Autumn Budget 2026:
Wednesday 28 October

When is the Autumn Budget 2026?

The Budget statement is delivered in the House of Commons, traditionally after Prime Minister's Questions. HM Treasury publishes the full Budget document and the accompanying tax-measure notes on GOV.UK within minutes of the speech ending, and the OBR's Economic and fiscal outlook lands alongside it. Anything described as a Budget measure before 28 October is speculation, not policy — including in the run-up, when unattributed briefing to newspapers is routine.

Date confirmed in advance by HM Treasury. This page is rewritten on Budget day itself, from "what is confirmed" to "what was announced".

What is already confirmed for April 2027

Several changes affecting ISAs, pensions and inheritance tax were announced at earlier fiscal events and take effect on 6 April 2027 — the start of the 2027-28 tax year. They are already on the record and do not depend on what is said on 28 October, though a Budget can always amend them. The status column states plainly whether each one is law yet.

Sources: GOV.UK "ISA reform 2027: anti-circumvention rules" factsheet; Autumn Budget 2024 (pensions and inheritance tax); Budget 2025 (threshold freeze to April 2031).

The Cash ISA limit falls to £12,000 for under-65s

From 6 April 2027 the amount that can be paid into a Cash ISA in a tax year falls from £20,000 to £12,000 for savers under 65. The overallISA allowance is unchanged at £20,000 — so the other £8,000 can still be used, but it has to go into a Stocks & Shares ISA, an Innovative Finance ISA or a Lifetime ISA rather than cash. Savers aged 65 and over keep the full £20,000 cash entitlement, and that entitlement starts in the tax year in which they turn 65.

Existing Cash ISA balances are not affected — the change is to the annual subscription limit, not to money already sheltered. A separate anti-circumvention rule blocks under-65s from transferring money out of a Stocks & Shares or Innovative Finance ISA into a Cash ISA; transfers in the other direction remain allowed, and the restriction is disapplied for those aged 65 and over.

Model your own cash subscription under the £12,000 limit →

A 22% charge on cash held inside a Stocks & Shares ISA

The second half of the same reform package applies a flat 22% charge to the interestpaid on uninvested cash held inside a non-Cash ISA — a Stocks & Shares ISA or an Innovative Finance ISA — also from 6 April 2027. It is a charge on the interest, not on the cash balance itself, and it does not touch shares, funds, bonds or dividends held in the wrapper, which keep their existing tax treatment. Cash ISAs are unaffected: interest there stays tax-free.

Money market funds are not classified as cash for this purpose, so they escape the charge — provided they are not 100% of the ISA, which requires holding at least one other qualifying investment. On £10,000 of cash at 4%, the £400 of interest attracts an £88 charge, leaving £312 net and an effective rate of about 3.12%. The charge is levied on ISA managers, and is expected to reach savers as a lower net cash rate rather than as a separate bill.

Work out what the 22% charge costs on your ISA cash →

Unused pensions join your estate for inheritance tax

Announced at Autumn Budget 2024 and confirmed since, most unused defined-contribution pension funds, drawdown funds and certain defined-benefit death benefits come into the scope of inheritance tax for deaths on or after 6 April 2027. Until then a pension pot generally sits outside the estate, which is why pensions have been used as an estate-planning wrapper. From that date the pot is added to everything else and tested against the same thresholds.

Spouses and civil partners remain exempt — an entire estate can pass between them tax-free, and unused nil-rate bands still transfer. The interaction that catches people out is the one with income tax after age 75: a pot inside the estate can face inheritance tax and then income tax in the beneficiary's hands. The government has estimated the change affects roughly 8% of estates.

See your estate before and after the April 2027 pension change →

Frozen thresholds are doing the heavy lifting

The inheritance-tax nil-rate band stays at £325,000 and the residence nil-rate band at £175,000 until 5 April 2031. Neither rate nor threshold changes — but wages, house prices and pension pots keep rising against a fixed line, so more estates and more income cross it each year. That is fiscal drag, and it raises revenue without a single announced tax rise.

The same mechanism runs through income tax. The Personal Allowance taper above £100,000 creates an effective 60% marginal band that has not moved with earnings, and the Personal Savings Allowance has been £1,000 for basic-rate and £500 for higher-rate taxpayers since April 2016. Freezes rarely lead a Budget speech; they are usually the largest single number in the accompanying documents.

Inheritance tax calculator → · The £100K tax trap →

What is not known yet

This is a new Chancellor's first Budget, and no measure is policy until it is announced on 28 October. Rather than publish predictions, here is an explicit list of the open questions this page will answer on the day:

• Income tax and National Insurance rates and thresholds — whether any freeze is extended, shortened or ended.
• Whether the April 2027 ISA reform survives unchanged. The regulations have not been laid before Parliament, so the £12,000 limit and the 22% charge are announced rather than legislated.
• Pension tax relief and the tax-free lump sum — recurring speculation ahead of every Budget, and not a confirmed measure in any of them so far.
• Capital gains tax and dividend rates, and the annual exempt amount.
• Property taxes — stamp duty thresholds and any council-tax or property-value reform.
• The OBR forecast, which sets the fiscal headroom the Chancellor is working inside and often explains the measures better than the speech does.

Nothing in this list is a prediction that it will change. It is a list of what has not been decided in public.

The dates that matter

• Wednesday 28 October 2026 — Budget statement in the Commons; HM Treasury documents and the OBR Economic and fiscal outlook published the same day.
• 5 April 2027 — end of the 2026-27 tax year. The last year in which an under-65 can pay the full £20,000 into a Cash ISA.
• 6 April 2027 — the £12,000 Cash ISA limit, the transfer restriction, the 22% ISA cash charge and the pensions inheritance-tax change all take effect together.
• 5 April 2031 — the current end of the inheritance-tax threshold freeze.

Sources & further reading

• GOV.UK — ISA reform 2027: anti-circumvention rules factsheet (the £12,000 limit, the 65+ carve-out, the transfer restriction, the 22% charge and the money market fund treatment).
• HM Treasury (Budget date and Budget-day documents).
• Office for Budget Responsibility (the Economic and fiscal outlook published alongside the Budget).
• GOV.UK — Inheritance Tax (nil-rate band, residence nil-rate band, spouse exemption).
• GOV.UK — Individual Savings Accounts (current ISA allowance and rules).

Run the numbers on your own position