Salary & Pay
UK Take-Home Pay Calculator
See what actually reaches your account after Income Tax, National Insurance, pension and student loan — with every band shown, for the 2026/27 tax year. Covers England, Wales and Northern Ireland.
Tax year 2026-27
Covers England, Wales and Northern Ireland
Scotland sets its own Income Tax bands, so the tax figures here do not apply to a Scottish taxpayer — National Insurance and student loan repayments are the same UK-wide. See the Scottish rates.
What reaches your account
Take-home pay, monthly
£2,393.30
After Income Tax, National Insurance and any pension or student loan.
What you keep
- A year
- £28,719.60
- A month
- £2,393.30
- A week
- £552.30
What comes out
- Pension contribution Taken before tax, so it reduces the income tax is charged on.
- —
- Income Tax
- £4,486.00
- National Insurance Charged on gross pay, so a pension contribution does not reduce it.
- £1,794.40
- Student loan
- —
- Total deductions
- £6,280.40
The two rates
- Effective rate The share of your whole salary lost to deductions.
- 17.9%
- Marginal rate What the next £1 of salary is taxed at.
- 28%
On a salary of £35,000 you keep £28,719.60 a year — £2,393.30 a month — after £6,280.40 of deductions. That is an effective rate of 17.9% across the whole salary. Figures are for the 2026-27 tax year in England, Wales and Northern Ireland; Scotland sets its own Income Tax bands.
The working, band by band
Each band is shown as total income, the way HMRC publishes it, so these rows can be checked against a payslip directly.
Income Tax
| Band | On income | Rate | Tax |
|---|---|---|---|
| Basic rate | £12,570 – £50,270 | 20% | £4,486.00 |
No Income Tax is due — this salary is within the Personal Allowance.
National Insurance
| Band | On income | Rate | Contribution |
|---|---|---|---|
| Main rate | £12,570 – £50,270 | 8% | £1,794.40 |
No National Insurance is due — this salary is below the Primary Threshold.
What this calculates
This works out your net pay — what lands in your account — from a gross annual salary, for the 2026/27 UK tax year. It applies the Personal Allowance, the three Income Tax bands, employee National Insurance, and any pension or student loan repayment, then shows each deduction separately with the band it came from. The figures are for England, Wales and Northern Ireland. Scotland sets its own Income Tax bands, so a Scottish salary will not match this page.
How it works
net = gross − income tax − National Insurance − student loan − pension
allowance = £12,570, reduced by £1 for every £2 of income over £100,000
taxable = gross − pension − allowance
income tax = 20% on the first £37,700 of taxable income
+ 40% on the next £87,570 (to £125,140 of total income)
+ 45% on anything above
NI = 8% of gross between £12,570 and £50,270
+ 2% of gross above £50,270
loan = 9% of income above the plan threshold (6% postgraduate)The order matters. A pension contribution comes out first and reduces the income that tax is charged on, which is why it lowers your tax bill by more than its own value at higher salaries. The Personal Allowance then comes off what remains, and only what is left is taxable — so the 20% band applies to the first £37,700 of *taxable* income, not the first £37,700 you earn. National Insurance ignores all of this and is charged on gross pay, which is why a pension contribution cuts your Income Tax but leaves your NI untouched. Student loan repayments are worked out on pre-tax income, and an undergraduate and a postgraduate loan are repaid at the same time rather than one after the other. Each band is shown separately because the total alone cannot tell you which rate you are actually paying at the margin.
A worked example
A £60,000 salary in England, no pension contribution and no student loan.
The Personal Allowance of £12,570 comes off first, leaving £47,430 taxable. The first £37,700 of that is taxed at 20% — £7,540. The remaining £9,730 falls into the higher rate and is taxed at 40% — £3,892. Income Tax is therefore £11,432. National Insurance is charged on gross pay, not on the taxable figure: 8% of the £37,700 between £12,570 and £50,270 is £3,016, and 2% of the £9,730 above £50,270 is £194.60, giving £3,210.60. Total deductions are £14,642.60, leaving take-home pay of £45,357.40 a year, or £3,779.78 a month. The effective rate is 24.4% — well below the 40% band the salary reaches, which is the gap this page exists to show.
What this assumes
- The figures are for the 2026/27 tax year, and for England, Wales and Northern Ireland. Scotland has its own Income Tax bands and rates, and this page does not apply them.
- You are an employee under State Pension age, paid through PAYE, on National Insurance category letter A — the category most employees are on.
- You have the standard Personal Allowance of £12,570 and no adjustment from a tax code, marriage allowance, or a benefit in kind such as a company car.
- A pension contribution is treated as relief at source: it lowers the income tax is charged on, but not the pay National Insurance is charged on.
- Your salary is the same for the whole tax year. A mid-year pay rise or a change of job produces a different result in practice.
- Income is employment income only — no dividends, savings interest, rental or self-employed profit, each of which is taxed under its own rules and ordering.
What it does not model
- It does not apply Scottish Income Tax. If you are a Scottish taxpayer, the Income Tax figure here is wrong, though National Insurance is the same UK-wide.
- It does not model salary sacrifice. Sacrifice reduces your gross pay itself, so it lowers National Insurance as well as Income Tax — the pension field here does not.
- It does not read your tax code. A code other than the standard one, an underpayment being collected, or emergency tax will all change what you actually receive.
- It does not handle a second job or multiple employments, where the Personal Allowance is split across employers and the result depends on how the codes are allocated.
- It does not calculate bonuses in the month they are paid. A bonus is taxed for the year, but PAYE deducts it in one period, so a single payslip can look far worse than the annual figure.
- It shows employee National Insurance only. Employer contributions are a cost to your employer and never appear on your payslip as a deduction.
- It does not model benefits in kind, student loan Plan 3 (postgraduate doctoral), the High Income Child Benefit Charge, or the tapering of the annual pension allowance.
Questions
Does this work for Scotland?
No — not for Income Tax. Scotland sets its own bands and rates, and they differ enough that the Income Tax figure on this page would be wrong by a meaningful amount. National Insurance and student loan repayments are the same across the UK, so those parts still apply. The Scottish rates are published at gov.uk/scottish-income-tax.
Why is my take-home pay lower than this says?
The most common reasons are a tax code that is not the standard one, a salary sacrifice arrangement, a benefit in kind such as a company car or medical insurance, or an underpayment from an earlier year being collected through your code. A bonus or overtime in a single month also pushes that month's deduction up. Your payslip will show your tax code — if it is not 1257L, this page's assumptions do not match your situation.
Why does a pension contribution not reduce my National Insurance?
Because National Insurance is charged on your gross pay, before pension relief. A normal workplace pension operating relief at source lowers the income that Income Tax is charged on but leaves the NI calculation untouched. Salary sacrifice is different: it reduces your contractual gross pay, so it lowers both. That difference is worth checking with your employer, because it changes the value of contributing.
What is the 60% tax trap between £100,000 and £125,140?
Above £100,000 the Personal Allowance is withdrawn by £1 for every £2 earned. So an extra £100 of salary is taxed at 40%, and it also removes £50 of allowance which is itself then taxed at 40% — an effective 60% on that band, plus 2% National Insurance. It is the highest marginal rate in the system, higher than the 45% additional rate above it. The calculator shows this as your marginal rate, which is why that figure can exceed the band rate your salary sits in.
Do I repay an undergraduate and a postgraduate loan at the same time?
Yes. They run concurrently, not consecutively. An undergraduate plan takes 9% of income above its threshold and a Postgraduate Loan takes a further 6% above £21,000, so someone with both can be repaying 15% of part of their income. This calculator lets you select both, because a tool offering only one field would understate the deduction for a large number of graduates.
Is National Insurance the same for everyone?
No. This page assumes category letter A, which covers most employees. Letters B, E and I pay 1.85% below the Upper Earnings Limit instead of 8%, and letters C, K and S pay nothing — these cover circumstances such as being over State Pension age or holding certain deferments. Your category letter is on your payslip next to your NI number.
Sources
- Income Tax rates and Personal Allowances — GOV.UK (opens in a new tab)
The £12,570 Personal Allowance, the 20/40/45% band rates and their thresholds, and the withdrawal of the allowance above £100,000.
- National Insurance rates and categories — GOV.UK (opens in a new tab)
The 8% main rate and 2% rate above the Upper Earnings Limit, the £242 weekly Primary Threshold and £967 weekly Upper Earnings Limit, and the category letters.
- Repaying your student loan: what you pay — GOV.UK (opens in a new tab)
The Plan 1, 2, 4 and 5 thresholds at 9%, and the £21,000 Postgraduate Loan threshold at 6%.
- Income Tax in Scotland — GOV.UK (opens in a new tab)
Confirmation that Scotland sets separate Income Tax bands, which this calculator does not apply.
- Formula reviewed
- Formula version
- 1
Version 1 means the formula has not changed since this page was published. If it changes, this number moves and the change is described here.
Worked out for one salary
The same arithmetic, already run for the salaries people look up by name — each with what a pay rise is worth at that point and what a student loan costs there.
- £30,000 after tax What does £30,000 leave after tax, and why is a student loan repayment so small at this salary?
- £35,000 after tax What does £35,000 leave after tax, and how far is it from the higher-rate threshold?
- £42,000 after tax How much room is left below the 40% band on £42,000, and what happens when a rise crosses it?
- £50,000 after tax Why is £50,000 the most consequential salary in the UK system, and what does the next £1 cost?
- £70,000 after tax What does £70,000 leave after higher-rate tax, and what does it mean for Child Benefit?
- £80,000 after tax What does £80,000 leave, and how close is it to the 62% band that starts at £100,000?