Running a limited company in Scotland does not change your corporation tax bill. The company pays 19% or 25% regardless of where it is registered or where you live. What does change is the personal income tax you pay on salary and dividends drawn from the company. Scottish rates differ from the rest of the UK, and that gap affects both the right extraction strategy and your actual take-home.
Updated 2026/27 · LimitedCompanyTaxCalculator.co.uk · Editorial standards · Methodology
Corporation tax is set by the UK Government, not the devolved administrations. The small profits rate of 19% (on profits up to £50,000) and the main rate of 25% (on profits above £250,000) apply to every UK limited company. It makes no difference whether you are registered in Scotland, England, Wales or Northern Ireland, or where you personally live.
A Scottish company pays exactly the same corporation tax as an identical London company. The marginal relief formula for profits between £50,000 and £250,000 is the same everywhere. If you are choosing between Scottish and rUK locations purely on corporation tax grounds, you are deciding on a tax that does not change by location.
What Scotland does control is personal income tax. The rates and bands on your salary and dividends once profit is extracted are devolved. That is where the Scottish difference actually shows up in your limited company calculation.
As a Scottish director, your personal income is taxed at Scottish rates. For 2026/27 there are six bands: starter rate 19% (£12,571–£14,876), basic rate 20% (£14,877–£26,561), intermediate rate 21% (£26,562–£43,662), higher rate 42% (£43,663–£75,000), advanced rate 45% (£75,001–£125,140), and top rate 48% above £125,140.
In rUK the picture is simpler: 20% from £12,571 to £50,270, 40% from £50,271 to £125,140, then 45%. The gap that matters most is between £43,663 and £50,270. Scottish directors pay 42% there; rUK directors still pay 20%. That is roughly 22 percentage points more income tax per pound in that range.
Dividend tax rates are set by Westminster, not Holyrood. They are identical across the UK: 10.75% basic, 35.75% higher, 39.35% additional. But the thresholds that determine which rate applies are Scottish ones. Because those thresholds are lower, your dividends can hit higher-rate territory sooner.
The standard rUK approach still works as a starting point in Scotland: salary at £12,570 (or a lower £5,000 to £6,708 if you want to minimise or avoid employer NI), with remaining extraction as dividends. But the band entry points are different, and that changes where the cost sits. Taking £12,570 salary uses the personal allowance. Dividends stack on top at the applicable dividend rate from there.
Scottish directors hit the intermediate rate (21%) at £26,562 of total income and the higher rate (42%) at £43,663. Extracting income in the £26,000–£43,000 range costs more than in rUK. But dividend tax rates are UK-wide. The Scottish premium only applies to salary income in those bands, not to dividends kept within the basic rate band.
For most directors taking a modest salary and basic-rate dividends, the Scottish difference is small. It grows once you start pulling significant salary income through the intermediate or higher rate bands, or when other personal income pushes dividends into higher-rate territory.
The £500 dividend allowance is UK-wide. You get the first £500 of dividend income tax-free regardless of where you live. Above that, 10.75% applies on dividends within the basic rate band, which in Scotland runs from £14,877 to £26,561 for 2026/27.
The NI secondary threshold is £5,000 for 2026/27 and is the same across the UK. A Scottish director taking salary at or below £5,000 avoids triggering employer NI entirely. That leaves more post-tax profit available as dividends. Moving up to £12,570 triggers employer NI of £1,135.50 (15% of £7,570) but fully uses the personal allowance; the Employment Allowance covers this in full if the company is eligible (2+ payrolled employees), and otherwise it is corporation-tax deductible.
To use this calculator as a Scottish director, select Scotland in the region dropdown. It applies Scottish income tax rates to your salary and dividends and shows the correct dividend tax and take-home. The corporation tax calculation stays the same as for any UK company.
No. Corporation tax is UK-wide. The rates are 19% small profits and 25% main rate for all UK companies in 2026/27, regardless of where the company is based or where you live.
Sometimes. Scottish directors pay higher income tax on salary between £26,562 and £50,270, where the intermediate and early higher rates apply. Dividend tax rates are the same UK-wide. At moderate extraction levels the gap is small. At higher income levels it widens.
Yes. Select Scotland in the region dropdown. It applies Scottish income tax rates to your salary and dividends while keeping corporation tax at UK-wide rates.
No. The £500 dividend allowance applies equally across all four nations. Dividend tax rates are also UK-wide: 10.75% basic, 35.75% higher, 39.35% additional.
The limited company tax calculator turns this guidance into a concrete estimate for corporation tax, dividends and personal take-home, based on 2026/27 HMRC rates.