What’s on the How Income Tax Works poster
The rule, 3 worked examples, and the mistake everyone makes.
- Income tax is marginal: each band's rate applies only to the income within that band.
- tax = Σ (income in each band × that band's rate)
- Earning just above a threshold = Only the excess is taxed higher
- A £1 pay rise past a threshold = You keep most of that £1
- Allowance = The first slice is often taxed at 0%
- Common mistake: Refusing a raise to stay in a lower band → Take the raise
Rates and thresholds differ by country and change yearly. General education, not tax advice.
Questions about the How Income Tax Works poster
- What’s on the How Income Tax Works poster?
- The rule, 3 worked examples, and the mistake everyone makes. Income tax is marginal: each band's rate applies only to the income within that band.; tax = Σ (income in each band × that band's rate); Earning just above a threshold = Only the excess is taxed higher; A £1 pay rise past a threshold = You keep most of that £1; Allowance = The first slice is often taxed at 0%; Common mistake: Refusing a raise to stay in a lower band → Take the raise. Rates and thresholds differ by country and change yearly. General education, not tax advice.
- Who is the How Income Tax Works poster for?
- How Income Tax Works belongs to the Money section rather than to a school year, because money is not something one grade owns. Anyone learning tax can pin it up — a beginner, a student mid-course, or someone revising years later.
- When should you use the How Income Tax Works poster?
- A higher band applies only to the income above the threshold. A raise never leaves you worse off on tax alone. A wall chart earns its place by being glanceable from where the work is happening, so How Income Tax Works belongs on the wall where that money work actually happens, within glancing distance, rather than filed away.
- What other posters go with How Income Tax Works?
- Capital Gains, Working Across Borders and Reading a Payslip sit alongside How Income Tax Works in the Money section. Printed together they make a wall rather than a single sheet, which is how a reference set actually gets used.Capital GainsWorking Across BordersReading a Payslip
- Is the How Income Tax Works poster free to download and print?
- Yes. How Income Tax Works downloads as a free PDF with no account, no email and no watermark, like everything else in the Money section. Print as many copies as you like for a home, a classroom, a library or a tutoring group; reselling the file is the only thing the licence rules out.Read the licence
- What size does the How Income Tax Works poster print at?
- How Income Tax Works is a vector PDF laid out for US Letter, and prints on A4 with Fit to page — the same file, no separate download. Because every mark on it is drawn rather than photographed, it stays sharp enlarged to A3, A2 or A1 at a copy shop. Colour carries emphasis only, so a greyscale print of How Income Tax Works loses nothing.Printing guide
Related posters
Charts that sit alongside How Income Tax Works on the same wall.
Browse every Money poster, or start from the full catalogue.