UK pay and tax guides
The calculators give you a number. These 10 guides explain where the number comes from, in plain English, on the 2026/27 rates checked 2026-08-28. They cover the questions people actually ask about their pay: how salary sacrifice works, why an emergency tax code is taking too much, which student loan plan you are on, what the personal allowance is worth, and whether your salary is a good one. Every figure in them is computed from the same engine that runs the calculators, so a guide and a calculator can never quietly disagree.
How salary sacrifice works, with real numbers
Give up gross pay, save tax and National Insurance on it. The mechanics, the real cost per £100, and the four things it quietly affects.
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Gross pay vs net pay: what the difference is
The offer letter figure and the bank figure are never the same number. What comes out in between, and in what order.
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The personal allowance explained for 2026/27
The tax-free slice, what it saves you in cash, and the three situations where yours is smaller than the headline figure.
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How to calculate take-home pay by hand
Five steps, in the order payroll does them. Follow it once and every payslip you ever get will make sense.
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What is a good salary in the UK?
Answered with the HMRC income distribution instead of vibes. Where each salary ranks, and what it leaves per month.
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How to read your payslip, line by line
Gross, taxable pay, NI letter, YTD columns. What each one means and the four checks that catch a payroll error early.
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Emergency tax codes and how to fix them
W1, M1, X, BR and 0T. What each one does to a payslip, how much it costs, and how to get the overpayment back.
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Student loan plans 1, 2, 4, 5 compared
Five plans, five thresholds, one 9% rate. Which one you are on, and what it takes out of each month's pay.
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Scottish income tax vs England compared
Six bands against three. The salary where Scotland becomes more expensive, and the exact difference at each level.
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The personal savings allowance explained
£1,000, £500 or nothing, depending on a band your salary decides. Plus the separate £5,000 starting rate for low earners.
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Why guides as well as calculators
A calculator answers “how much”. It does not answer “why is this number lower than last month” or “should I do this at all”. These guides take the second kind of question, show the arithmetic behind the answer, and hand you back to the take-home pay calculator for your own figures. They are written to be checkable: named sources, dated rates, and worked examples you can reproduce on paper. Our method page explains how the engine works, and the corrections page records anything we have got wrong.