Pension on a £85,000 salary — approaching the £100k cliff.

£85,000 puts you in the top 7% of UK earners. Your income tax is around £21,432, NI around £3,494. You're £15,000 below the £100,000 personal allowance taper threshold — the single most dangerous tax cliff in the UK income tax system. Once your adjusted net income exceeds £100,000, you start losing your personal allowance at a rate of £1 for every £2 of income above the threshold. Combined with normal 40% income tax, this creates a 60% effective marginal tax rate between £100k and £125,140. The pre-emptive strategy at £85k is to set up pension contributions or salary sacrifice now that will keep you safely below £100k even after pay rises and bonuses. Every pound contributed is essentially free money once you're approaching that cliff.