What does tax code BR mean?
BR stands for “basic rate”. Every pound of this income is taxed at 20%, with no Personal Allowance applied to it — because your allowance is being used against another job or pension.
England, Wales & NI, 2026/27. We compare your code with the standard 1257L.
On this code
2026/27All of this income is taxed at the basic rate (20%) with no tax-free allowance — common for a second job (code BR).
- Gross salary
- £35,000
- Income Tax
- −£7,000
- National Insurance
- −£1,794
Take-home a year
£2,184 a month
£26,206
Compared with the standard 1257L code.
Verified · 2026/2721 June 2026
Effective rate —
Marginal rate — on your next £1
What it's worth in real terms
Your salary has the spending power of — in 2025 money — the pound has lost — since then. A rise of — would just keep pace.
Inflation: ONS Consumer Prices Index, latest May 2026.
How this was calculated
For the 2026/27 tax year (England, Wales & Northern Ireland) we apply your tax-free Personal Allowance, the Income Tax bands, employee National Insurance, and any student-loan repayment — each traced to a dated gov.uk/HMRC source. A pension contribution comes off before Income Tax (and before National Insurance too, for salary sacrifice). Over £100,000 the Personal Allowance tapers away, which is why the marginal rate jumps to about 60%.
The full method and every source is on our methodology page.
Built & maintained by the Pay Packet team · methodology sourced from HMRC · last reviewed 21 June 2026. About our figures →
Who has the BR code?
Usually a second job or a second pension, where your main income already uses your £12,570 allowance.
Is BR the right code for you?
BR is often correct on a second income. But if this is your only job, BR means you are overpaying — you would be missing your tax-free allowance, and should contact HMRC to fix it.
Not your code? Decode any code on the tax code checker, or browse all tax codes. If you think yours is wrong, contact HMRC — you can reclaim overpaid tax for the last four years.