UK take-home pay calculator: your salary after tax for 2026/27

Enter your salary to see exactly what lands in your account, and where the rest of it goes. Handles Scottish rates, the £100,000 allowance taper, all five student loan plans and every kind of tax code.

Results update as you type. Nothing you enter leaves your browser.

Your gross salary for the year, as on your contract or payslip.
Where you pay income tax
Employee share only, as a percentage of salary.
On your payslip or P60. Most people are on 1257L; Scottish codes start with S.
More options
Only used for the hourly figure.

Take-home pay £28,719.60 a year, £2,393.30 a month.

Your take-home pay

£28,719.60 a year

You keep 82.1% of gross
Monthly £2,393.30
Weekly £552.30
Daily £110.46
Hourly £14.73

Where your salary goes

of £35,000.00
  • Take-home pay £28,719.60
  • Income tax £4,486.00
  • National Insurance £1,794.40
Yearly breakdown of deductions
Line Per year
Gross salary £35,000.00
Personal allowance (tax-free) £12,570.00
Taxable income £22,430.00
Income tax −£4,486.00
Basic rate: 20% of £22,430.00 −£4,486.00
National Insurance (category A) −£1,794.40
Take-home pay £28,719.60
Tax and NI as a share of salary 17.9%
Deducted from your next £1 28%

Estimates only, for guidance. Not financial advice. Figures assume one job paid evenly through the year; see how the figures are calculated.

What each line of the result means

The headline figures are your take-home pay for the year, then the same amount split into months, weeks, working days (five a week) and hours, using the hours you entered. The table underneath shows how the calculator got there, line by line.

  • Gross salary is what you typed in. If you chose salary sacrifice, the next line shows the amount that goes straight into your pension before anything else is worked out.
  • Personal allowance is the slice of income taxed at 0%. It comes from your tax code, so 1257L gives £12,570. Above £100,000 of adjusted income it shrinks by £1 for every £2, and a separate line shows how much has been withdrawn.
  • Taxable income is gross pay after any salary sacrifice, any pension taken before tax, and the allowance. The income tax line totals the band rows beneath it, which name each rate and the amount of income it applied to, so a Scottish result shows up to six rows.
  • National Insurance is the employee contribution for the category letter shown. Category A is the default; category C shows nothing because no employee NI is due from State Pension age.
  • Student loan and Postgraduate Loan rows only appear when you select a plan and your pay is above its threshold. They are collected through payroll like tax.
  • Pension rows show what leaves your pay. Under relief at source you pay 80% of the contribution and a sub-line shows the 20% your provider claims from HMRC on top.
  • The rates line gives tax plus NI as a share of salary, the amount deducted from your next £1 (your marginal rate) and the share of gross you keep. A warning box appears in the £100,000 to £125,140 zone, where the marginal rate jumps.

How this is calculated

Every figure comes from one shared tax engine that is tested against hand-worked examples for 2026/27. The full method, with each rate beside the GOV.UK page it came from, is on the methodology page. In short:

  1. Salary sacrifice first. A sacrificed amount is removed from gross pay, so it reduces income tax, National Insurance and student loan repayments. A net-pay pension reduces taxable income only. A relief-at-source pension is paid from net pay and the provider adds basic-rate relief, as described on GOV.UK: tax relief on pensions.
  2. Personal allowance and taper. The standard allowance is £12,570. Following GOV.UK: income over £100,000, it falls by £1 for every £2 of adjusted net income above £100,000 and reaches zero at £125,140. Pension contributions reduce adjusted net income, which is why a pension can restore some allowance.
  3. Income tax by nation. In England, Wales and Northern Ireland taxable income is charged at 20% up to £37,700, 40% up to £125,140 and 45% above that, so the higher rate starts at a salary of £50,270 on the standard code (GOV.UK: income tax rates). Scotland uses its own six bands, from 19% to 48%, published at GOV.UK: income tax in Scotland. The bands are applied to taxable income, not total income, which matters in the taper zone.
  4. National Insurance. Employee Class 1 contributions are 8% of pay between the primary threshold of £12,570 and the upper earnings limit of £50,270, then 2% above it, from GOV.UK: NI rates and categories. Category letters B, C, H, J, M, V and Z use their own rates. Annual thresholds are used, which can differ from a monthly payslip by a few pence.
  5. Student loans. Plans 1, 2, 4 and 5 take 9% of pay above their own thresholds (£26,900, £29,385, £33,795 and £25,000 in 2026/27); a Postgraduate Loan takes 6% above £21,000 and is collected alongside an undergraduate plan (GOV.UK: what you pay).
  6. Tax codes. Suffix codes set the allowance, K codes add to taxable pay and are capped at half of pay, BR, D0 and D1 charge a single rate, NT charges nothing, and S or C prefixes switch the nation. Scottish SD0 to SD3 map to the Scottish rates, not the English ones.

What is included, and what is not

This calculator is built for an employee with one job, paid through PAYE, in the 2026/27 tax year. It covers:

  • Income tax for England, Wales, Northern Ireland and Scotland, including the personal allowance taper.
  • Employee National Insurance for every common category letter, and none at all from State Pension age.
  • Student loan Plans 1, 2, 4 and 5, a Postgraduate Loan, and the two together.
  • Pension contributions under net pay, relief at source and salary sacrifice, with the extra relief a higher-rate taxpayer can claim.
  • Tax codes of every kind HMRC issues, including K codes, emergency codes and Scottish or Welsh prefixes.
  • Blind Person's Allowance.

It does not cover:

  • Bonuses, overtime or commission paid in a single month. The yearly total is right; the monthly split is not.
  • Benefits in kind such as a company car or private medical cover, unless HMRC has already put them in your tax code.
  • Self-employed profits, dividends, rental income or Self Assessment adjustments.
  • Employer pension contributions, which do not affect your take-home pay.
  • Marriage Allowance, unless you enter the M or N tax code HMRC gave you.
  • Childcare vouchers, cycle-to-work schemes and other salary sacrifice benefits other than pensions.
  • Umbrella company deductions, IR35 and contractor day rates.

Separate calculators for NHS pay, teachers, monthly and hourly pay, salary sacrifice, bonuses and contractors are on the way. Each will use the same engine, so the numbers will agree with this page.

Frequently asked questions

How is take-home pay calculated in the UK?

Start with your gross salary. Take off any salary-sacrifice pension. Subtract the personal allowance (£12,570 on tax code 1257L) to get taxable income, then apply the income tax bands for your nation. Employee National Insurance is charged separately at 8% on pay between £12,570 and £50,270 and 2% above that. Student loan repayments and pension contributions come off last. What remains is your take-home pay.

What is the take-home pay on a £30,000 salary in 2026/27?

On £30,000 in England, Wales or Northern Ireland with tax code 1257L, no pension and no student loan, income tax is £3,486.00 and National Insurance is £1,394.40, leaving £25,119.60 a year or £2,093.30 a month. In Scotland the same salary leaves £25,154.53 because the starter rate is lower but the intermediate rate is higher. A 5% pension or a Plan 2 loan would reduce both figures.

What does tax code 1257L mean?

1257L is the standard code for 2026/27. The number times ten is your tax-free personal allowance, £12,570, and the letter L means you get the standard allowance with no adjustments. Scottish taxpayers see S1257L and Welsh taxpayers C1257L. Codes ending W1, M1 or X are emergency codes that tax each payday in isolation. A K code means untaxed income or benefits are larger than your allowance, so an amount is added to your taxable pay instead.

Why is my actual payslip different from the calculator?

Payroll works pay period by pay period, so a bonus, overtime or a mid-year start can move tax between months even though the yearly total matches. National Insurance uses monthly thresholds, which changes the annual figure by a few pence, and student loan deductions are rounded down to whole pounds each month. Benefits in kind, a non-standard tax code, an emergency code, or two jobs will also change the numbers. The tax code box here handles most of these cases.

Is take-home pay different in Scotland?

Yes. Scotland sets its own income tax bands and rates: six bands from 19% to 48% in 2026/27, against three bands from 20% to 45% elsewhere. Scottish taxpayers pay slightly less below about £30,000 and more above it. National Insurance, the personal allowance and student loan thresholds are the same across the UK, and Plan 4 loans apply to Scottish borrowers. Choose Scotland above, or enter a tax code starting with S, to switch the bands.

Does salary sacrifice increase take-home pay?

For the same pension contribution, yes. Salary sacrifice lowers your gross pay before both income tax and National Insurance are worked out, so you save the 8% or 2% NI that a normal contribution does not. On £50,000 with 5% going into a pension, salary sacrifice gives £37,719.60 a year against £37,519.60 for a net-pay scheme, a difference of £200.00. It can reduce entitlements based on gross pay, such as statutory maternity pay, so it is not always better.

Do I pay National Insurance after State Pension age?

No. Employees stop paying Class 1 National Insurance once they reach State Pension age, currently 66 and rising to 67 between 2026 and 2028 for people born on or after 6 April 1960. Your employer puts you on NI category C and still pays employer contributions. Income tax carries on as normal. Tick the State Pension age option under more options above and the calculator removes employee NI from your take-home pay.

What percentage of my salary do I take home?

It depends on where you sit in the bands. In 2026/27, with no pension or student loan, someone on £30,000 keeps about 84% of gross, someone on £60,000 keeps about 76%, and someone on £100,000 keeps about 69%. Between £100,000 and £125,140 the personal allowance is withdrawn, so each extra pound is taxed at an effective 60% plus NI. A 5% pension and a Plan 2 loan typically take a further 8 to 12 points off.

Sources and last updated

Rates and thresholds for 2026/27 were checked against the pages below on by Shreyas Banakar. The full method, with every figure and its source, is on the methodology page.