Enter your salary and see exactly what lands in your bank account after income tax, National Insurance, pension and student loan — using the real 2026/27 rates for where you live. It doubles as an income tax calculator and a National Insurance calculator too, so you can see each deduction on its own, whether you're in England, Wales, Northern Ireland or Scotland.
Hours/week is only used for the hourly rate below.
Scotland sets its own income tax bands. National Insurance is the same UK-wide.
Salary sacrifice cuts tax, NI and student loan. Most workplace schemes now use it — check your payslip.
| Per year | Per month | Per week |
|---|
Employer cost on top of your salary (employer NI at 15% above £5,000): a year. That money never touches your payslip, but it's part of what you cost to employ.
The pages people search for most. Each one is worked out in full — tax, NI, and what changes in Scotland. Tap one to load it in the salary calculator above.
| Band | On income | Rate |
|---|---|---|
| Personal Allowance | £0 – £12,570 | 0% |
| Basic rate | £12,571 – £50,270 | 20% |
| Higher rate | £50,271 – £125,140 | 40% |
| Additional rate | Over £125,140 | 45% |
Allowance falls £1 for every £2 earned over £100,000, and is gone at £125,140. Thresholds frozen until April 2031.
| Band | On income | Rate |
|---|---|---|
| Starter | £12,571 – £16,537 | 19% |
| Basic | £16,538 – £29,526 | 20% |
| Intermediate | £29,527 – £43,662 | 21% |
| Higher | £43,663 – £75,000 | 42% |
| Advanced | £75,001 – £125,140 | 45% |
| Top | Over £125,140 | 48% |
Starter and Basic thresholds rose 7.4% in April 2026. Same £12,570 Personal Allowance and taper as the rest of the UK.
| Employee NI | Rate |
|---|---|
| £0 – £12,570 | 0% |
| £12,571 – £50,270 | 8% |
| Over £50,270 | 2% |
| Student loan 2026/27 | Threshold | Rate |
|---|---|---|
| Plan 1 | £26,900 | 9% |
| Plan 2 | £29,385 | 9% |
| Plan 4 (Scotland) | £33,795 | 9% |
| Plan 5 | £25,000 | 9% |
| Postgraduate | £21,000 | 6% |
You only repay the percentage on earnings above the threshold — never on your whole salary. Postgraduate repayments run alongside an undergraduate plan.
The same contract value, three ways of getting paid: your own limited company (director's salary + dividends), an umbrella company, or plain PAYE. Built on 2026/27 corporation tax, dividend tax and National Insurance rates.
46 weeks leaves room for holidays, bank holidays and gaps between contracts.
Limited company: paid by the company straight into your pension, before corporation tax. Umbrella & PAYE: salary sacrifice. It's your money, so it's shown separately from take-home below.
£12,570 is the usual optimum for 2026/27 — why is explained below.
Limited company: deductible business costs (accountancy, insurance, software, travel). Umbrella: they only count if your umbrella reimburses genuine expenses out of the rate — ordinary commuting doesn't qualify.
What the umbrella keeps for running payroll — typically £80–£130 a month.
| Limited co. | Umbrella | PAYE |
|---|
Assumes: no other income, all post-tax company profit drawn as dividends in the same year, no associated companies, company expenses are allowable business costs (umbrella: only where your umbrella reimburses genuine expenses out of the rate), England/Wales/NI income tax (Scottish salary rates differ slightly; dividend rates are UK-wide). The PAYE column treats the whole contract value as salary — a real permanent job rarely pays the same headline figure, but it shows what employment does to the same pot of money. Umbrella employer NI and the 0.5% apprenticeship levy come out of the assignment rate before your gross pay, as they do on real umbrella payslips. Estimates only, not financial advice — IR35 status and individual circumstances change the picture.
Dividends can only be paid from profit left after corporation tax, and they carry no National Insurance. One catch the headline figures above do include: student loan repayments are charged on directors' total income (salary + dividends) through Self Assessment rather than payroll, so a Plan 2 loan quietly takes 9% of almost everything the company pays you — salary sacrifice under PAYE or an umbrella shelters more of the income from the loan than dividends do.
You're genuinely in business on your own account — control over how the work is done, a real right of substitution, no mutuality of obligation. You invoice through your limited company and pay yourself salary + dividends as modelled above. This is where the limited company advantage lives.
The engagement looks like employment under another name. Tax and NI are deducted from the fee as if you were an employee (a “deemed employment payment”), which removes most of the limited company benefit. That's why most inside-IR35 contractors get paid through an umbrella instead — same tax outcome, no company admin.
For medium and large clients, the end client must issue a Status Determination Statement (SDS) before the work starts — read it, and challenge it if it's blanket “inside”. HMRC's CEST tool gives an indication, not a guarantee. For small clients — since April 2026, those meeting two of: turnover £15m or less, balance sheet £7.5m or less, 50 or fewer employees — you still determine your own status, and carry the risk if HMRC disagrees.
Same salary, same National Insurance — the only difference is income tax. Scotland's 19% starter rate helps lower earners by a few pounds a year; from £29,526 upwards Scotland costs more, and the gap widens fast after £43,663.
| Salary | England tax | Scotland tax | Scotland pays | Per month |
|---|
Income tax only, full £12,570 Personal Allowance, no pension or loan. Your tax region is set by where you live, not where you work — HMRC puts an “S” prefix on Scottish tax codes (e.g. S1257L).
Between £12,571 and £16,537 Scotland charges 19% instead of 20%. On that £3,967 slice you save at most £39.67 a year — real, but about 76p a week.
At £29,526 the saving is used up. From there Scotland's 21% intermediate rate (vs 20%) and especially 42% from £43,663 (vs 20% until £50,270) pull ahead quickly.
On £50,000 a Scottish taxpayer pays roughly £1,490 more income tax a year than an English one — about £124 a month — because £6,337 of income is taxed at 42% instead of 20%.
You repay a percentage of what you earn above your plan threshold — not of your whole salary, and not based on how much you owe. Here's what actually comes off your payslip.
Plan 2 threshold is frozen at £29,385 until April 2030. Plan 5 stays at £25,000 until April 2027. Postgraduate has been £21,000 since 2019.
| Salary | Plan 2 / month | Per year |
|---|
*Simple projection at today's salary with no pay rises or interest — for scale only. Most Plan 2 and Plan 5 borrowers never clear the balance before write-off; whether extra voluntary repayments make sense depends on your earnings path, not the balance alone. This isn't financial advice.
| Plan | Who | 2026/27 threshold |
|---|---|---|
| Plan 1 | England/Wales before Sep 2012; all Northern Ireland | £26,900 · 9% |
| Plan 2 | England Sep 2012–Jul 2023; Wales from Sep 2012 | £29,385 · 9% |
| Plan 4 | Scotland | £33,795 · 9% |
| Plan 5 | England from Aug 2023 | £25,000 · 9% |
| Postgraduate | Master's/PhD loan, England & Wales | £21,000 · 6% |
If you have an undergraduate loan and a Postgraduate Loan you repay both at the same time — e.g. Plan 2 at 9% above £29,385 plus 6% above £21,000. On £40,000 that's about £80 + £95 = £175/month. Tick “also Postgraduate” in the main calculator to see the combined effect.
PAYE applies the threshold per pay period, so a one-off bonus month can trigger a deduction even if your annual salary is below the threshold — it's not refunded automatically in-year.
There's no 60% rate in the tax tables — but between £100,000 and £125,140 that's exactly what many people pay. Here's how it happens, what it costs, and the legitimate ways around it.
Personal Allowance vs income. The allowance — and free childcare hours and Tax-Free Childcare eligibility, which also cut off at £100,000 — all hinge on adjusted net income: your income minus gross pension contributions and Gift Aid.
For every £2 you earn over £100,000, you lose £1 of your £12,570 Personal Allowance. At £125,140 it's entirely gone. Earning £25,140 extra costs you the full £12,570 allowance.
Income in the taper zone is taxed at 40% and drags previously tax-free income into tax as the allowance shrinks. £100 of extra pay: £40 tax + £50 of allowance lost × 40% = £60 tax. Add 2% NI = 62p in every £1 gone.
The same UK-wide taper interacts with Scotland's 45% Advanced rate: 45% + (50% × 45%) = 67.5% income tax, plus 2% NI. Free childcare cut-offs apply in the same way.
| Situation | Common, legitimate response |
|---|---|
| Earning £100k–£125k with a workplace pension | Increase salary-sacrifice pension contributions to bring adjusted net income back to £100,000 or below — restores the allowance (and childcare support) and gets 62% effective relief on that slice. |
| Bonus would tip you over £100k | Ask payroll about sacrificing the bonus into pension instead of taking it as pay (mind the £60,000 annual allowance, tapered above £260k). |
| Two earners, one just over £100k | Pension contributions and Gift Aid donations reduce adjusted net income; charitable donations count at their grossed-up value. |
| Self-employed / director | Timing income and employer pension contributions across the 5 April year-end can keep a year under the threshold. |
Worked example: on £110,000, sacrificing £10,000 into a pension restores £5,000 of Personal Allowance. That £10,000 contribution effectively costs about £3,800 of take-home — the rest is tax and NI you no longer pay. Always check pension annual allowance and get regulated advice for large contributions; this page is education, not advice.
| Salary | Personal Allowance | Income tax | Take-home / year | Marginal rate |
|---|
No jargon, no upsell — just how the UK pay system actually works, in the order most people need it.
You never pay the higher rate on all your income. Tax is charged in slices: 0% on the first £12,570 (your Personal Allowance), 20% on the next slice, and so on. Earning £55,000 doesn't mean 40% tax on £55,000 — only £4,730 of it is taxed at 40%.
Bands are frozen until 2031, so pay rises push more of your income into higher slices over time — “fiscal drag.” Your tax code (usually 1257L) tells payroll your allowance: the number × 10 is your tax-free amount.
Gross pay is before deductions. Then, in rough order: pension (if salary sacrifice, this comes off first), income tax (PAYE), National Insurance, student loan. What's left is net pay. “Tax period” 1–12 counts months from April; cumulative codes smooth tax across the year, while W1/M1 codes tax each month in isolation (common in a first month — it usually corrects itself).
Employees pay 8% on earnings between £12,570 and £50,270, then 2% above that. Unlike income tax it's worked out per pay period, not cumulatively — so two jobs or a bonus month can mean more NI than the annual figures suggest. It funds the State Pension and benefits; you need 35 qualifying years for the full pension. Employee NI stops at State Pension age; income tax doesn't.
Auto-enrolment minimums are 5% from you (including tax relief) and 3% from your employer, on earnings between £6,240 and £50,270. With salary sacrifice your contribution also cuts NI and student loan; with net pay it cuts tax only. Dropping below £100k adjusted net income via pension is the classic way to escape the 60% taper zone.
The usual suspects: a W1/M1 emergency code in month one, a bonus or overtime pushing a pay-period NI/student-loan deduction, pension starting or changing, backdated pay rises, or benefits (company car, medical cover) taxed through your code. Compare the tax code and each deduction line against last month before assuming payroll is wrong.
Scotland sets rates on earned income only — savings and dividends follow UK-wide rules, and NI is UK-wide too. Residence decides it: live in Scotland and you're a Scottish taxpayer for the whole year, wherever you work. Check your code starts with “S”. Full comparison on the Scotland vs England page.
UK Pay Calculator exists for one moment: the gap between hearing a salary and knowing what it means. Job offers, pay rises, moving between Scotland and England, a first graduate job with a student loan — the headline number is never the number you live on.
Every figure on this site is worked out in your browser from the published 2026/27 rates: the £12,570 Personal Allowance and its £100,000 taper, England/Wales/NI bands (20/40/45%), Scottish bands (19/20/21/42/45/48% with the April 2026 threshold rises), employee National Insurance (8% between £12,570–£50,270, 2% above), student loan thresholds (Plan 1 £26,900; Plan 2 £29,385; Plan 4 £33,795; Plan 5 £25,000; Postgraduate £21,000 at 6%), and pension contributions under salary sacrifice or net pay arrangements.
The contractor calculator adds the company side: corporation tax (19% small profits rate to £50,000, 25% main rate from £250,000, marginal relief between), employer National Insurance at 15% above the £5,000 secondary threshold, company pension contributions, and personal dividend tax for 2026/27 (dividend allowance £500; 10.75% basic, 35.75% higher, 39.35% additional — the first two rose two percentage points on 6 April 2026). Rates were last checked against HMRC and Scottish Government publications in April 2026 for the tax year 6 April 2026 to 5 April 2027.
Estimates, not financial advice. Real payslips vary with benefits in kind, bonuses, multiple jobs, mid-year changes, pension scheme rules and payroll software. For decisions that matter — large pension contributions, leaving a job, disputing a payslip — talk to a qualified accountant or regulated adviser.
Spot a rate that's wrong or out of date? Please tell us via the contact page — accuracy is the whole point of the site.
Corrections, rate updates and suggestions for new calculators are all welcome.
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Last updated: October 2026.