For a direct official benchmark, HMRC says the 90th percentile of total income before tax was £64,800 in the tax year ending 2023. On that measure, total annual taxable income above roughly £64,800 put someone in the top 10% of UK taxpayers. This is the clearest official benchmark to cite, but it is a taxpayer-income measure rather than a pure PAYE salary figure.
The definition matters. This is annual total income before tax in HMRC’s Survey of Personal Incomes. It is not take-home pay, not household income, and not the same as an ONS employee-earnings figure. That is why top-10% pages can quote different numbers without one of them necessarily being wrong.
HMRC’s figure is based on taxpayers and covers total income before tax for the tax year. It can include employment income, self-employment profit, pension income, savings, dividends and other taxable income. That is broader than a simple PAYE salary measure.
Some pages use taxpayer income, some use employee earnings, and some use household income. Those are different populations and different definitions. A trustworthy percentile page should make the metric explicit instead of pretending every “top 10%” figure is interchangeable.
A top-decile gross income is useful context, but it still does not tell you what you keep. Compare this benchmark with top 5 percent salary UK, average salary UK and practical pages such as Salary Calculator and True Wage to see what the income is actually worth after tax and work costs.