Martin Lewis has explained the personal savings allowance and when basic rate taxpayers with over £22,000 in savings could pay tax on interest earned
Martin Lewis has issued a tax alert for savers, with a particular warning for those holding more than £11,000 or £22,000 in savings, depending on their tax bracket. On his ITV programme this week, Mr Lewis provided savers with guidance on structuring their savings to prevent unnecessary tax charges on interest.
He began by explaining the personal allowance, which permits anyone to earn £12,570 before any tax is levied. This threshold has remained frozen since 2021, and last November Chancellor Rachel Reeves controversially extended this freeze until 2031.
The freeze has faced criticism for creating ‘fiscal drag’, meaning more of the lowest earners in the country now pay tax as inflation and wage rises leave them with less disposable income whilst facing higher taxation.
On this he said: “The first one, the personal allowance, £12,570 a year that you can earn from any source, earnings, rent, savings, interest without paying tax on. Most people get that unless you start earning over £100,000 when it’s taken away.”
Starting Rate for Savings Tax.
Mr Lewis said: “The next one not that many people know about is called the starting rate for savings. This is another £5,000 of savings. savings interest you can earn a year on top of the personal allowance. And this is designed for people who have low work earnings but high interest on savings. Often people who are retired. And here’s how it works.
“For every pound of earnings you earn above this allowance, you lose a pound on your starting savings rate. So imagine you earn £13,570. You’re a £1,000 above that. You can now only have £4,000 of tax-free interest in your savings due to the starting savings rate. And by the time you earn from work £17,570, this is gone. So it’s only for people on low work earnings and high interest on savings.”
He previously outlined that those in the ‘perfect circumstance’ would receive £12,570 from earned income. Mr Lewis explained the individual would then gain £5,000 through the starting savings allowance, plus £1,000 from the personal savings allowance on top ‘because they all go on top of each other’.
He added: “You could earn £18,570 a year tax-free with £12,570 of it coming from work or other sources, and another £6,000 of it coming from savings. I hope that makes sense. The main two for most people are the personal allowance and the personal savings allowance, but for those on lower incomes, it’s worth reading the starting savings allowance guide that’s our money saving expert just so you really understand it.”
Personal savings allowance
Mr Lewis described this as the ‘big one’ and said: “Next, we get the big one that many of you will know about, the personal savings allowance. And this is on top of those two. This is the fact that a basic rate taxpayer, 20% taxpayer, can earn £1,000 a year of interest in any form of savings at all without paying tax on it. Now, the top savings accounts at the moment pay about 4.5 per cent. So, you need about 22,000, just a little over £22,000 in the top savings account before you earned £1,000 interest.
“So, if you got less than that, you’re not going to be paying tax on your savings interest because it’s tax free. High rate tax because it’s within your personal savings allowance. High rate taxpayers pay £500 a year of interest they can make each year tax free. It’s about £11,000 saved at the top rate.
“If you’re an additional rate taxpayer earning over £125,000, you don’t get one of these. So, you got your personal allowance, your starting rate for savings, and on top of that up to another £1,000 in your personal savings allowance.”
For the 2025/26 tax year, the UK Personal Allowance stays at £12,570, with a 20% basic rate (up to £50,270), 40% higher rate (£50,271-£125,140), and 45% additional rate (over £125,140) applying to England, Wales, and Northern Ireland.
ISAs
Mr Lewis stated that this week’s show was focused on ISAs, explaining: “You can put up to £20,000 a tax year in, as you know. And crucially, the interest earned in a cash ISA does not count towards the personal allowance, does not count towards the starting rate of savings does not count towards the personal savings allowance. It is totally separate from that. So, anything you earn in there is not taxable. I should note premium bonds work roughly the same way, but it’s not an annual allowance. It’s a maximum £50,000 you can put in in total. Those are the main ways that you can save without paying tax on them.”
