The UK £100k Trap Escape Playbook
A free 12-page PDF: 12 legal moves to beat the 60% marginal rate that hits UK earners between £100,000 and £125,140. Written for the 2024/25 tax year, rest-of-UK bands.
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What's inside
- Why the "60% marginal rate" is real — the two HMRC rules that combine to trap you.
- 12 moves ranked by leverage — pension sacrifice, bonus sacrifice, employer NI rebate, SIPP top-ups, cycle-to-work, EV salary sacrifice, tax-free childcare, Gift Aid, VCT/EIS, marriage allowance, dividend structuring, income timing.
- Worked example: £115k earner escapes the trap — showing how £11,500 of pension + £3k cycle + £1k Gift Aid moves adjusted net income from £115k to £99.5k.
- A 5-minute self-audit checklist — the 8 questions to answer before your next payslip.
Who this is for
UK employees, directors and self-employed workers whose adjusted net income falls in the £100,000–£125,140 band. If that's you, every extra £1 you earn is currently worth about 38p — but so is every £1 you shelter, in reverse. This playbook shows you exactly which levers to pull first.
Get the next update when the rules change
Rates and thresholds shift every Budget. One email when this playbook gets a real update — no marketing, no filler. Unsubscribe any time.
Try it live in 30 seconds
New free tool: the £100k Trap Calculator — enter your salary and pension %, get the exact £ to sacrifice to escape the 62% zone, plus the tax you'd save. No sign-up.
Want the maths on every option?
The calculator handles pension sacrifice. The £100k Trap Escape Toolkit (£19) is a 6-sheet Excel workbook that runs salary sacrifice, bonus timing, SIPP top-ups, Gift Aid and Personal Allowance recovery maths on your salary and bonus — every move modelled side-by-side.
Related on CalcOrchard
- £100k Trap Calculator (free interactive tool)
- The £100k pension trap — how the 60% rate actually works (pillar article)
- UK take-home pay calculator — model the impact of any pension %
- Salary sacrifice calculator — see the exact tax and NI saving
- SIPP tax relief calculator — for personal pension contributions
- £100k take-home breakdown · £115k · £125k
Version 1.0 · Updated for the 2024/25 UK tax year · Rest-of-UK bands. If you spot an error, let us know — we update the file when rates change.