Locum doctor on £180,000

Personal Ltd Co. Age 52. Pension preference: aggressive.

Every figure on this page is computed at build time by the same engines that power the live salary–dividend split, take-home and SIPP optimiser calculators. Inputs come from a single CSV row; outputs come from the engines. No static lookup tables, no hand-coded numbers.

Net cash

£76,282

Pension

£60,000

Effective rate

24.3%

Marginal rate

33.8%

How much tax does a locum doctor on £180,000 actually pay in 2026/27?

Short answer: £43,718 per year — an effective rate of 24.3% on gross company profit.

What's in that number? For a Ltd Co director the figure is the sum of five lines: corporation tax (£24,418), employer NI (£1,136), employee NI (£0), personal income tax (£0) and dividend tax (£18,165). The optimiser placed £12,570 of salary, £81,876 of dividend and £60,000 of employer pension contribution to produce that figure — the lowest total in the searched grid.

What's the marginal rate on the next £1? 33.8%. This is the number that matters for "is one more invoice worth the cost in lost benefits / extra effort?" decisions — it is always higher than the average effective rate.

How does this compare to PAYE employment at the same gross? The PAYE figure for a £180,000 salaried employee in 2026/27 is roughly £77,400 of combined income tax + employee NI. The structure-specific savings come from where the deductions sit, not whether they sit anywhere — see the contractor tax guide for the side-by-side maths.

The numbers, line by line

Optimum salary	£12,570
Optimum dividend	£81,876
Optimum pension	£60,000
Net cash (optimum)	£76,282
Net wealth (cash + pension)	£136,282
Rule-of-thumb net cash	£102,233
Rule-of-thumb net wealth	£102,233
Saving vs rule of thumb	£34,049
Effective rate on profit	24.3%
Marginal rate (next £1 dividend)	33.8%
Years to age-57 pension access	5
Annual pension contribution (this row)	£60,000
Projected pot at 57 (5% real, single-path)	£331,538
Sustainable income @ 4% SWR	£13,262/yr

Why this scenario is different

Compared to the closest peer profile — Software contractor at £180,000 — this scenario sits £0 higher on gross income. That moves net cash by +£0, the pension contribution by +£0, and the effective rate by +0%. The effective rate moves only modestly — both scenarios sit inside the same binding tax band. The optimiser shifts £0 of the extraction out of the dividend slice, and £0 out of pension contributions.

Questions this scenario raises

What is the Personal Allowance and how is it used in this calculation?

The Personal Allowance is the first £12,570 of non-savings, non-dividend income on which no income tax is charged. It is consumed from the bottom up: salary first, then dividends. Above £100,000 of adjusted net income the allowance tapers at £1 lost for every £2 of income, fully eroded at £125,140 — producing the well-known 60% effective marginal rate inside that £25,140-wide band.

How much can I put into pension this year?

The 2026/27 pension Annual Allowance is £60,000. Below £260,000 of adjusted income the full £60,000 Annual Allowance is available. Carry-forward of unused AA from the last three tax years is available subject to membership-in-each-year rules.

Does this include the High Income Child Benefit Charge?

No. HICBC is not in the engine. If you or your partner earn over £60,000 and either of you claims Child Benefit, HICBC tapers the Child Benefit at 1% for every £200 of income over £60,000, fully eroded at £80,000 (2026/27 thresholds). This adds an effective 11% marginal between £60,000 and £80,000 for a one-child household, ~22% for two children, etc.

What is the £500 Dividend Allowance and how is it used?

The first £500 of dividends in 2026/27 is taxed at 0%. It does not reduce taxable income — it sits as a 0% slice within the band schedule. So a basic-rate dividend recipient with £500 of dividends pays £0; with £600 of dividends pays 8.75% × £100 = £8.75. The £500 is consumed in band order (cheapest band first).

What does the "marginal rate" mean on this page?

It is the rate paid on the next £1 of gross income added to this scenario. For this row that figure is 33.8%. The marginal rate is always higher than the average effective rate — it is the right number for "is one more invoice worth it" decisions.

Methodology

Income tax, National Insurance and Corporation Tax bands taken from HMRC's 2026/27 rates and allowances tables (gov.uk/.../income-tax; corporation-tax). Pension Annual Allowance and taper rules from Finance Act 2004 / 2023. Trading allowance per ITTOIA 2005 s.783A. Voluntary Class 2 figure (£179.40/yr = £3.45/wk × 52) from HMRC voluntary NI guidance.

Style: 2026/27 tax year throughout; figures rounded to whole pounds in the user-facing prose; effective rates computed as (deductions / gross). The voice is methodological — no first person, no claimed credentials, no marketing fluff.

This page is not personalised advice; for advice regulated by the FCA, consult an adviser registered with the Financial Conduct Authority. See the full disclaimer.