UK Take Home Pay Calculator
Calculate your take-home pay based on your salary and income tax, national insurance, pension and student loan deductions
Your Annual Take-Home Pay
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Deductions Breakdown
Income & Deductions Breakdown
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| Period | Week | Day | Hour |
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Income Tax by Band
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National Insurance by Band
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Take Home Pay Calculator
Please note: This calculator is up to date and includes the latest tax changes for the tax year 2026/27.
This Up The Gains take-home pay calculator is designed to help you find out how much you’ll earn after tax based on your annual gross salary and give you monthly, weekly, daily and hourly take-home figures.
How Is Income Tax Calculated?
Income tax works on a ‘tax band’ system which the government sets and can be changed in the future – any changes would be announced in the annual Budget.
Income tax bands are a percentage rate that you pay on part of your salary. It can be confusing, and many people think that an increase in tax band means it increases the tax across your entire salary but that isn’t correct.
There are also different rates in Scotland compared to the rest of the UK, just to make things even more complicated.
This table will help explain what the rates look like.
Income Tax Rates in England, Wales and Northern Ireland
| Taxable Income | Tax rate | Tax Band |
| Up to £12,570 | 0% | Personal Allowance |
| £12,571 to £50,270 | 20% | Basic rate |
| £50,271 to £125,140 | 40% | Higher rate |
| over £125,140 | 45% | Additional rate |
Income Tax Rates in Scotland
| Taxable income | Tax rate | Tax Band |
| Up to £12,570 | 0% | Personal Allowance |
| £12,571 to £15,397 | 19% | Starter rate |
| £15,398 to £27,491 | 20% | Basic rate |
| £27,492 to £43,662 | 21% | Intermediate rate |
| £43,663 to £75,000 | 42% | Higher rate |
| £75,001 to £125,140 | 45% | Advanced rate |
| Over £125,140 | 48% | Top rate |
Still confused?
Let’s run through the numbers with an example.
We’ll use the England tax rates for this as they are easier to follow.
For the first £12,570 that you earn you pay 0% tax. This is your “Personal Allowance”.
If you earn more than £12,750, anything you earn over £12,750 is taxed at 20%. This is your basic tax rate.
Only the part over £12,750 gets taxed at 20%, not your whole salary. So if you earn £13,750 you’d pay 20% tax on £1,000. If you earned £42,750 you’d pay 20% tax on £30,000. This is the higher tax rate.
If you earn more than £50,270, anything you earn between £12,750 and £50,270 is still taxed at 20%.
Anything over £50,270 is taxed at 40%. Again, only the bit that’s over not your whole salary.
So if you earn £51,270 you’d pay 40% tax on £1,000. If you earned £80,270 you’d pay 40% tax on £30,000.
And finally if you earn more than £125,140 anything over that is taxed at 45%. This is the additional tax rate.
So if you earn £126,140 you’d pay 45% tax on £1,000 and if you earn £155,140 you’d pay 45% tax on £30,000.
The Personal Allowance
Everyone has a personal allowance.
It’s the first £12,570 of what you earn and it’s the limit of what you can earn before you start paying tax (as long as you’re on the 1257L tax code. You can find out more about tax codes using the government tax code checker. )
If you earn over £100,000 you start to lose your Personal Allowance.
For every £2 you earn above £100,000 your Personal Allowance gets reduced by £1.
This means by the time you earn £125,140 (and become subject to the additional tax rate) you’ll also have lost your entire Personal Allowance which means you have to pay 20% tax on the whole £50,270 portion of your salary.
How Is National Insurance Calculated?
Thankfully, National Insurance is a lot easier to calculate than Income Tax and is the same across England, Wales, Scotland and Northern Ireland.
You still have the same £12,570 Personal Allowance with National Insurance so you won’t pay any on anything you earn up to £12,570.
After that, you’ll pay 8% on anything between £12,570 and £50,270 – just like Income Tax you only pay on the amount over the Personal Allowance.
Anything above £50,270 you’ll pay 2% on.
There is no reduction in Personal Allowance for National Insurance.
National Insurance is calculated based on weekly earnings so this is what the numbers look like:
National Insurance Rates In The UK
| Your Earnings | National Insurance Rate |
| £242 to £967 a week (£1,048 to £4,189 a month) | 8% |
| Over £967 a week (£4,189 a month) | 2% |
Workplace Pensions
Pensions are slightly more complicated than Income Tax and National Insurance.
Because deductions that are made at source for a company pension or other pension scheme are a percentage of salary, any contributions you make to the pension are not taxed. This becomes complicated when employers calculate pensionable pay, which is a percentage, and it is a percentage of this that is deducted. This is not necessarily just your annual salary. Each employer can calculate it differently.
Therefore, any pension deductions in our take-home pay calculator are just an estimate. They may match your pay slip or what your employer does, but they may not.
However, pensions are such an important part of working out take home pay, especially since the introduction of workplace pensions. So that’s why we’ve added this in even though they may not be completely accurate.
The approach we’ve taken is to assume that your pensionable pay is the same as your annual salary. However, if your employer calculates it differently, then the estimate won’t be completely accurate. You can find out more here.
The state pension is unlikely to be enough to let you live a decent lifestyle in retirement. That’s if it even does exist by then. That’s why contributing to a workplace pension and/or a private pension is a great idea to save for your future.
Money paid into a pension now benefits from tax relief, which means the government will add money to your pension pot automatically for free. If you’re a higher rate or additional tax rate payer, you can also claim some of that money back.
You can check out our best pension providers if you’d like to learn more and find the best private pension provider for you.
Student Loans
Student loan repayments can be quite complicated. It’s not just a simple percentage every year. It also depends on how much you earn, when you started and graduated from university, and there are different interest rates for each type. These rates can change, so it’s important to keep up to date with the latest interest rates on your particular plan.
Again, we’ve estimated the repayments within our take-home pay calculator, but these are based on interest rates as of October 2025. Remember to double-check your current rates for the most accurate repayments.
Plan 1
This applies if you got a student loan from Student Finance Northern Ireland. There’s no date limit on this. Or if you’re from England and Wales, but studied a course that started before 1st of September 2025, and got the student loan from Student Finance England or Student Finance Wales, then plan one will likely apply.
Plan 2
If you’re from England and Wales, but started your course between 1st of September 2012 and 31st of July 2023, then plan 2 will apply. This may also apply for those from Wales in Wales from 1st of August 2023.
Plan 3
This is for postgraduate students from England and Wales. We’ve named this Post Graduate Loan in the calculator for ease of reference.
Plan 4
This is for those from Scotland. This has no date limit.
Plan 5
This is if you’re from England and you started your course on or after 1st August 2023.
How does tax get paid?
It might seem like a lot of responsibility to have to pay the correct taxes, but luckily, if you’re employed, your employer will handle everything for you. Taxes and National Insurance contributions will be taken from your wages before you receive your take-home pay. Your payslip will show you how much you’ve paid for that period, and these numbers should match the calculations above, subject to any changes in tax rates or pension or student loan contributions.
If you’re self-employed, it’s a bit more complicated, but there is plenty of guidance online. You’ll have to work out how much tax you need to pay using HMRC’s calculator and pay it through a self-assessment tax return every year.
What actually is Income Tax?
There is no way around it; you have to pay your income tax if you meet the thresholds. Most people in the UK will be paying some income tax unless you have an income below the basic rate threshold, i.e., within your personal allowance of £12,570.
Income tax is paid to the government and covers their spending on things like education, transport, national debt, defence, and lots more. There is an annual tax summary that you can read if you want to see exactly how your tax is spent.
What actually is National Insurance?
Just like with Income Tax, you have to pay National Insurance if you meet the criteria. Everyone earning over £12,570 has to pay National Insurance contributions. National Insurance contributions go towards things that help other people. This includes benefits, state pension, maternity allowance, healthcare brackets, the NHS brackets, jobseeker’s allowance, and lots more. You can read about how National Insurance is spent here.
What is tax code?
A tax code is a code that represents how much tax you will pay. It essentially shows how big your personal allowance is and how much you can earn tax-free.
The most common tax code is 1257L, which means you can earn £12,570 before you start paying income tax and National Insurance contributions.
Your tax code can change if you owe tax arrears, for example. They could reduce your personal allowance to £10,000 and give you a tax code of 1000L so that you repay taxes through your regular pay.
There are also other codes, such as letters that can change to represent Marriage Allowance and many other things.
Tax codes are explained using the Government Tax Code Checker.
Frequently Asked Questions
