The July Halfway Check: Are You On Track for the 2026/27 Tax Year?
Three months into the 2026/27 tax year, a mid-year review of ISA, pension and allowance usage helps avoid a scramble next March. What to check in July 2026.
Why July Is a Useful Checkpoint
The 2026/27 tax year runs from 6 April 2026 to 5 April 2027. By early July, roughly 13 weeks — about a quarter of the year — have already passed. This is a genuinely useful moment to check progress against your annual allowances, because it leaves nine months to make up any shortfall through regular, affordable contributions rather than a stressful lump sum in the final weeks of the tax year, when providers are also typically at their busiest processing last-minute contributions.
ISA Allowance: Check Your Progress
| Contribution so far (rough guide) | On track for £20,000 by April? |
|---|---|
| £5,000+ by July | On track (roughly a quarter used) |
| £2,000–£5,000 by July | Slightly behind — increase monthly contributions |
| Under £2,000 by July | Significantly behind — worth a deliberate catch-up plan |
Remember: the £20,000 allowance is entirely lost if unused by 5 April 2027 — there is no carry-forward mechanism for ISAs, unlike pensions.
Pension Annual Allowance: A Different Rule
The pension annual allowance for 2026/27 is £60,000 (tapered down to a minimum of £10,000 for high earners with adjusted income above £260,000). Unlike the ISA allowance, unused pension annual allowance can potentially be carried forward from the previous three tax years — provided you were a member of a registered pension scheme in those years. This makes pension contributions more forgiving of an uneven pace across the year than ISA contributions, though maximising tax relief still generally favours contributing sooner rather than later where cash flow allows.
Capital Gains Tax: An Easily Missed Mid-Year Check
The CGT annual exempt amount is £3,000 for 2026/27. If you are planning to realise gains on shares, a second property or other chargeable assets this tax year, a mid-year review of your likely total gain — and whether it makes sense to spread disposals across two tax years to use two years' worth of the £3,000 exemption — can genuinely reduce your tax bill. Like the ISA allowance, the CGT exempt amount does not carry forward if unused.
A Simple Mid-Year Action List
- Check total ISA contributions so far against the £20,000 allowance
- Check pension contributions against the £60,000 annual allowance (or your tapered limit)
- Review any planned asset disposals against the £3,000 CGT exempt amount
- If behind on ISA contributions, set up or increase a regular monthly transfer for the remaining months
- Check whether unused pension allowance from the previous three years is available to carry forward
Use the calculators below to check exactly where you stand against your ISA and pension allowances for 2026/27, and plan out the contributions needed to use them fully before April.
Frequently asked questions
Why review tax allowances in July rather than waiting until March?
The 2026/27 tax year started on 6 April 2026, so by early July you are roughly a quarter of the way through it. Reviewing usage now — rather than only in the final weeks before the 5 April 2027 deadline — gives you time to spread contributions evenly across the rest of the year instead of scrambling to use a large allowance in a single lump sum, which is both harder to afford and easier to get wrong.
What is the ISA allowance for 2026/27?
The overall ISA allowance is £20,000 for 2026/27, unchanged and frozen. This can be split across Cash ISA, Stocks & Shares ISA, Innovative Finance ISA and Lifetime ISA (subject to the Lifetime ISA's own £4,000 sub-limit) in any combination you choose, as long as the combined total across all your ISAs does not exceed £20,000 in the tax year.
How much can I pay into a pension in 2026/27 before hitting the annual allowance?
The standard pension annual allowance is £60,000 for 2026/27 (or 100% of your UK relevant earnings if lower), covering total contributions from you, your employer and anyone else on your behalf. High earners with adjusted income above £260,000 face a tapered allowance down to a minimum of £10,000. Unused allowance from the previous three tax years can potentially be carried forward if you have not fully used it.
What happens to unused ISA allowance if I do not use it by April?
It is lost completely — ISA allowance does not carry forward to the next tax year under any circumstances. This is different from the pension annual allowance, which does allow limited carry-forward of unused allowance from the previous three tax years. This is exactly why a mid-year check is useful: catching an under-used ISA allowance in July leaves nine months to fix it, rather than discovering the gap in the final week of March.
Try the calculators
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