Umbrella company calculator
The umbrella shock is that the employer's costs come out of your rate: before your own tax is even calculated, the assignment income pays the umbrella's margin, 15% employer National Insurance above £96/week, and the 0.5% apprenticeship levy. This calculator shows every step of that chain, in the order it happens.
Calculator
Umbrella company calculator
From £2,000.00/week of assignment income you take home
£1,202.03 a week
£62,505.72 a year, 60% of the headline rate.
The full deduction chain (weekly)
| Assignment income | £2,000.00 |
| Umbrella margin | −£25.00 |
| Employer NI (15% above £96.00) | −£243.96 |
| Apprenticeship levy (0.5%) | −£8.61 |
| Your gross pay | £1,722.42 |
| Income tax | −£447.28 |
| Employee NI | −£73.11 |
| Take-home | £1,202.03 |
Holiday pay is assumed rolled up into the rate (the common arrangement, check your umbrella states it separately on the payslip). Pension via the umbrella by salary sacrifice would reduce every deduction above; model it on the sacrifice calculator.
Why your payslip shows deductions you never agreed to
Legally the umbrella is your employer, and employers pay employer NI. But commercially the assignment rate was quoted to cover all employment costs, so the employer NI that a permanent employee never sees is visible on an umbrella payslip, carved out of your money. It is not the umbrella skimming, it is the rate being quoted gross of employment costs. In practice that means a £400/day, five-day assignment (£2,000 a week) becomes roughly £1,720 of gross pay once a £25 margin, 15% employer NI and the apprenticeship levy come off, before your own income tax and NI are touched. A compliant umbrella shows that split explicitly on every payslip; one that won't, or that quotes a take-home percentage far above its competitors, is the red flag.
Checking an umbrella quote
- The only number umbrellas genuinely compete on is the margin (typically £15-£30/week). Every other deduction is statutory and identical everywhere, a quote promising a dramatically higher take-home may be doing something HMRC will later charge you for.
- Check holiday pay is either rolled up into the rate and shown, or accrued and actually paid out.
- Pension by salary sacrifice through the umbrella escapes employer NI too, the most tax-efficient pound a contractor can save.
Employer figures checked 2026-08-28 by Hadi against HMRC's employer rates and thresholds. Related: day rate to salary · take-home calculator.
How to use the umbrella company calculator
- 1
Enter your assignment rate, the figure the agency quotes.
- 2
Enter the umbrella's margin, usually a weekly or monthly fee.
- 3
Read how the rate is reduced by employer National Insurance and the Apprenticeship Levy before you are paid.
- 4
Check the final take-home, which is what actually reaches your account.
When should you use the umbrella company calculator?
Use it when you are inside IR35, because the assignment rate the agency quotes is not the gross pay you will be taxed on.
You are inside IR35
An umbrella is the usual route, and the assignment rate is not the same as your gross pay.
The take-home looks lower than expected
Employer National Insurance and the levy come out of the assignment rate, not on top of it.
Choosing between umbrella companies
Margins vary, though the deductions above the margin do not.
Umbrella or limited company
Outside IR35 the limited route usually pays more, inside IR35 it usually does not.
Where to go next
- Outside IR35 calculatorTo compare with a limited company outside IR35.Open
- Day rate to salary calculatorTo convert the rate to a salary equivalent.Open
- Employers NI calculatorTo see where the employer NI in your rate goes.Open
All 51 calculators share one tested engine, so a figure from the umbrella company calculator agrees with every other page here. See the full calculator index or the pay and tax guides.