Apprenticeship Levy Calculator

The Apprenticeship Levy in the UK (2026/2027)

The Apprenticeship Levy is charged at 0.5% of an employer's annual pay bill. Each employer receives a £15,000 annual levy allowance to offset against the charge, which means employers with a pay bill of £3,000,000 or less pay nothing. A common mistake is to charge 0.5% on the whole pay bill: on a £4 million pay bill the levy is £20,000 less the £15,000 allowance — £5,000, not £20,000.

The pay bill is the total of employees' earnings that are subject to Class 1 secondary National Insurance contributions. That includes earnings below the secondary threshold and earnings of employees for whom employer NI is zero-rated, such as under-21s and apprentices under 25. Benefits in kind and other payments that do not attract Class 1 NI are excluded.

Connected companies — for example companies under common control — receive one allowance between them, and so do connected charities. The group decides at the start of the tax year how to divide it, and each company reports its own levy on its Employer Payment Summary. Unused allowance cannot be carried into the next tax year.