Lieutenant colonel pay 2026/27 (OF4)

Take-home pay a month

£5,512.83

£66,154.00 a year from a salary of £95,850.00

Your details

Where you pay income tax

Pay level

Share of full time %

Percent of a full-time post

Student loan Postgraduate loan as well

Where your salary goes
	A year
Salary	£95,850.00
Income tax	£25,768.40
National Insurance	£3,927.60
Take-home pay	£66,154.00

How this was worked out

Salary: £95,850
Personal allowance: £12,570. Payroll applies it as tax code 1257L, which gives £12,579 of tax-free pay.
Taxable income: £95,850 − £12,579 = £83,271
Basic rate: £37,700 × 20% = £7,540
Higher rate: £45,571 × 40% = £18,228.40
Income tax: £25,768.40
National Insurance: (£50,270 − £12,570) × 8% = £3,016, plus (£95,850 − £50,270) × 2% = £911.60, total £3,927.60
Take-home pay: £95,850 − £25,768.40 − £3,927.60 = £66,154

The government accepted the AFPRB's 2026 Armed Forces pay award recommendations in full.

Tax year: 2026/27. Tax code: 1257L. Income tax nation: England, Wales and Northern Ireland.
Pension: No Armed Forces Pension Scheme 2015 member contribution is taken from salary. Student loan: none unless selected in the calculator.
Full-time basic pay, for a full tax year. Money is rounded to the nearest penny.

OF4 officers are paid £95,850 to £110,806 in 2026/27. Take-home after income tax and National Insurance is about £5,512.83 to £6,055.37 a month.

Lieutenant colonel pay 2026/27 (OF4) Regular Forces pay after tax, 2026/27
Pay level	Trade supplement	Salary	Take-home a year	Take-home a month
OF4-01	—	£95,850	£66,154	£5,512.83
OF4-02	—	£95,850	£66,154	£5,512.83
OF4-03	—	£98,351	£67,604.58	£5,633.72
OF4-04	—	£100,836	£68,877.88	£5,739.82
OF4-05	—	£103,328	£69,823.24	£5,818.60
OF4-06	—	£105,821	£70,773.18	£5,897.77
OF4-07	—	£108,314	£71,719.12	£5,976.59
OF4-08	—	£110,806	£72,664.48	£6,055.37

Pay scale: assets.publishing.service.gov.uk/media/6a27f8383b15d05a7ce31f52/AFPRB_55th_Report_2026.pdf

OF4 ranks

OF4 is Lieutenant Colonel in the Army and the Royal Marines, Commander in the Royal Navy and Wing Commander in the RAF. The scale has 8 levels, with the first two equal.

The personal allowance taper

The lower OF4 levels are below one hundred thousand pounds. From the fourth level upwards the salary is above it, and the personal allowance is reduced by a pound for every two pounds over. There is no pension contribution to bring income back under the line, as there is for NHS and police staff.

Inside the taper, an extra pound of salary is taxed at the higher rate and also removes fifty pence of allowance. The result is that each step up the upper OF4 levels adds much less to take-home than the steps below.

What counts towards the taper

The taper is measured on adjusted net income, not on salary alone. Pension contributions and donations under Gift Aid reduce that figure, and other income such as rent or savings interest increases it. The pension take-home calculator shows the arithmetic of a pension contribution on a given salary.

Questions

Does a lieutenant colonel lose the personal allowance?

Partly, at the upper OF4 levels. Pay above one hundred thousand pounds reduces the allowance by half of the excess.

Why do the upper OF4 levels add so little take-home?

Each extra pound in the taper is taxed at the higher rate and also reduces the allowance, so the marginal rate is much higher than the headline rate.

What is OF4 take-home each month?

About £5,512.83 to £6,055.37 in 2026/27, from base pay alone.