UK take-home pay calculator 2026/27 — salary after tax, NI, pension and student loan

How to use the UK take-home pay calculator

1. Enter your Gross annual salary — your yearly pay before anything is taken off.
2. Choose Where you pay Income Tax: England, Wales or NI, or Scotland.
3. Check the Tax code on your payslip or P60. Leave 1257L if you are not sure.
4. Enter Your pension contribution as a percentage of salary, and pick How your pension is paid (relief at source, net pay arrangement or salary sacrifice).
5. Pick your Student loan plan, tick I repay a Postgraduate Loan if you have one, and tick the State Pension age box if it applies.
6. Read your take-home pay per year, month and week, the full breakdown and the tax in each band.

What it does and when to use it

This calculator turns a gross salary into the amount that actually reaches your bank account in the 2026/27 tax year (6 April 2026 to 5 April 2027). Use it to compare job offers, to check that a payslip looks right, to see what a pay rise is worth after deductions, or to decide how much to put into your pension.

It covers the deductions almost every employee has: Income Tax, employee National Insurance, a workplace pension and student loan repayments. It also shows how much NI your employer pays on top of your salary, so you can see the full cost of your job.

How it works

Income Tax. The calculator takes your taxable pay and subtracts your tax-free allowance. With the standard 1257L code that is £12,570, reduced by £1 for every £2 of adjusted net income above £100,000. The rest is taxed band by band using the 2026/27 limits that HMRC publishes for employers:

• England, Wales and Northern Ireland: 20% on the first £37,700 of taxable income, 40% up to £125,140, and 45% above.
• Scotland: 19% on the first £3,967, 20% up to £16,956, 21% up to £31,092, 42% up to £62,430, 45% up to £125,140, and 48% above. With the standard allowance these match the gross ranges GOV.UK lists, such as the higher rate starting at £43,663.

The formula is: tax = sum over bands of (income in band × band rate).

National Insurance. NI is 8% of pay between £12,570 and £50,270, plus 2% of pay above £50,270. If you are over State Pension age you pay none. Your employer pays 15% of your pay above £5,000.

Pension. The method matters:

• Salary sacrifice: your salary is reduced before tax, NI and student loan are worked out.
• Net pay arrangement: the contribution comes off before tax, but NI and student loan still use your full salary.
• Relief at source: you pay 80% of the contribution from your take-home pay and the provider claims the other 20% from HMRC. Higher-rate and additional-rate taxpayers can claim more. The calculator estimates that extra relief by widening your bands by the gross contribution, and shows it separately.

Student loans. Repayment is 9% of pay above your plan threshold (6% above £21,000 for a Postgraduate Loan). It uses pay after salary sacrifice.

Tax codes. A number followed by L, M, N or T gives an allowance of that number × 10. A K code adds to your taxable pay instead. BR taxes everything at the basic rate, D0 and D1 at higher rates, 0T gives no allowance and NT means no tax. A code starting with S uses Scottish rates. An emergency marker (W1, M1 or X) gives the same answer over a full year of steady pay.

Worked examples

These figures come straight from the calculator.

£35,000 in England, no pension or loan. Taxable income is £35,000 − £12,570 = £22,430. Tax is 20% of that, £4,486. NI is 8% of the same £22,430, £1,794.40. Take-home pay is £28,719.60 a year, about £2,393 a month. With the default 5% relief-at-source pension, you pay £1,400 from net pay (the provider adds £350) and take home £27,319.60.

£45,000 in England, 5% relief-at-source pension and a Plan 2 loan. Income Tax is £6,486 and NI £2,594.40. The student loan takes 9% of (£45,000 − £29,385) = £1,405.35. The pension costs you £1,800 from net pay, and £2,250 goes into the pot. Take-home pay is £32,714.25 a year, or £2,726.19 a month.

£28,000 in Scotland, 5% salary sacrifice and a Plan 4 loan. Salary sacrifice cuts pay to £26,600. Taxable income is £14,030, and tax across the starter, basic and intermediate bands is £2,766.33. NI is £1,122.40. Pay is below the Plan 4 threshold of £33,795, so nothing is repaid. Take-home is £22,711.27.

£110,000 in England. The allowance falls by (£110,000 − £100,000) ÷ 2 = £5,000, to £7,570. Taxable income is £102,430, giving £7,540 at 20% plus £25,892 at 40% = £33,432 of Income Tax. The calculator’s “deduction rate on your next £1,000” shows 62%. That is the well-known trap between £100,000 and £125,140, where each extra pound costs 40% tax plus the lost allowance. Pension contributions reduce adjusted net income and can win the allowance back.

Limits and tips

• Annual, steady pay. Real payroll is worked out each pay period, and student loan deductions are rounded down to whole pounds. A month with a bonus will look different from the yearly average.
• Your tax code is the code HMRC sends your employer. If it includes benefits in kind (such as a company car) or an underpayment from an earlier year, enter that code, not 1257L.
• Not covered: Self Assessment income (rent, self-employment, dividends, savings interest), the Marriage Allowance, Blind Person’s Allowance, Class 1A NI on benefits, NI category letters other than A, and the Employment Allowance for employers.
• Higher-rate relief at source is shown separately because you have to claim it yourself, through Self Assessment or by asking HMRC to change your tax code.
• Pension percentage is applied to your whole salary. Some auto-enrolment schemes use “qualifying earnings” (a band of your pay) instead, which gives a smaller contribution. Check your scheme and adjust the percentage if needed.

2026/27 rates used

All figures are from HMRC’s “Rates and thresholds for employers 2026 to 2027” and the GOV.UK Income Tax pages, checked on 3 October 2026.

Related calculators

If you are weighing a raise, the salary hike planner works out the percentage, and the overtime pay calculator shows what extra hours add before tax. To turn an hourly rate into a yearly salary first, use the hourly to annual salary calculator. Buying a home? The UK Stamp Duty calculator shows the tax on the purchase, and the loan EMI calculator the monthly repayment on a loan in pounds. For prices with VAT, see the VAT calculator.