Capture the match first, then salary sacrifice up to the annual allowance, then LISA if you qualify, then carry-forward if you have it, then ISA overflow. The order matters.
Most of the contribution sits in ISA / taxable rather than tax-advantaged wrappers. Either capacity exceeds annual allowance + LISA + match, or one of the upstream steps isn't being used. Worth checking each step.
2025/26 bands embedded: PA £12,570 (tapered above £100k), 20% / 40% / 45% income tax, 8% / 2% employee NI, 15% employer NI above £5k, £60k annual allowance, £4k LISA cap with 25% bonus under 50, £500 dividend allowance. Employer NI rebate assumed at 100% pass-through unless otherwise specified.
Worth sequences your contributions against your match, allowances and current state, and surfaces the unused room each tax year. Join the waitlist.
Because it's a 100% return on the slice that captures it. A 1:1 match means every £1 you contribute up to the match cap becomes £2 in the pension. No other step in the waterfall has that immediate doubling, always capture the match before anything else.
When you salary sacrifice, your employer saves 15% NI on the sacrificed amount (above the £5k threshold). Some employers pass that saving into your pension as an extra contribution. The default model assumes 100% pass-through; check your scheme's documentation.
You can use unused annual allowance from the last 3 tax years if you've fully used the current year's £60k. You must have been a member of a registered pension scheme in those prior years. For a high-bonus year, carry-forward can unlock £100k+ of extra tax-advantaged contribution.