Sources and references

Dividend tax and allowances

• GOV.UK — Tax on dividends: the dividend allowance, dividend tax rates by band, and how dividends are taxed on top of other income.
• HMRC — Rates and thresholds for employers 2026 to 2027: confirmed tax-year rates and thresholds.
• HMRC — Income Tax rates and allowances: the Personal Allowance, basic and higher-rate limits, and the additional-rate threshold.

Income tax and the Personal Allowance

• GOV.UK — Income Tax rates and Personal Allowances: the bands that dividends stack on top of.
• HMRC — Income Tax rates and allowances: current and past: the £100,000 income limit for the Personal Allowance, and the rates and allowances for the earlier years on the past-years calculator.
• GOV.UK — Scottish Income Tax: context for Scottish taxpayers. Dividend rates are set UK-wide and apply equally.

Self Assessment and reporting

• GOV.UK — Self Assessment tax returns: who must file and the deadlines.
• GOV.UK — How to report tax on dividends: nothing to report within the allowance, the tax code or a return up to £10,000, and Self Assessment above £10,000.
• GOV.UK — Individual Savings Accounts (ISAs): why dividends held in a Stocks and Shares ISA are tax-free.

Legislation

• Income Tax Act 2007, section 13A: the dividend nil rate, which is how the £500 allowance works and why it still uses band space.
• Income Tax Act 2007, section 16: dividends are treated as the highest part of your income, which is why salary decides their rate.
• Companies Act 2006, section 830: a company can pay dividends only out of profits available for the purpose.

Companies, payments and foreign dividends

• GOV.UK — Corporation Tax rates and marginal relief: the 19% and 25% rates used in the director examples.
• GOV.UK — Payments on account: the £1,000 and 80% tests and the 31 January and 31 July dates.
• GOV.UK — Self Assessment penalties: the figures behind the late penalty calculator.
• GOV.UK — Tax on foreign income and HMRC's Relief for Foreign Tax Paid helpsheet (HS263): how foreign dividends are taxed and credited.

Budget 2026, Child Benefit and investment funds

Added on 7 November 2026 for the pages that rely on them. Each was opened on GOV.UK or legislation.gov.uk that day.

• Budget 2026 OOTLAR, Annex A: the dividend rates (10.75%, 35.75%, 39.35%) and the £500 allowance for both 2026/27 and 2027/28, and the bands they sit on.
• GOV.UK — High Income Child Benefit Charge: the £60,000 threshold, 1% per £200, all of it from £80,000, and the fact that adjusted net income includes dividends.
• GOV.UK — Adjusted net income: the four steps from total taxable income (dividends included) to the figure used for the Child Benefit charge and the £100,000 taper.
• Income Tax (Earnings and Pensions) Act 2003, section 681C: how the Child Benefit charge percentage is worked out, rounded down to a whole number.
• Authorised Investment Funds (Tax) Regulations 2006, regulation 19: the 60% test a UK fund must pass before it can pay interest distributions.
• Income Tax (Trading and Other Income) Act 2005, section 378A: when a distribution from an offshore fund is taxed as interest rather than a dividend.
• Offshore Funds (Tax) Regulations 2009, regulation 94: excess reportable income from offshore reporting funds, treated as received six months after the reporting period ends.

How we use these sources

Where an official rate or threshold changes, we update the calculator and the affected guides and note the tax year the figures apply to. Where a figure is an assumption or a simplification, it is stated on the page and explained on the methodology page.

We prefer primary sources in this order: legislation for how a rule works, GOV.UK guidance for how HMRC applies it, and HMRC's internal manuals for detail the guidance leaves out. Each guide lists its own sources under "Sources & references", numbered to match the superscript markers in the text, so you can check a single claim without reading this whole list.

Official guidance always takes precedence over anything on this site. If you spot a figure that looks out of date, please tell us via the contact page.