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True Take-Home

UK take-home pay calculator 2026/27See what you'll actually take home.

A salary of £35,000 leaves you £28,720 a year, or £2,393.30 a month, in England and Wales. Income tax, National Insurance, student loans and pension itemised, with the marginal rate on your next pound shown as a number.

Work out take home pay from an annual salary, a monthly figure or an hourly wage. Take-home pay, net pay and wages after deductions are the same sum: gross minus income tax and National Insurance, on published 2026/27 rates.

  • Checked against HMRC 28 August 2026
  • 51 calculators, one engine
  • All four nations, five loan plans
  • Corrections logged and dated
Specimen · HMRC 2026/2728 August 2026
Gross salary£35,000
Income tax−£4,486.00
National Insurance−£1,794.40
Take-home£28,720
per month£2,393.30

All 51 calculators and reference pages Everyday pay · Pensions and savings · The £100k zone · Family and life · Self-employed and contracting · Checks and reference

  • Instant — Every figure updates as you type
  • Private — Runs in your browser; nothing is sent anywhere
  • No sign-up — No account and no upsell
  • 2026/27 rates — Checked against HMRC 28 August 2026
  • Four nations — England, Scotland, Wales and Northern Ireland
Direction
Pay frequency
£10k£200k
Where do you live?

Scotland has its own bands; Wales matches England.

Leave blank for the standard 1257L. Enter yours to see what it really costs: BR, D0 and 0T give no tax-free allowance, and a K code adds to your taxable pay.

Take-home at a glance · monthly, England & NI, no pension or loan

All calculators

51 UK tax calculators, one engine, 2026/27 rates

Every salary, wage, PAYE and net pay calculator on the site shares the same tested rate tables, so a figure from one agrees with every other.

Method

How to work out take-home pay

Type a gross salary and the deductions are applied in the order HMRC applies them, each against its own thresholds, never one flat rate on the whole amount.

  1. 1

    Personal allowance first

    The first £12,570 is tax-free. Above £100,000 it is withdrawn £1 for every £2, which is where the 62% trap comes from.

  2. 2

    Income tax, band by band

    Each rate applies only to the slice of income inside its band. Scotland has six bands; England, Wales and Northern Ireland have three.

  3. 3

    National Insurance on its own thresholds

    8% between £12,570 and £50,270, then 2% above. The rate falls as income rises, the opposite of income tax.

  4. 4

    Student loan and pension

    Each loan plan repays against its own threshold. Pension comes out wherever your scheme takes it, so one contribution can produce three take-home figures.

What you keep

The share you keep falls in steps, not smoothly

The shaded wedge is tax and National Insurance. Everyone knows deductions rise with pay; what this shows is that the share rises too, at each threshold.

£0£50k£100k£150kgrosstake-hometax & NI£0£50k£100k£150k

The shaded area is income tax and National Insurance. At £50,000 you keep 79.0% of gross; at £150,000 you keep 60.9%. The gap widens at each threshold rather than smoothly.

Horizontal axis gross salary, vertical axis pounds. Standard 1257L code, no pension or student loan, England, Wales and Northern Ireland. HMRC 2026/27, checked 2026-08-28.

Source: HMRC rates and thresholds — 2026/27, checked 28 August 2026.

The £100k tax trap

Measure yours
Marginal rate, £100k to £125k
62%
£99,000 keeps
£67,977 · 42%
£110,000 keeps
£72,357 · 62%
£125,000 keeps
£78,057 · 62%
Between £100,000 and £125,140 the allowance is withdrawn £1 per £2, so each extra pound is taxed at 40% and drags 50p of tax-free income into tax. With NI that is 62%.

Scotland vs England

Scottish calculator
£30,000 in Scotland
+£34.93 a year
£50,000 in Scotland
−£1,496.05 a year
£80,000 in Scotland
−£2,300.05 a year
Six bands from 19% to 48%. NI is not devolved, so between about £43,662 and £50,270 a Scottish employee pays exactly half of each extra pound.

Why trust these figures

Anyone can multiply a salary by a rate. The trust is in everything around it.

calculators

51

one tested engine

tax years loaded

3

2024/25 to 2026/27

unsourced figures

0

every rate is linked

last checked

28 August

against HMRC, gov.uk and gov.scot

The current set is 2026/27, checked against HMRC, gov.uk and gov.scot on 28 August 2026. The source sits beside each figure rather than in a disclaimer, so you can verify the number yourself. A rate that has not been re-checked stops the site building, so out-of-date figures cannot quietly go live. Corrections are fixed and logged with the date on the corrections page.

Use cases

Most people arrive with a decision, not a number

Photographs: Cytonn Photography, Christopher Bill, Jakub Żerdzicki, Andre Taissin, Zara Johnson on Unsplash.

Guides

Guides that explain the number

All 17 guides →
  1. Tax on your pension in 2026/27A quarter tax-free, the rest taxed as income. Why the first withdrawal is overtaxed, and how close the State Pension now sits to the tax threshold.
  2. A pile of British pound sterling coins on a tableThe personal allowance explained, 2026/27The tax-free slice, what it saves you in cash, and the three situations where yours is smaller than the headline figure.
  3. A man at an office desk reviewing printed documentsHow to read your UK payslip, line by lineGross, taxable pay, NI letter, YTD columns. What each one means and the four checks that catch a payroll error early.
  4. Opened brown envelopes of post, like a tax code notice arriving in the mailEmergency tax codes UK: W1, M1, X and how to claim it backW1, M1, X, BR and 0T. What each one does to a payslip, how much it costs, and how to get the overpayment back.
  5. A large group of graduates in caps and gowns at a university graduation ceremonyWhich student loan plan am I on? Plans 1, 2, 4, 5 comparedFive plans, five thresholds, one 9% rate. Which one you are on, and what it takes out of each month's pay.
  6. The Edinburgh skyline in Scotland under a cloudy skyScottish income tax vs England compared, 2026/27Six bands against three: the salary where Scotland becomes more expensive, and the exact difference at each level.

Headline numbers

Figures worth quoting

Every one computed from the 2026/27 rates. Each one opens the tool behind it.

All figures computed from HMRC 2026/27 rates, checked 28 August 2026.

Four nations

Where you live changes what you keep

On a £35,000 salary. Income tax is partly devolved; National Insurance and student loans are the same everywhere.

England

Take-home a year
£28,720
A month
£2,393.30
Three bands: 20%, 40%, 45%. The baseline the other nations are measured against.

Scotland

Take-home a year
£28,705
A month
£2,392.04
Six bands from 19% to 48%: slightly less tax below about £33,500, more above it.

Wales

Take-home a year
£28,720
A month
£2,393.30
The Senedd sets Welsh rates but has matched England's every year so far.

Northern Ireland

Take-home a year
£28,720
A month
£2,393.30
Income tax is not devolved to Stormont. England's bands apply exactly.

Reference

The numbers, explained

Common salaries at a glance

England, Wales and Northern Ireland, standard tax code, no pension or student loan.

Take-home pay at common salaries, 2026/27
GrossTake-homeMonthly
£30,000£25,120£2,093.30breakdown
£40,000£32,320£2,693.30breakdown
£50,000£39,520£3,293.30breakdown
£60,000£45,357£3,779.78breakdown

Source: HMRC rates and thresholds — 2026/27, checked 28 August 2026.

Six checks that find missed money

Each takes under two minutes, and each regularly turns up hundreds of pounds.

  1. 1. Check the payslip itself: a wrong setting repeats every month, which is how it runs for a year unnoticed.
  2. 2. Check your tax code: BR on your only job costs about £2,514 a year, and claims backdate four years.
  3. 3. Claim higher-rate pension relief: the provider only ever reclaims basic rate.
  4. 4. Check Marriage Allowance: up to £252 a year for eligible couples, backdatable.
  5. 5. Claim tax back if you stopped work mid-year: the claim is free, never pay a company for it.
  6. 6. Check the Child Benefit charge at £60k–£80k: claim without payment to protect State Pension credits.

Frequently asked questions

How much take-home pay will I get on £30,000 in 2026/27?

On £30,000 you keep £25,119.60 a year, or £2,093.30 a month, in England, Wales and Northern Ireland. That is £3,486.00 income tax and £1,394.40 National Insurance, assuming the standard 1257L tax code and no pension or student loan.

Why is my effective tax rate 62% between £100,000 and £125,140?

Above £100,000 your personal allowance is withdrawn at £1 for every £2 you earn, so each extra pound is taxed at 40% and also exposes 50p that was previously tax-free. That is 60% income tax, plus 2% National Insurance. The allowance reaches zero at £125,140, after which the marginal rate falls back to 47%. In Scotland the same trap is worse, around 69.5%, because £100,000 falls in the 45% advanced band.

Does it matter how my pension is paid?

Yes, and it is the most overlooked thing on a payslip. Salary sacrifice comes out before both tax and National Insurance, so it costs you least. A net pay arrangement comes out before tax but National Insurance is still charged. Relief at source comes out after both, and your provider claims 20% back, if you pay higher rate you have to claim the rest yourself. Same contribution, three different take-home figures.

Which student loan plan am I on?

Plan 1 is for English and Welsh students who started before September 2012, Plan 2 from September 2012 to July 2023, and Plan 5 for courses starting on or after 1 August 2023. Plan 4 is for Scottish students. Postgraduate loans are separate and can run alongside another plan. Note that Plan 5 has the lowest threshold of the lot at £25,000, so a Plan 5 borrower repays more than a Plan 2 borrower on the same salary.

Are Scottish income tax rates different?

Yes. Scotland sets its own bands and has six of them rather than three, from a 19% starter rate up to a 48% top rate. National Insurance is not devolved, so it is the same everywhere. That combination produces a quirk: between about £43,663 and £50,270 a Scottish employee pays 42% tax and 8% NI at once, exactly 50% on each extra pound.

Is a wage calculator the same as a salary calculator?

For working out what reaches your bank account, yes. A wage calculator, a salary calculator, a net pay calculator and a PAYE calculator all answer the same question, and this page is all four. The only real difference is how the pay is quoted: a wage is usually an hourly or weekly figure and a salary an annual one. If you are starting from an hourly rate, the hourly wage calculator converts it first and then runs the same tax calculation.

Does this match my payslip exactly?

It should be close, but it assumes the standard 1257L code and an evenly paid salary. Your payslip can differ if you have a different tax code, benefits in kind, bonuses, or other income. National Insurance is also worked out per pay period rather than cumulatively, so an uneven month can change it.

Built for how Britain actually gets paid

The tax year starts on 6 April, a quirk inherited from the old Lady Day calendar, so “year to date” on your payslip resets in spring, not January. May brings the P60, a job change brings the P45, and late summer brings HMRC's P800 letters telling a few million people they overpaid. Most of the country is paid monthly on the last working day, NI is worked out per payday rather than over the year, and the Budget rewrites the numbers everyone argues about. Every calculator here is built around those rhythms: 2026/27 rates, en-GB spelling, £ before the number, and the 6 April reset in the maths.

Hadi — rates checked against HMRC's employer rates and thresholds on . Method and testing on the about page.

Commitments

The rules this site runs by

Most calculator sites are built once and left to rot. This one enforces six commitments automatically.

  1. Every figure has a source

    Rates come from HMRC, gov.scot and ONS pages, linked where they are used and listed on the 2026/27 rates reference. If a figure here disagrees with HMRC, HMRC is right and it is a bug.

  2. Tested to the penny

    An automated suite reproduces known anchor cases exactly and checks every band, threshold and taper before anything is published. A wrong number fails the build.

  3. Never silently stale

    The build refuses to publish if no rate table covers today's date. When a tax year ends, this site breaks loudly rather than quietly serving last year's rates.

  4. Your salary stays on your device

    Every calculation runs in your browser. Nothing you type is sent anywhere, stored anywhere, or seen by anyone.

  5. No accounts, no upsell

    No 'unlock full results'. There is nothing behind the calculator trying to sell you a loan, a lease or an adviser.

  6. Quotable by anyone

    Journalists, researchers and AI assistants are welcome to cite any figure with a link. Every number carries its tax year and the date it was checked.

The full method, calculation order, anchor cases, and what the tools deliberately do not do, is on the about page.