What your investments are worth after tax.

Facts checked 15 October 2026

The figure a platform shows you is a gross one. What you could actually take out and keep depends on which wrapper each pound sits in, what it has gained since you bought it, and your tax band. Two portfolios with the same total can be worth very different amounts.

This page goes through the UK rules wrapper by wrapper, at 2026/27 rates, then works through an example. It describes how the tax works; it is not advice on what to do about it.

ISAs: nothing to pay

Money in a stocks and shares ISA or a cash ISA comes out free of income tax and capital gains tax, however much it has grown. Its value on the platform is, for tax purposes, what it is worth to you.

A Lifetime ISA is also tax-free, but taking money out before 60 for anything other than a first home or terminal illness costs a 25% withdrawal charge, which takes back the government bonus and a little of your own money besides.

Pensions: a quarter tax-free, the rest taxed as income

A SIPP or a defined-contribution workplace pension is usually the largest single item on a balance sheet and the one whose platform value overstates most what you would keep.

Normally 25% can be taken tax-free, up to the Lump Sum Allowance of £268,275 across all your pensions, unless you hold an older protection that allows more.
Everything else is taxed as income in the year you draw it, at your marginal rate, on top of any other income you have that year.
None of it can be reached before the normal minimum pension age: 55 today, rising to 57 on 6 April 2028.

The second point is the one that makes a pension hard to value. The tax depends on how much you draw in each year: a large withdrawal can lift part of it into a higher band than the one you pay today, and drawing in years when other income is low can bring part of it into a lower one.

General accounts: capital gains tax and dividend tax

In a general investment account the tax falls on the gain, not on the whole value. What you paid comes back free of tax. The gain is subject to capital gains tax once it is above the annual exempt amount.

Rates for 2026/27, England, Wales and Northern Ireland

Capital gains tax: 18% on gains that fall within the basic-rate band, 24% above it. The first £3,000 of gains in a tax year is exempt. The same rates apply UK-wide.

Dividends: 10.75% for basic-rate taxpayers, 35.75% for higher-rate and 39.35% for additional-rate, after a £500 dividend allowance. The basic and higher rates each rose by two percentage points on 6 April 2026.

Interest: taxed as income, after a personal savings allowance of £1,000 for basic-rate taxpayers, £500 for higher-rate and nothing for additional-rate.

Scotland sets its own income tax bands and rates, which affect pension withdrawals and interest. Capital gains tax and dividend tax are the same across the UK.

Property: your home is usually exempt; anything else is not

A gain on the home you live in is normally covered by Private Residence Relief, so it is free of capital gains tax. A second home or a let property is not: the gain is taxed at 18% or 24%, and the tax has to be reported and paid within 60 days of completion.

What you owe against a property comes off before anything else. A £700,000 house with a £250,000 mortgage contributes £450,000 to what you are worth, not £700,000. Should the house count at all? is a question of its own.

Gilts: the gain is tax-free, the coupons are not

UK government bonds are exempt from capital gains tax, even in a general account. The interest they pay is taxable income. That is why a low-coupon gilt bought below 100 can return most of its yield as a tax-free gain at redemption, and why gilts held outside a wrapper are worth more after tax than their headline yield suggests. Gilt accrued interest and the dirty price covers how the interest is taxed when a gilt is bought and sold.

An example

A higher-rate taxpayer in England, aged 58, with:

ISA £300,000. Tax-free: worth £300,000.

SIPP £600,000. £150,000 can come out tax-free. The other £450,000 is taxed as income when drawn: at a flat 40%, £180,000 of tax, leaving £270,000. Worth about £420,000, and more or less depending on how it is drawn.

General account £200,000, bought for £120,000. The £80,000 gain less the £3,000 exemption leaves £77,000 taxed at 24%: £18,480. Worth £181,520.

Home £700,000 with a £250,000 mortgage. Private Residence Relief applies. Worth £450,000.

Gross: £1,800,000. After the mortgage: £1,550,000. After tax: about £1,351,500.

Roughly £200,000 of the £1.55 million is tax that would be due on the way out, and almost all of it sits in the pension. Of what remains, only the ISA and the general account, about £480,000, could be spent this year without selling the house.

Inheritance tax is a separate question. For deaths on or after 6 April 2027, most unused pension funds count towards the estate for inheritance tax, which changes what a pension is worth to the people who inherit it. This page is about what you could keep yourself.

How Fairworth works it out

The Holdings page in Fairworth runs this calculation on everything you have recorded. Each holding is sorted by when you can reach it (available now, not until pension age, or not easily at all) and by how it would be taxed on the way out: tax-free, capital gains tax or income tax. It then shows what would be left at the rates for the tax band you set, with England, Wales and Northern Ireland and Scotland set up separately.

ISAs, including Lifetime ISAs, count as tax-free. Pensions are pooled, 25% of the pool is treated as tax-free up to the Lump Sum Allowance, and the rest is taxed as income. Your main home, gilts and VCT shares are recognised as free of capital gains tax. Mortgages and loans are subtracted from the total. The rates are held as data and updated for each tax year.

Rates and allowances are for the 2026/27 tax year and were checked against GOV.UK in October 2026. Tax treatment depends on individual circumstances and may change. This page is information, not tax or investment advice, and Fairworth's tax figures are good-faith estimates, not figures for a tax return.