account. Where your main residence is genuinely unclear, HMRC’s guidance on Scottish taxpayer status sets out the tests.