Income Tax Calculator UK: Your Take-Home Pay After Tax

Take-home pay is the salary that reaches your bank account after deductions, which can include income tax, National Insurance, pension contributions and student loan repayments. In 2026/27, someone outside Scotland on £30,000 with a 1257L tax code pays £3,486 income tax and £1,394.40 National Insurance. That leaves £25,119.60 a year, or £2,093.30 a month.

A pay rise shrinks before it lands. At 2026/27 rates outside Scotland, moving from £40,000 to £50,000 adds £10,000 on paper and £7,200 in practice, because each pound between those two figures loses 20p to tax and 8p to NI.

The income tax calculator UK tool on this page takes your tax year and annual salary, then estimates your PAYE income tax and National Insurance, plus what you’d take home each month.

It doesn’t ask where you live, which tax code you’re on, or whether you repay a student loan or pay into a pension, and each of those can move the answer.

The examples below start from a simple case (one job, a 1257L code, National Insurance category A, living outside Scotland), then show what changes when yours isn’t the same.

Income tax calculator UK examples for 2026/27 salaries

Here’s what four salaries look like after income tax and National Insurance in 2026/27, using that simple case:

The step from £50,000 to £60,000 keeps less than the step before it. Take-home pay rises by £5,837.80 rather than £7,200, because part of the extra pay sits above £50,270, where the 40% band starts.

On £30,000, income tax alone takes about 11.6% of gross pay, and National Insurance lifts the total to about 16.3%.

What these figures leave out

The table works like a basic take home pay calculator: it assumes nothing else is happening on your payslip. Several things can change the result:

• A student loan or Postgraduate Loan takes a percentage of your pay above a set threshold.
• Pension contributions can lower your taxable pay, depending on how your scheme works.
• A tax code starting with S means Scottish income tax rates apply.
• A tax code other than 1257L changes how much of your pay is tax-free.
• A second job, taxable benefits from work and other income aren’t included.

Payroll also works in pay periods rather than one annual sum. The monthly National Insurance starting point is £1,048, which over twelve months comes to £12,576 rather than £12,570, so a year of payslips won’t match these annual figures to the penny.

Each tax rate only touches its own slice

Income tax works in bands, and each rate only applies to the pay inside its own band. With the standard Personal Allowance, the first £12,570 isn’t taxed at all. For the basics behind the bands, see the what is income tax guide.

Outside Scotland, the next £37,700 (up to £50,270) is taxed at 20%. Pay from £50,271 to £125,140 is taxed at 40%, and anything above that at 45%. Wales uses the same bands as England and Northern Ireland in 2026/27.

A £60,000 salary shows how the slices stack up:

• The first £12,570 is tax-free.
• The next £37,700 is taxed at 20%, which comes to £7,540.
• The last £9,730 is taxed at 40%, which comes to £3,892.

Together that’s £11,432, the figure in the table. Crossing into the higher band doesn’t change the tax on the pay below it.

For the full band tables, including Scotland and earlier tax years, see the guide to income tax rates and bands.

Outside Scotland, the £100,000 taper creates a 60% slice

Above £100,000, you lose £1 of Personal Allowance for each £2 of adjusted net income over the limit, until none is left at £125,140. The Income Tax rates and Personal Allowances page on GOV.UK sets out the rule.

Using the rates outside Scotland, a £110,000 salary leaves an allowance of £7,570 and income tax of £33,432. Inside the taper, an extra £100 of pay is taxed at 40% (£40) and also removes £50 of allowance, which is then taxed at 40% too (£20).

That’s £60 on £100, an effective rate of 60% before the 2% National Insurance on top.

Tax and National Insurance calculator figures split at £50,270

National Insurance runs alongside income tax but follows its own thresholds. For category A contributions in 2026/27, nothing is due on the first £12,570, 8% is due on earnings from there up to £50,270, and 2% on everything above.

With a 1257L code, the two deductions start at the same point. Outside Scotland, you lose 28p of each extra pound between £12,570 and £50,270: 20p in income tax and 8p in National Insurance.

At £50,270 they part company. Outside Scotland, income tax rises to 40% while National Insurance falls to 2%, so each extra pound loses 42p.

On £60,000, National Insurance comes to £3,210.60: £3,016 on the slice from £12,570 to £50,270, plus £194.60 on the £9,730 above it.

HMRC publishes these thresholds, with weekly and monthly versions for payroll, in its rates and thresholds for employers guidance.

Student loan repayments start at your plan’s threshold

If you’re employed, your employer takes student loan repayments from your pay through payroll. These are the starting points for 2026/27:

If you have more than one of plans 1, 2, 4 and 5, a single repayment of 9% is worked out from the lowest of your thresholds.

Repayments are worked out on each payslip. On £40,000 with a Plan 2 loan, monthly pay of £3,333.33 sits £884.58 above the £2,448.75 monthly threshold, so the repayment is about £79 a month.

Outside Scotland, that takes monthly take-home pay down to roughly £2,614. At £30,000 the same plan takes under £5 a month, because only £51.25 of monthly pay clears the threshold.

Because the test runs per payslip, a month boosted by a bonus or overtime can trigger a repayment even when your yearly pay sits below the threshold.

If your pay for the whole year ends up under the annual threshold, you can ask for those repayments back once the tax year is over.

PAYE tax calculator results change with pension type

When tax relief on a workplace pension is automatic, it arrives in one of two ways, and the route changes what your payslip shows.

With a net pay arrangement, the contribution leaves your pay first and income tax is worked out on what remains. With relief at source, it comes out after tax, and the pension provider claims 20% relief from the government and adds it to your pot.

GOV.UK’s guide to pension tax relief covers both routes.

Take £40,000 outside Scotland with a 5% contribution of £2,000 under a net pay arrangement. Income tax falls from £5,486 to £5,086, so take-home pay drops by £1,600 rather than £2,000, landing at £30,719.60 a year.

For a basic-rate taxpayer, relief at source ends up in the same place: you pay £1,600 from taxed pay and the provider adds £400 to make £2,000. If you pay income tax above 20% and your scheme uses relief at source, you claim the extra relief yourself from HMRC.

National Insurance doesn’t move in either example. According to the House of Commons Library, employees pay National Insurance on contributions they make themselves, while salary sacrifice swaps part of your salary for an employer contribution that carries none.

For how the PAYE system itself works, see the what is PAYE guide.

Scottish taxpayers pay more from about £33,500

If you live in Scotland, the income tax on your salary uses six rates instead of three, and a tax code starting with S shows that Scottish rates apply. Savings interest and dividends sit outside this: they’re taxed on the UK-wide rates wherever you live. The £12,570 Personal Allowance and the National Insurance thresholds are the same.

For 2026/27, a 19% starter rate covers pay up to £16,537, 20% runs to £29,526 and 21% to £43,662. After that come 42%, then 45% from £75,001, and 48% above £125,140.

The starter rate gives a small saving on lower salaries, and the 21% rate from £29,527 gradually uses it up. The two systems cross at £33,494: below that point a Scottish taxpayer pays at most £39.67 a year less, and above it they pay more.

Here’s how the gap looks across the same salaries as the first table:

The gap widens quickly once the 42% rate starts at £43,663. Between £43,663 and £50,270, each extra pound carries 42% income tax plus 8% National Insurance, so a Scottish taxpayer loses 50p of it.

The calculator on this page doesn’t ask where you live, so if you’re a Scottish taxpayer, use these figures to adjust its result.

Check your income tax calculator UK result

The figures on this page come down to four deductions: income tax charged in slices, National Insurance at 8% and then 2%, any student loan above your plan’s threshold, and pension contributions that may come off before tax.

The table near the top is the starting point, and each section after it shows how far your own situation can move that figure.

Run your salary through the income tax calculator UK tool on this page, then put the result next to a recent payslip. Where the two differ, check the items covered above: your tax code, a loan, a pension scheme or where you live.

If your payslips show more tax taken over a whole year than the bands explain, the tax refund calculator is the next place to look.

Key Takeaways

• Outside Scotland in 2026/27, with a 1257L code and no other deductions, income tax of £3,486 and National Insurance of £1,394.40 leave £25,119.60 a year from £30,000.
• Outside Scotland, income tax rises from 20% to 40% above £50,270, while employee National Insurance falls from 8% to 2% at the same point.
• Student loans take 9% of pay above your plan’s threshold (6% for a Postgraduate Loan), and the test runs on each payslip.
• In 2026/27, a pension contribution under a net pay arrangement lowers income tax but not National Insurance, while salary sacrifice avoids National Insurance on the amount given up.
• On a salary below £33,494 in 2026/27, Scottish taxpayers pay up to £39.67 a year less income tax than the rest of the UK, and more from £33,494 upwards.

Figures on this page are estimates for the 2026/27 tax year, worked out from rates HMRC publishes.