2026-27 tax year
£30,000 after tax
What does £30,000 leave after tax, and why is a student loan repayment so small at this salary?
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.
Take-home pay
Take-home pay, monthly
£2,093.30
£25,119.60 a year · £483.07 a week
- Kept from the whole salary An effective rate of 16.3% across everything you earn.
- 83.7%
- Kept from the next pound Tax at 20% and National Insurance at 8% on anything more.
- 72%
- Room before the 40% band The higher rate starts at £50,270.
- £20,270
- Plan 2 student loan 9% of the £615 above the £29,385 threshold.
- £55.35
A salary of £30,000 leaves £25,119.60 a year, or £2,093.30 a month, once Income Tax and National Insurance are taken. That is an effective rate of 16.3% — the lowest of any salary with a page here, because every pound of it is taxed at the basic rate and a large slice is not taxed at all.
The figure most people at this salary get wrong is not the tax. It is the student loan.
Where the money goes
| Gross salary | £30,000.00 |
|---|---|
| Income Tax All of it charged at the 20% basic rate. | £3,486.00 |
| National Insurance 8% of everything above the £12,570 threshold. | £1,394.40 |
| Take-home pay | £25,119.60 |
| Band | Income | Rate | Tax |
|---|---|---|---|
| Basic rate | £12,570 – £50,270 | 20% | £3,486.00 |
What the next £5,000 is worth
A £5,000 rise leaves you £3,600.00 better off — 72% of it. Below £50,270 that share is the same at every salary, because 20% tax and 8% National Insurance apply to each extra pound identically. With £20,270 of room left, a rise of this size stays entirely inside the basic rate and none of it is touched by the higher rate.
With a student loan
Repayments are 9% of what you earn above £29,385, not 9% of your salary — and at £30,000 you are only £615 above it. So a Plan 2 loan costs £55.35 for the entire year, about £4.61 a month. That is 0.2% of your salary, and it is the single most misunderstood figure at this income: many people expect a deduction of several hundred pounds and budget for one.
What these figures assume
- 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 they do not include
- 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.
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.
Not your salary?
Put your own figure in.
The calculator runs the same arithmetic as this page, and adds a pension contribution, both student loan plans at once, and the marginal rate at any salary.
Open the uk take-home pay calculator