UK Take-Home Pay Calculator
See exactly what your salary becomes after Income Tax, National Insurance, pension contributions and student loan repayments. All figures use the latest 2025/26 HMRC rates.
Your salary
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How the UK take-home pay calculation works
UK income is taxed in stages — not at one flat rate. Your salary is divided into chunks (called "bands"), and each band is taxed at its own rate. National Insurance is then calculated separately on the same earnings. Here's the order in which your pay is actually shaved down.
1. Personal allowance (£12,570)
The first £12,570 you earn is tax-free. This is your "personal allowance". If you earn more than £100,000, the allowance reduces by £1 for every £2 over the threshold and disappears entirely at £125,140 — a quirk that creates an effective 60% marginal rate in that band.
2. Income Tax bands
| Band | Income | Rate |
|---|---|---|
| Personal allowance | £0 – £12,570 | 0% |
| Basic rate | £12,571 – £50,270 | 20% |
| Higher rate | £50,271 – £125,140 | 40% |
| Additional rate | £125,140+ | 45% |
3. National Insurance (Class 1)
NI works like a second income tax but only on earnings, not investments. For 2025/26 employees pay 8% on earnings between £12,570 and £50,270, then 2% on anything above £50,270.
4. Pension contributions
How your pension reduces your tax depends on the scheme:
- Salary sacrifice — your gross is lowered before tax and NI, so it's the most tax-efficient. Your employer often passes on their NI saving too.
- Net pay arrangement — taken from your gross before income tax (NI still applies on the full salary). Used by most occupational schemes.
- Relief at source — paid from take-home pay; the provider claims 25% basic-rate relief on top. Higher and additional-rate taxpayers claim more via Self Assessment.
5. Student loan
Repayments are 9% of income above the plan's threshold (6% for postgraduate). The calculator supports all five UK plans. If you have both a postgraduate loan and an undergraduate loan, both are charged in parallel.
Worked examples for popular salaries (2025/26)
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Examples assume no pension or student loan and use rest-of-UK rates. Switch on those options in the calculator above for your own situation.
Why does my actual payslip differ?
Your real payslip might look slightly different from this calculator for several reasons:
- Tax code adjustments — benefits in kind, prior under/over-payments and marriage allowance change your effective allowance.
- Pay frequency — payroll calculates tax on a "month-to-date" basis, so your first or last month of the year can look unusual.
- Bonus periods — bonuses are often taxed using an emergency or higher band the month they're paid, then balanced out over the year.
- Salary sacrifice — schemes for cars, cycle-to-work or childcare reduce taxable pay but don't appear here unless you include them in the pension field.
Tips for keeping more of what you earn
- If your salary just creeps over £50,270, putting the excess into a pension via salary sacrifice keeps your marginal rate at 28% (20% tax + 8% NI) rather than 42%.
- Earning between £100,000 and £125,140? Pension sacrifice is exceptionally effective here — the effective tax saving can exceed 60p in the pound.
- Marriage allowance lets a non-taxpayer transfer £1,260 of personal allowance to a basic-rate-paying partner, saving them £252 a year.
- Higher-rate taxpayers using a relief-at-source pension scheme should claim the extra 20%/25% relief through Self Assessment — most people forget.
FAQs
How much is £30k after tax in the UK?
For 2025/26 with rest-of-UK rates and no pension or student loan, you'd take home about £25,120 a year — roughly £2,093 a month. That's £3,486 income tax and £1,394 National Insurance.
How much is £50k after tax?
About £39,520 a year, or £3,293 a month, in 2025/26.
How much is £100k after tax?
Around £68,557 — but every pound between £100k and £125,140 is taxed at an effective 60% because of the personal allowance taper. Pension contributions are the main tool used to escape that band.
Are bonuses taxed differently?
No — bonuses are taxed at the same rates as salary, but because PAYE looks at the year so far, a one-off bonus can push that month's deductions higher than usual. It evens out over the tax year.
Why is Scottish tax different?
Income Tax on non-savings, non-dividend income is set by the Scottish Parliament, with six bands ranging from 19% to 48%. National Insurance is identical across the UK because it's a reserved (UK-wide) tax.
Does the calculator save my data?
No. Everything runs in your browser. Nothing is sent to a server. You can refresh the page to clear the inputs.