Was there a Spring Statement in March 2026?

The Chancellor did not deliver a formal Spring Statement to Parliament in March 2026. Under legislation that took effect after the November 2025 Budget, the Treasury moved to a single annual fiscal event - the Autumn Budget - while the Office for Budget Responsibility (OBR) continues to publish a second five-year forecast each spring. The OBR published its March 2026 Economic and Fiscal Outlook on 3 March 2026 as a standalone update, not accompanied by a Treasury policy package.

Did any personal tax rates or thresholds change at Spring Statement 2026?

No - personal tax for 2026/27 continues on the settings established by the Autumn 2025 Budget. The Personal Allowance is £12,570, the higher-rate threshold £50,270 and the additional-rate threshold £125,140. Employee Class 1 NI is 8% main and 2% upper rate above the £242 weekly Primary Threshold. The Dividend Allowance is £500 and the ISA allowance is £20,000.

What did the OBR forecast at Spring 2026?

The OBR forecast real GDP growth of 1.1% in 2026, rising to 1.6% across 2027 to 2030. CPI inflation is forecast at 2.3% in 2026, returning to the Bank of England target of 2.0% from 2027 onwards. Public sector net borrowing is projected to fall from 5.2% of GDP in 2024-25 to 4.3% of GDP in 2026-27 (£133 billion) and to 1.6% (£59 billion) by 2030-31.

Did the OBR assess fiscal-rule performance at Spring 2026?

No - this is the structural change introduced by the November 2025 Budget. The OBR now only assesses performance against the Government's fiscal rules once a year at Budget time. The March 2026 spring forecast is an interim update on the economic outlook and projection of the public finances, but it is not the moment at which the Chancellor is judged against the fiscal rules.

Will my take-home pay change because of Spring Statement 2026?

No - the spring forecast did not change the 2026/27 income tax bands, National Insurance rates or salary-related allowances. A £45,000 salary in England, Wales or Northern Ireland produces take-home of about £35,920 a year on the same settings that were in force on 6 April 2026. Use the on-site salary calculator to model your own gross.

Did Spring Statement 2026 change anything for the self-employed?

No new Class 2 or Class 4 NIC measures were announced at the spring forecast. Class 4 NIC for 2026/27 stays at 6% on profits between £12,570 and £50,270 and 2% above £50,270, with Class 2 voluntary for those below the Small Profits Threshold. The Making Tax Digital for Income Tax Self Assessment (MTD ITSA) phased rollout that began on 6 April 2026 for sole traders and landlords with qualifying income above £50,000 continues on the existing schedule set by the Autumn 2025 Budget.

Are SDLT or stamp duty thresholds changing in 2026?

No - residential SDLT in England and Northern Ireland remains on the post-April-2025 reset schedule: 0% to £125,000, 2% to £250,000, 5% to £925,000, 10% to £1.5 million and 12% above. First-time buyer relief continues at 0% to £300,000 then 5% to £500,000. The 5% additional-property surcharge introduced on 31 October 2024 also remains in place. No SDLT changes were announced at the March 2026 spring forecast.

When is the next Budget?

Autumn Budget 2026 is expected in late October or early November 2026, in line with the Treasury's revised single-fiscal-event calendar. That is the moment at which any structural change to tax bands, NI rates or allowances for 2027/28 will be set out, and the next OBR assessment against the fiscal rules will be published.

Did anything about MTD ITSA change at Spring Statement 2026?

The MTD ITSA timetable announced in the Autumn 2025 Budget continued unchanged. Sole traders and landlords with combined qualifying income above £50,000 are required to keep digital records and submit quarterly updates from 6 April 2026. The £30,000 threshold tier begins on 6 April 2027 and the £20,000 tier from 6 April 2028. No spring-forecast policy paper amended these dates.

How does the OBR Spring Forecast affect interest rates and inflation?

The OBR forecast is a projection, not a policy instrument. The Bank of England Monetary Policy Committee sets interest rates independently. The OBR's March 2026 forecast of CPI returning to the 2% target from 2027 informs the MPC's view but does not bind it. Market expectations for Bank Rate over 2026-2030 are baked into the OBR's borrowing projection through the gilt yield curve, which feeds debt-interest costs.

Spring Statement 2026: What Changed and What Stayed the Same

The headline story of spring 2026 is what did not happen. Under legislation that followed the Autumn 2025 Budget, the Treasury moved to a single annual fiscal event, and the Chancellor did not deliver a formal Spring Statement to Parliament in March 2026. The Office for Budget Responsibility (OBR) still published its second five-year forecast on 3 March 2026, but it is a forecast update, not a tax package. This page walks through what the spring forecast said, what stayed the same for the 2026/27 tax year, and what it all means for a real UK payslip - with figures drawn from the same TaxRuleset that powers our salary calculator.

What was announced (and what was not)

The single most important fact about Spring Statement 2026 is that it was not a Spring Statement in the historical sense. The November 2025 Budget introduced a legislative change to the fiscal calendar: the OBR now only assesses performance against the Government's fiscal rules once a year, at Autumn Budget, while the OBR continues to publish a second annual five-year forecast in the spring. The Treasury did not lay a contemporaneous ministerial statement of new tax policy alongside the March 2026 OBR publication. A search of gov.uk's Treasury announcements for March 2026 returns no Spring Statement document set, no policy costings book, and no Tax Information and Impact Notes (TIINs).

The Chancellor made several non-fiscal interventions in March 2026 around the cost of living and energy security, but these did not change income tax, NI, dividend, CGT, IHT or SDLT settings for 2026/27. The tax architecture in force on 6 April 2026 was the one set by the Autumn 2025 Budget, with no spring-forecast amendments.

Concretely, the spring 2026 set of publications consisted of:

OBR Economic and Fiscal Outlook (March 2026) - published 3 March 2026 at obr.uk/efo/economic-and-fiscal-outlook-march-2026. The OBR describes this as "an interim update on the economic and fiscal outlook ahead of the next Budget" rather than the rule-assessment moment.
No Treasury Red Book. Spring 2026 produced no equivalent of the Autumn 2025 Budget document, no policy costings volume, no scorecard.
No Tax Information and Impact Notes published as part of a spring package. The HMRC TIIN library for spring 2026 contains only the routine downstream documents published alongside earlier-announced Finance Bill measures (most of them following from the Autumn 2025 Budget).
No new fuel duty or alcohol duty changes. The 5p fuel duty cut introduced in March 2022 remained in force on its previously-announced glide path. Alcohol duty moved on the standard RPI-linked uprating mechanism from 1 February 2026, which had been set in the Autumn 2025 Budget.
No new SDLT or LBTT package. Property transaction taxes remained on the post-April-2025 schedule.
No new IR35 / off-payroll-working amendments. The chapter 10 ITEPA framework, the public-sector reforms of 2017 and the private-sector reforms of 2021 all continued unchanged.

The clearest contrast is with Spring Statements of the pre-2025 cycle. Spring 2023 carried a substantial Energy Price Guarantee extension and the Pension Annual Allowance overhaul. Spring 2024 cut Class 1 employee NI from 10% to 8% and made Child Benefit individual-income test changes. Spring 2025 carried compliance funding for HMRC and the start of the Universal Credit rollout. Spring 2026, by contrast, is the first event under the new single-fiscal-event regime: no payslip-level changes, by design.

OBR forecast headlines

The March 2026 OBR forecast is the only substantive set of new numbers from the spring event. The headline projections are:

Indicator	2026	2027	2028	2029	2030
Real GDP growth (%)	1.1	1.6	1.6	1.6	1.6
CPI inflation (%)	2.3	2.0	2.0	2.0	2.0
PSNB (% of GDP, fiscal year ending)	4.3	~3.5	~2.7	~2.1	1.6
PSND (% of GDP)	94.5	~95.5	96.5	~96	95.0

The 1.1% growth forecast for 2026 is a downgrade from the 1.4% figure carried in the November 2025 forecast and reflects two drags: a weaker global trade outlook (with tariff risk continuing to weigh on UK exports) and a slightly slower domestic productivity assumption. The output gap is now estimated at -0.8% in 2026 (worse than the -0.6% in November) and is projected to close only around mid-2029. The OBR's medium-term productivity-growth assumption is 1.0% per year, unchanged.

CPI inflation falls to 2.3% in 2026 from 3.4% in 2025, then converges on the Bank of England's 2.0% target from 2027 onwards. That convergence is consistent with the Bank's own MPC commentary through Q1 2026 but is subject to two-sided risks: an oil-price spike if Middle East tensions escalate, and the lagged pass-through of services-sector wage growth.

Borrowing of £133 billion in 2025-26 came in £3.7 billion below the OBR's March 2025 estimate, a marginal upside surprise. The borrowing trajectory falls steeply through the forecast, reaching £59 billion (1.6% of GDP) in 2030-31. Net debt peaks at 96.5% of GDP in 2028-29 before edging down to 95.0% by 2030-31. The OBR carried no formal headroom estimate this forecast, because the fiscal-rule assessment now sits with the Autumn Budget.

Net migration is now expected to average 235,000 a year over 2026 to 2030, around 60,000 lower than the November assumption, driven by higher estimated emigration of British nationals. The downward migration revision modestly reduces the OBR's central path for nominal GDP and tax receipts but is offset by lower public-services spending pressure.

What did NOT change

Because there was no Treasury policy event, every personal tax setting in force on 6 April 2026 - the start of the 2026/27 tax year - is the one set by the Autumn 2025 Budget. The bullets below summarise the live numbers, all of which come straight from the TaxRuleset that powers this site:

Personal Allowance: £12,570 (frozen since 2021/22).
Higher-rate threshold (UK ex Scotland): £50,270 (£12,570 + £37,700 basic-rate band).
Additional-rate threshold: £125,140 (the same point at which the PA fully tapers out).
PA taper: £1 of PA withdrawn for every £2 of adjusted net income above £100,000.
Employee Class 1 NI: 8% main, 2% upper, with Primary Threshold £242/week.
Employer Class 1 secondary NI: 15% above the £5,000 Secondary Threshold.
Class 4 self-employed NI: 6% main, 2% upper.
Dividend Allowance: £500. Ordinary rate 8.75%, upper 33.75%, additional 39.35%.
ISA allowance: £20,000 total (LISA £4,000 sub-cap, JISA £9,000).
Pension Annual Allowance: £60,000 standard, £10,000 MPAA, taper above £260,000 adjusted income.
Capital Gains Tax: 18% basic, 24% higher; AEA £3,000; BADR rising to 24% from 6 April 2026.
Inheritance Tax: £325,000 NRB, £175,000 RNRB - both frozen to at least April 2030.
SDLT: residential thresholds unchanged from the post-April-2025 reset.

The freeze on Personal Allowance and the higher-rate threshold is the most consequential of these "no change" items. Because wages have risen with inflation while the thresholds have not, fiscal drag continues to pull more workers into higher tax bands each year - even though the rates themselves have not moved. The OBR's spring forecast quantifies this drag in its receipts projection but it does not, of course, count as a tax rise in the Budget scorecard.

Household impact: worked example

The cleanest way to show the household impact of Spring Statement 2026 is to point at a payslip and ask: does it change? It does not. A worker earning £45,000 gross in England, Wales or Northern Ireland in 2026/27 produces these figures from the salary engine (you can reproduce them live in the on-site calculator):

Gross salary: £45,000
Personal Allowance: £12,570
Taxable income: £32,430
Income Tax (all in basic rate): £6,486
Employee Class 1 NI: £2,594
Total deductions: £9,080
Take-home (annual): £35,920
Take-home (monthly): £2,993
Effective tax + NI rate: 20.2%
Employer NIC on the same role: £6,000

Every one of these numbers is identical to the figure that was in force on 5 March 2026 - the morning after the OBR spring forecast. The Chancellor's spring statement did not move the tax line by a single penny. For a Scottish taxpayer the same £45,000 produces a take-home of about £35,524, a difference of £396 a year against rUK, driven by Holyrood's separate 42% higher rate cutting in at £43,662 of gross. The Scottish bands were last adjusted at the Scottish Budget on 13 January 2026 and were not touched in March 2026.

Looking across the income spectrum, the engine returns:

Gross	Income Tax	Employee NI	Take-home	Effective rate
£30,000	£3,486	£1,394	£25,120	16.3%
£45,000	£6,486	£2,594	£35,920	20.2%
£60,000	£11,432	£3,211	£45,357	24.4%
£80,000	£19,432	£3,611	£56,957	28.8%
£100,000	£27,432	£4,011	£68,557	31.4%

These figures are identical on both sides of the 26 March 2026 OBR forecast date. The story of the table is not the impact of the spring forecast itself but the cumulative impact of the frozen-threshold policy that was extended at Autumn 2025 and not unwound at spring 2026. A £60,000 earner now sits firmly in the higher-rate band on a salary that, under a CPI-uprated higher-rate threshold, would still be on the basic rate.

Self-employed impact

The self-employed picture is similarly unchanged. Class 4 NIC for 2026/27 remains at 6% on profits between £12,570 and £50,270 and 2% above £50,270, the rates set in the Autumn 2025 Budget. Class 2 NIC remained voluntary above the Small Profits Threshold; the weekly Class 2 rate for those topping up below the SPT continued at the Autumn-2025 setting. No spring-forecast announcement adjusted any of these.

The single biggest operational change affecting sole traders and landlords in spring 2026 was not a tax change at all but the start of Making Tax Digital for Income Tax Self Assessment (MTD ITSA). The £50,000 qualifying-income tier began on 6 April 2026, the first day of the new tax year. Affected taxpayers must now keep digital records of business income and expenses, file quarterly updates by the 5th of the month following each quarter end, and submit a Final Declaration in place of the legacy Self Assessment return. The £30,000 tier starts on 6 April 2027 and the £20,000 tier on 6 April 2028 - all three dates set by the Autumn 2025 Budget and not amended at the spring forecast. See our dedicated MTD ITSA 2026 guide for the quarterly filing calendar.

The Dividend Allowance for 2026/27 stays at £500 - the level it has held since 6 April 2024. The combined corporate tax bite (Corporation Tax then personal dividend tax) on small-company profits paid as dividends is now around 26% for basic-rate shareholders, narrowing the gap versus equivalent employment income but still leaving an NI-shaped advantage for outside-IR35 contractors. The contractor calculator and dividend tax calculator both model the 2026/27 settings end to end.

Property and SDLT

Property transaction taxes were not touched at spring 2026. SDLT in England and Northern Ireland continues on the post-April-2025 reset:

0% on the slice up to £125,000.
2% from £125,001 to £250,000.
5% from £250,001 to £925,000.
10% from £925,001 to £1.5 million.
12% above £1.5 million.
First-time buyers: 0% to £300,000, 5% from £300,001 to £500,000; relief withdrawn above £500,000.
Additional-property surcharge: +5% on every band (in force since 31 October 2024).
Non-UK-resident surcharge: +2% on every band.

Scotland's Land and Buildings Transaction Tax (LBTT) and Wales's Land Transaction Tax (LTT) are set by Holyrood and the Senedd respectively and were not affected by the UK government's spring activity. The Scottish Budget on 13 January 2026 left LBTT thresholds unchanged from 2025/26, and the Welsh Budget left LTT untouched. The SDLT calculator, LBTT calculator and LTT calculator all reflect the live 2026/27 schedules.

Anti-avoidance and compliance

Anti-avoidance and compliance announcements have historically been a staple of spring fiscal events: targeted HMRC funding, promoter-of-tax-avoidance crackdowns, R&D tax credit reform, off-payroll-working refinements. None of those featured at the March 2026 spring forecast, because there was no Treasury policy event in which to land them. The HMRC compliance programme continued to operate on the funding envelope set by the Autumn 2025 Budget - a multi-year uplift announced as part of that Budget's "tax gap" package.

The two R&D tax credit regimes (the merged scheme for most claimants and the R&D-intensive SME scheme for loss-making companies whose qualifying R&D expenditure exceeds 30% of total expenditure) continued on the Autumn-2024 rates and rules. No new claim-notification or compliance requirement was added at spring 2026.

IR35 / off-payroll-working under chapter 10 ITEPA, in force for the private sector since 6 April 2021 and for the public sector since 6 April 2017, was not amended. End-client status determination remains the primary compliance pressure point for limited-company contractors, with the deemed-employment tax treatment unchanged for inside-IR35 engagements. See the inside vs outside IR35 guide for a side-by-side payslip comparison.

HMRC's compliance yield target for 2026/27 - the amount of revenue expected to be recovered through enforcement, anti- avoidance and debt-collection activity - was set at the Autumn 2025 Budget. The OBR's March 2026 forecast left that yield assumption unchanged. The "tax gap" itself (the difference between theoretical and actual tax liabilities) was last published by HMRC at around 4.8% of theoretical liabilities for 2023/24 and no spring-forecast update was issued.

What's next: Autumn Budget 2026

Under the new single-fiscal-event calendar, the next moment at which the Chancellor will set or change tax rates, NI, dividend, CGT, IHT or SDLT is Autumn Budget 2026, expected in late October or early November 2026. That will also be the next OBR assessment of performance against the Government's fiscal rules.

Three structural decisions are likely to feature. First, whether to extend or unwind the freeze on Personal Allowance and the higher-rate threshold beyond 2027/28 - the current legislated end of the freeze. Second, the trajectory for Business Asset Disposal Relief on Capital Gains Tax, which rose to 18% on 6 April 2025 and is scheduled to rise again to 24% on 6 April 2026 (already legislated). Third, the future of the Class 2 NIC structure, which the previous government had moved towards abolition before the 2024 change of government and which is now in a hybrid voluntary-only state.

The OBR's fiscal-rules headroom assessment at Autumn Budget 2026 will, in the meantime, determine whether the Chancellor has room for tax cuts or instead needs to raise revenue or cut spending to hit the rules. The March 2026 forecast's borrowing-by-2030-31 figure of 1.6% of GDP (£59 billion) gives a baseline against which the autumn arithmetic will be judged.

Frequently asked questions

Was there a Spring Statement in March 2026?: The Chancellor did not deliver a formal Spring Statement to Parliament in March 2026. Under legislation that took effect after the November 2025 Budget, the Treasury moved to a single annual fiscal event - the Autumn Budget - while the Office for Budget Responsibility (OBR) continues to publish a second five-year forecast each spring. The OBR published its March 2026 Economic and Fiscal Outlook on 3 March 2026 as a standalone update, not accompanied by a Treasury policy package.
Did any personal tax rates or thresholds change at Spring Statement 2026?: No - personal tax for 2026/27 continues on the settings established by the Autumn 2025 Budget. The Personal Allowance is £12,570, the higher-rate threshold £50,270 and the additional-rate threshold £125,140. Employee Class 1 NI is 8% main and 2% upper rate above the £242 weekly Primary Threshold. The Dividend Allowance is £500 and the ISA allowance is £20,000.
What did the OBR forecast at Spring 2026?: The OBR forecast real GDP growth of 1.1% in 2026, rising to 1.6% across 2027 to 2030. CPI inflation is forecast at 2.3% in 2026, returning to the Bank of England target of 2.0% from 2027 onwards. Public sector net borrowing is projected to fall from 5.2% of GDP in 2024-25 to 4.3% of GDP in 2026-27 (£133 billion) and to 1.6% (£59 billion) by 2030-31.
Did the OBR assess fiscal-rule performance at Spring 2026?: No - this is the structural change introduced by the November 2025 Budget. The OBR now only assesses performance against the Government's fiscal rules once a year at Budget time. The March 2026 spring forecast is an interim update on the economic outlook and projection of the public finances, but it is not the moment at which the Chancellor is judged against the fiscal rules.
Will my take-home pay change because of Spring Statement 2026?: No - the spring forecast did not change the 2026/27 income tax bands, National Insurance rates or salary-related allowances. A £45,000 salary in England, Wales or Northern Ireland produces take-home of about £35,920 a year on the same settings that were in force on 6 April 2026. Use the on-site salary calculator to model your own gross.
Did Spring Statement 2026 change anything for the self-employed?: No new Class 2 or Class 4 NIC measures were announced at the spring forecast. Class 4 NIC for 2026/27 stays at 6% on profits between £12,570 and £50,270 and 2% above £50,270, with Class 2 voluntary for those below the Small Profits Threshold. The Making Tax Digital for Income Tax Self Assessment (MTD ITSA) phased rollout that began on 6 April 2026 for sole traders and landlords with qualifying income above £50,000 continues on the existing schedule set by the Autumn 2025 Budget.
Are SDLT or stamp duty thresholds changing in 2026?: No - residential SDLT in England and Northern Ireland remains on the post-April-2025 reset schedule: 0% to £125,000, 2% to £250,000, 5% to £925,000, 10% to £1.5 million and 12% above. First-time buyer relief continues at 0% to £300,000 then 5% to £500,000. The 5% additional-property surcharge introduced on 31 October 2024 also remains in place. No SDLT changes were announced at the March 2026 spring forecast.
When is the next Budget?: Autumn Budget 2026 is expected in late October or early November 2026, in line with the Treasury's revised single-fiscal-event calendar. That is the moment at which any structural change to tax bands, NI rates or allowances for 2027/28 will be set out, and the next OBR assessment against the fiscal rules will be published.
Did anything about MTD ITSA change at Spring Statement 2026?: The MTD ITSA timetable announced in the Autumn 2025 Budget continued unchanged. Sole traders and landlords with combined qualifying income above £50,000 are required to keep digital records and submit quarterly updates from 6 April 2026. The £30,000 threshold tier begins on 6 April 2027 and the £20,000 tier from 6 April 2028. No spring-forecast policy paper amended these dates.
How does the OBR Spring Forecast affect interest rates and inflation?: The OBR forecast is a projection, not a policy instrument. The Bank of England Monetary Policy Committee sets interest rates independently. The OBR's March 2026 forecast of CPI returning to the 2% target from 2027 informs the MPC's view but does not bind it. Market expectations for Bank Rate over 2026-2030 are baked into the OBR's borrowing projection through the gilt yield curve, which feeds debt-interest costs.