How to Use the Take Home Pay Calculator UK

Estimate what actually reaches your bank account after Income Tax, employee National Insurance, pension contributions and student loan repayments. Switch tax year to compare 2026/27 with any of the previous three years. Add extra jobs and salary-sacrifice benefits to match a real payslip more closely.

Step-by-Step Guide

1. Choose the tax year and region

Tax year: 2026/27 is the current year (6 April 2026 to 5 April 2027). You can also select 2025/26, 2024/25 or 2023/24.
Saved inputs: whatever you enter is stored in this browser’s local storage and restored on the next visit. Use Clear saved inputs to return to defaults.
Region: Scotland uses different Income Tax bands. National Insurance thresholds are the same across the UK.

2. Enter each job

Gross salary: contractual pay before deductions, as an annual figure.
Tax code: the primary job defaults to 1257L (S1257L in Scotland). Extra jobs default to BR, which is common for second employments.
Pension: enter a percent of that job’s gross or a fixed annual £ amount. Salary sacrifice reduces pay for tax and NI. Net pay reduces tax only. Relief at source deducts 80% from take-home (the scheme claims basic-rate relief).
Other salary sacrifice: cycle to work, childcare, car scheme or a custom amount. These reduce taxable and NI-able pay in this calculator.

3. Add student loan and advanced options

Undergraduate plans repay 9% above that plan’s threshold. A Postgraduate Loan is an extra 6% above £21,000 and can sit alongside an undergraduate plan.
If you have more than one undergraduate plan, repayments are 9% above the lowest threshold — not 9% twice.

Common scenarios

Standard PAYE salary

Goal: see take-home on a typical employed salary in England for 2026/27.

Sample inputs: £35,000, region England/Wales/NI, tax code 1257L, no pension, no student loan.

Approximate results: Income Tax £4,486 · Employee NI £1,794 · Take-home £28,720 a year (£2,393 a month).

Pension salary sacrifice plus Plan 2

Goal: see how a 5% salary-sacrifice pension and a Plan 2 loan change net pay.

Enter £45,000, 5% salary-sacrifice pension and Plan 2. Sacrifice lowers Income Tax, NI and the student-loan calculation because payroll treats the sacrificed amount as no longer being cash pay.

Two jobs

Goal: model a main role plus weekend or freelance PAYE work.

Put the larger salary on Job 1 with 1257L so the Personal Allowance sits there. Add Job 2 on tax code BR. Tax is estimated on combined income for the year; NI is worked out on each job separately, so two modest jobs can pay more NI than one job with the same total pay.

The £100,000 Personal Allowance taper

Goal: see the so-called 60% trap.

Above £100,000, £1 of Personal Allowance is withdrawn for every £2 of extra income, until the allowance reaches £0 at £125,140. Combined with 40% Income Tax this creates a high effective marginal rate. Salary-sacrifice pension contributions can reduce adjusted net income and protect some of the allowance.

Rates used

rUK Income Tax bands and the £12,570 Personal Allowance are unchanged across 2023/24–2026/27. Scottish starter/basic thresholds move each year; an Advanced 45% band exists from 2024/25. Employee NI is 8% between £12,570 and £50,270 and 2% above that for 2024/25 onwards. For 2023/24 the calculator uses HMRC’s 11.5% blended main rate (12% until 5 January 2024, then 10%).

Disclaimer & Limitations

Not professional advice: this is an educational estimate, not tax, payroll or financial advice. Payslips can differ because of week-1 / month-1 tax codes, benefits in kind, Gift Aid, other income, directors’ annual earnings periods and HMRC notices.

Assumptions: employed Class 1 category A; one Personal Allowance applied from the primary job’s tax code; student loan shown as the correct annual liability on combined relevant earnings (employers may over- or under-deduct in-year). Relief-at-source higher-rate relief is not claimed automatically here.

Not included: self-employment, umbrella / IR35, employer NI, High Income Child Benefit Charge, or non-A NI categories.

Bug Reports and Suggested Improvements

Please email suggestions and bug reports to: takehomepaycalc@personalfinances.me.

Take Home Pay Calculator UK

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