Answers · UK 2025/26

How is Income Tax calculated for part-time workers in the UK?

Part-time workers pay Income Tax and National Insurance using exactly the same rates, bands and £12,570 Personal Allowance as full-time employees -- there is no separate part-time tax system. Because part-time pay is often lower, many part-time workers pay little or no Income Tax simply because their earnings fall within or close to their Personal Allowance.

Last updated: 3 July 2026Last reviewed: 3 July 2026How we verify

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There is no special or different tax system for part-time workers in the UK -- the same £12,570 Personal Allowance, the same 20% basic rate, 40% higher rate and 45% additional rate bands, and the same National Insurance thresholds apply regardless of whether you work full-time or part-time hours. The practical effect is simply that, because part-time earnings are typically lower, many part-time workers end up paying proportionally less tax, or no tax at all, since a larger share (or all) of their income falls within the tax-free Personal Allowance. For example, someone working 20 hours a week at £13 an hour earns £13,520 a year -- only £950 above the Personal Allowance -- so they would pay just £190 in Income Tax and £76 in National Insurance for the year. If you have more than one part-time job, this is where things can get more complex: your Personal Allowance is normally only applied in full against one job (usually your main or first job, identified by HMRC), while any additional part-time jobs are often taxed using a BR code (20% on all earnings from that job, with no allowance), even if your combined income across both jobs would not actually use your full Personal Allowance and basic rate band once totalled together. If this happens to you, you can ask HMRC to split your Personal Allowance between your part-time jobs more evenly, ensuring you are not paying more tax overall than necessary. National Insurance, unlike Income Tax, is calculated separately for each job rather than combined, so working two part-time jobs each below the National Insurance Primary Threshold could mean paying no National Insurance at all, even if your combined earnings would have triggered it in a single job.