UK Take-Home Pay Calculator 2026/27

How to use the take-home pay calculator

1. Enter your pay before tax. Type your salary, or switch to monthly, weekly, daily or hourly pay. For daily and hourly pay, add the days or hours you work each week.
2. Choose where you live. Scotland has its own income tax bands. England, Wales and Northern Ireland share the same ones.
3. Add your pension and student loan. Enter your pension as a percentage or an amount and pick its type, then tick any student loan plans you have.
4. Open “More options” if they apply. Add your tax code, a bonus, the number of children you claim Child Benefit for, Marriage Allowance, Blind Person’s Allowance, or tick if you are over State Pension age.

Your take-home pay updates as you type, with a full breakdown, the rate you pay on your next £1,000, and a plain-English explanation of every figure. Your answers stay on your device for next time.

2026/27 tax rates and allowances at a glance

The 2026/27 tax year runs from 6 April 2026 to 5 April 2027. Everyone gets a tax-free Personal Allowance of £12,570 unless their income is over £100,000.

Income tax in England, Wales and Northern Ireland

Income tax in Scotland

National Insurance and student loans

Worked examples: £25,000, £30,000, £50,000 and £100,000 after tax

These assume the standard 1257L tax code, no pension and no student loan.

Step by step: £30,000 in England

1. The first £12,570 is your Personal Allowance, so £17,430 is taxable.
2. Income tax is 20% of £17,430: £3,486.00.
3. National Insurance is 8% of the £17,430 you earn above £12,570: £1,394.40.
4. £30,000 minus £3,486.00 minus £1,394.40 leaves £25,119.60, or £2,093.30 a month.

Now add a 5% pension (£1,500). Through salary sacrifice, your pay for tax and National Insurance falls to £28,500 and you take home £24,039.60, so £1,500 of pension costs you £1,080. Through a net pay or relief at source scheme you take home £23,919.60, so it costs £1,200. If you also have a Plan 2 student loan, 9% of the £615 you earn above £29,385 adds a £55.35 repayment.

How pension contributions change your take-home pay

Online calculators often disagree because they treat pensions differently. There are three ways a workplace pension can be taken from your pay, and your payslip shows which one you have:

• Net pay arrangement. The contribution comes off before income tax, so you get tax relief at your top rate straight away. National Insurance and student loan are still worked out on your full pay.
• Relief at source. The contribution comes out of your pay after tax. You pay 80% and your provider claims the other 20% from HMRC. Higher-rate taxpayers claim the extra relief through Self Assessment, and in Scotland so do intermediate-rate payers.
• Salary sacrifice. You agree to a lower salary and your employer pays the difference into your pension. Income tax, National Insurance and student loan are all worked out on the lower pay.

On a £40,000 salary with a 5% pension, a net pay or relief at source scheme leaves you £30,719.60, while salary sacrifice leaves £30,879.60, £160 more, because it also saves 8% National Insurance. Enter a pension in the calculator and it compares all three for you, including any extra relief you can claim back.

The £100,000 tax trap and the High Income Child Benefit Charge

Once your adjusted net income (broadly, taxable pay after pension contributions) passes £100,000, you lose £1 of Personal Allowance for every £2 you earn. Each extra pound is taxed at 40%, and the allowance you lose costs another 20p, so the effective rate is 60%, or 62% with National Insurance. A rise from £100,000 to £110,000 adds just £3,800 to your take-home pay. In Scotland, where the 45% advanced rate applies, it is 67.5% before National Insurance.

Pension contributions bring adjusted net income down. Paying an extra £10,000 into a net pay pension on a £110,000 salary restores the full allowance and costs only £4,000 of take-home pay. The calculator flags the trap and works out the contribution for you.

The High Income Child Benefit Charge works the same way. If your adjusted net income is over £60,000, you repay 1% of your Child Benefit for every £200 above it, and all of it from £80,000. With two children, Child Benefit is £2,337.40 a year, so at £70,000 the charge is £1,168.70. It is paid through Self Assessment or your tax code, and it falls on whichever partner has the higher income.

Scottish income tax: how it differs

Scotland sets its own income tax bands and rates on wages, but the Personal Allowance, the £100,000 taper and National Insurance are the same everywhere in the UK. In 2026/27, Scottish taxpayers earning up to about £33,500 pay a little less income tax than the rest of the UK (at most £39.67 a year less), thanks to the 19% starter rate. Above that they pay more, because the 21% intermediate rate starts sooner and the 42% higher rate starts at £43,663 rather than £50,271. On £50,000 a Scottish taxpayer pays £1,496.05 more a year.

You pay Scottish income tax if you live in Scotland, wherever your employer is based. Your tax code starts with an S if HMRC has you down as a Scottish taxpayer, and a C if you live in Wales.

Why your payslip can differ by a few pounds

This calculator works out your tax for the whole year, which is what you legally owe. Payroll does the same sums one payment at a time, and the rounding rules differ slightly:

• Tax-free pay. HMRC’s payroll tables turn code 1257L into about £12,579 of tax-free pay a year rather than £12,570, so payslip tax can be up to £1.80 a year lower.
• National Insurance. It uses monthly limits of £1,048 and £4,189. On £30,000 paid monthly that comes to £1,393.92 a year rather than £1,394.40.
• Student loans. Each deduction is rounded down to the pound. On £60,000 with Plan 2, your payslip shows £229 a month, not £229.61.
• Emergency codes. Codes ending in W1, M1 or X tax each payment on its own, so tax overpaid earlier in the year isn’t refunded until your code is fixed.

Bigger differences usually mean a different tax code, a job that started part-way through the year, benefits in kind, or a bonus month. Enter your actual tax code under More options to match your payslip more closely.

How we calculate, and our sources

Every rate and threshold comes from GOV.UK and was last checked on 14 November 2026. We use your yearly pay, round taxable income down to the pound as HMRC does, and show monthly and weekly figures as the yearly amount divided by 12 and 52. A bonus is treated as paid in one month. Sources:

• Rates and thresholds for employers 2026 to 2027
• Income Tax rates and Personal Allowances and Scottish Income Tax
• Repaying your student loan: what you pay
• Pension tax relief
• High Income Child Benefit Charge and Child Benefit rates
• Marriage Allowance, Blind Person’s Allowance and what your tax code means

This is an estimate, not tax advice. It covers income from one job. Your salary never leaves your device here, but your banking and HMRC logins do travel over the network, so use a VPN on public Wi-Fi.

Last updated: 2026-11-14