UK Take Home Pay Calculator
Work out your Income Tax, National Insurance, and student loan deductions for the 2026/27 tax year. England, Wales, and Northern Ireland rates.
Your salary before any deductions, for the full tax year.
Assumes a salary sacrifice pension, which reduces both tax and National Insurance. Set to 0 if you don’t pay into a workplace pension.
Not sure which plan you’re on? Check your Student Finance account or payslip.
You stop paying employee National Insurance once you reach State Pension age, even if you’re still working.
Figures use 2026/27 rates for England, Wales, and Northern Ireland and assume a standard tax code with no other income, benefits in kind, or reliefs. This is an estimate, not a payslip.
Your payslip lands, and the number at the bottom never quite matches the number in your contract. That gap is Income Tax, National Insurance, and maybe a student loan, all taking a share of your salary before it reaches your bank account. This page breaks down exactly how each deduction is worked out for the 2026/27 tax year, so the calculator above isn’t just handing you a number you have to take on faith.
What is take-home pay?
Take-home pay is the money that actually lands in your bank account after Income Tax, National Insurance, pension contributions, and student loan repayments come out of your gross salary. People also call it net pay.
Your gross salary is the headline figure in your job offer. Nobody keeps all of it. Between tax, National Insurance, and any pension or student loan deductions, most employees take home somewhere between 65% and 80% of their gross pay, depending on how much they earn and what they contribute to a pension.
How do you calculate take-home pay?
Take-home pay equals gross salary minus pension contributions, minus Income Tax, minus National Insurance, minus student loan repayments. Each deduction runs on a slightly different base, which is exactly where most manual attempts go wrong.
Pension contributions come off first if you’re on a salary sacrifice scheme, since that’s what actually lowers your official salary. Income Tax and National Insurance then apply to what’s left, using the 2026/27 bands below. Student loan repayments run separately, based on earnings above your specific plan’s threshold.
Get one of those bases wrong and the final figure drifts off course fast. That’s really the whole case for using a proper calculator over a phone calculator app and a vague memory of “20%.”
What are the UK Income Tax rates for 2026/27?
For 2026/27, the Personal Allowance sits at £12,570, the basic rate is 20% up to £50,270, the higher rate is 40% up to £125,140, and the additional rate is 45% above that. These bands apply in England, Wales, and Northern Ireland.
| Band | Taxable income | Rate |
|---|---|---|
| Personal Allowance | Up to £12,570 | 0% |
| Basic rate | £12,571 to £50,270 | 20% |
| Higher rate | £50,271 to £125,140 | 40% |
| Additional rate | Over £125,140 | 45% |
The Personal Allowance has stood at £12,570 since 2021/22 with no increase since, and it’s due to stay there until at least April 2031, according to the House of Commons Library’s 2026/27 briefing. Wages have risen over that period. The tax-free threshold hasn’t moved an inch.
That gap is called fiscal drag, and it quietly pushes more people into higher tax bands every year, without a single headline rate ever changing.
How is Income Tax actually calculated?
Income Tax is charged in slices, not on your whole salary at one flat rate. Each pound gets taxed at the rate for the band it falls into, so moving into a higher band never reduces what you take home overall.
Take a £60,000 salary as an example. The first £12,570 is tax-free. The next £37,700, up to £50,270, is taxed at 20%, costing £7,540. The remaining £9,730 falls into the higher rate band and is taxed at 40%, costing £3,892. Total Income Tax comes to £11,432, not the £27,000 you’d get by taxing the whole £60,000 at 45%.
That slice-by-slice system is why a small pay rise never actually leaves you worse off overall, whatever the “I’ll lose it all to tax” rumour going round the office suggests.
What happens between £100,000 and £125,140?
Between £100,000 and £125,140 of adjusted net income, your effective tax rate jumps to roughly 60%, even though the headline higher rate is only 40%. It’s one of the odder quirks in the UK tax system, and plenty of higher earners only discover it when their payslip does the explaining for them.
Here’s the mechanism. Above £100,000, you lose £1 of Personal Allowance for every £2 you earn. By £125,140, the entire £12,570 allowance is gone. So in that band, you’re paying 40% tax on the extra income and losing tax-free allowance at the same time, which combines into an effective marginal rate close to 60%.
A £5,000 pay rise from £110,000 to £115,000 looks generous on paper. In practice, roughly £3,000 of it disappears to tax and lost allowance, leaving about £2,000 in your actual pay. Pension contributions are the standard way round this, since they lower adjusted net income and can pull you back under £100,000 entirely.
What National Insurance will I pay in 2026/27?
For 2026/27, employee National Insurance runs at 8% on earnings between £12,570 and £50,270, and 2% above £50,270. Below £12,570, you pay nothing at all.
| Earnings | Rate |
|---|---|
| Up to £12,570 | 0% |
| £12,570 to £50,270 | 8% |
| Over £50,270 | 2% |
This rate has moved quickly in recent years. It was cut from 12% to 10% at the 2023 Autumn Statement, then to 8% at the 2024 Spring Budget, according to the House of Commons Library. Two cuts inside 18 months is unusual for a rate that normally sits still for years, so it’s worth checking you’re not working from an old blog post that still quotes 12%.
Do you pay National Insurance after State Pension age?
No. Once you reach State Pension age, currently 66, employee National Insurance stops completely, even if you’re still working full time. Your employer keeps paying their share on your earnings, but nothing more comes out of your own pay.
It’s one of the few genuine free passes left in the UK tax system. If you’re working past State Pension age, factor that saving into any take-home estimate. Leave it out and you’ll underestimate your own pay by a real amount.
What about student loan repayments?
Student loan repayments come out automatically through PAYE once your earnings pass your plan’s threshold, at 9% for Plans 1, 2, 4, and 5, or 6% for Postgraduate loans. Each plan carries its own threshold for 2026/27.
| Plan | Threshold | Rate |
|---|---|---|
| Plan 1 | £26,900 | 9% |
| Plan 2 | £29,385 | 9% |
| Plan 4 (Scotland) | £33,795 | 9% |
| Plan 5 | £25,000 | 9% |
| Postgraduate Loan | £21,000 | 6% |
Plan 2’s threshold has actually been climbing lately, after four straight years frozen at £27,295 between 2021/22 and 2024/25. It moved to £28,470 in 2025/26 and now sits at £29,385 for 2026/27. Plan 5 is the newest addition, covering courses that started after August 2023, and 2026/27 is its first year of live repayments.
Carrying a Postgraduate Loan alongside an undergraduate plan means both come out at once, each measured against its own threshold. It isn’t one combined deduction. It’s two running side by side.
Does a pension change my take-home pay calculation?
Yes, but how much depends on your pension type. With salary sacrifice, your official salary drops, so you pay less Income Tax and less National Insurance while still building your pension pot. That’s the scheme this calculator assumes.
Relief-at-source and net pay arrangements work slightly differently, and the National Insurance saving doesn’t apply the same way. If you’re not sure which type your workplace offers, your payroll or HR team can confirm it in a couple of minutes, and it’s worth asking, since it changes your real NI figure.
Does this Take Home Pay calculator work for Scotland?
No, not accurately. Scotland runs its own income tax system with six bands, from 19% up to 48%, and different thresholds from the rest of the UK. A Scottish taxpayer on the same salary as someone in England ends up with a different Income Tax bill, even though National Insurance and student loan rules stay the same across the whole UK.
Frequently asked questions
Yes. Both terms mean the same thing: what’s left in your pocket after Income Tax, National Insurance, pension contributions, and any student loan repayments come out of your gross salary.
With no pension contributions, Income Tax comes to roughly £6,486 and National Insurance to roughly £2,594 for 2026/27, leaving take-home pay of about £35,920 a year, or £2,993 a month. Use the calculator above with your own pension percentage for an exact figure.
No. A bonus gets added to your earnings for that pay period and taxed under the same bands as any other income. It can feel like it’s taxed harder because it pushes that month’s pay into a higher band, but over the full tax year it’s treated exactly the same as salary.
£12,570. It’s stood at that level since 2021/22 with no increase since, and stays there until at least 2031. It tapers down by £1 for every £2 earned above £100,000, reaching £0 at £125,140.
8% on earnings between £12,570 and £50,270, and 2% above £50,270. Nothing below £12,570, and nothing at all once you’re past State Pension age.
Roughly 60p of every extra £1 earned in that band, combining the 40% tax rate with the loss of Personal Allowance. Pension contributions are the usual way to reduce adjusted net income and avoid it.
It depends on when and where you studied. Your Student Finance account confirms your plan, or check your payslip for the deduction code.
No. Scotland has its own six income tax bands, from 19% to 48%, with different thresholds from the rest of the UK. This tool uses England, Wales, and Northern Ireland rates.
Figures checked against the House of Commons Library’s Direct Taxes briefing for 2026/27, HMRC’s National Insurance thresholds for 2026/27, and confirmed student loan repayment thresholds for 2026/27. For your exact position, check gov.uk.
More free calculators on SitNit
- Paycheck Calculator USA, the US equivalent of this tool
- Singapore Take-Home Pay Calculator, for CPF and income tax
- Ireland Stamp Duty Calculator, for property purchases in Ireland
- DTI Calculator, to check your debt-to-income ratio
This calculator gives an estimate based on standard 2026/27 rates and a standard tax code. It doesn’t account for benefits in kind, marriage allowance, other income, or non-standard tax codes, and it isn’t financial or tax advice.
