Income Tax Calculator

Income Tax Calculator – Calculating your take home pay

How to calculate your net pay…

Select a tax year – you can only go back four tax years.
Enter your total annual salary.

The income tax calculator will give you an estimation of the tax and national insurance you pay through your salary under PAYE as well as an estimate of your monthly take home pay.

Estimating how much your take home pay is a useful excercise to help manage your own personal budgets and future financial plans.

Please read on to find out more about how income tax effects your take home pay, the tax refund process and what you can do to make sure you don’t pay too much tax.

How does the Income Tax Calculator work?

The main figures used to calculate the estimated tax, national insurance and monthly take home pay are:

1. The tax free personal allowance for the tax year. This means you only pay tax on earnings over the tax free allowance.

2. Any other income under PAYE for example from a pension.

3. Depending on how much you earn you can pay tax at different rates. The rates are currently 20%, 40%, and 45%.

4. Your tax code which can vary depending on different factors. If it’s wrong you can overpay or underpay tax. You can find out more about tax codes in our tax code guide.

How your income tax bill is calculated plays a major part in working out your overall take home pay but don’t forget about national insurance and other automatic deductions like student loans.

What factors effect my take home pay?

There are a number of factors that can effect how your take home pay is calculated. Checking that your net pay is accurate is a worthwhile excercise because it can highlight areas that may need some attention.

Understanding what can impact your net pay let’s you predict and fix any issues as soon as possible which helps keep your finances in good order.

Factors that can impact your take home pay include:

Tax codes: If your tax code is incorrect it’s easy to pay too much or too little income tax. You should check your tax code periodically and contact HMRC if you think it’s wrong.
National minimum wage: If you qualify for the national minimum wage you should check on your payslip that you are being paid the correct hourly rate. If you are being paid below the national minimum wage you can ask your payroll department or HMRC for assistance.
Expenses of employment: HMRC gives employees under PAYE tax relief on some expenses incurred because of their job. If applicable the tax relief reduces your income tax bill and can mean you are owed a tax rebate from the past. We cover this subject a bit more below.
Student loans: If you are paying back a student loan this will be taken from your salary by your employer before you are paid.

Find out more about tax refunds

Finding out more about why you could be owed a tax refund can really pay off and increase your take home pay each month.

Because there are a number of different reasons that can result in a tax refund being due it’s always best to discover which could apply to you for as far back as the last four tax years.

You can then make an informed decision about what applies to you and avoid missing out on any entitlements you are eligible to.

If none of the options available apply to you currently they may in the future which means at least you know what can be done and when to make a claim.

Do I qualify for tax back?

To qualify for tax back you need to meet set criteria and then follow a particular process to claim any refund due. Some of the most popular reasons to be eligible and for the costs you incur because of your job. HMRC sets the rules and calls these costs employment expenses.

These employment expenses include:

In most cases it’s down to you to claim back the income tax you are owed. The tax man expects you to make a claim but put’s the responsibility on you as the taxpayer to start the process. Always remember that the tax year doesn’t follow the normal calendar year and starts on the 6th April and ends on the 5th April the following year.

Our other tax refund calculators

Tax Rebate Services has produced multiple tax refund calculators to help support you on your tax rebate journey and they are all completely free to use. The calculators cover many of the popular subjects surrounding refunds and taxpayers who overpay income tax.

Tax refund calculators by Tax Rebate Services:

Uniform tax calculator for washing your own uniform and protective clothing.
Mileage tax relief calculator for using your own vehicle to travel to temporary workplaces.
UK tax back calculator if you leave the UK for the current and last four tax years.
Tool tax refund calculator if you purchase your own tools to do your job.
Car and vehicle mechanics tool tax rebate calculator if you buy your own tools for work purposes.
MOD mileage tax rebate calculator if you work for the MOD and travel to temporary assignments.
CIS tax rebate calculator if you are a self employed CIS subcontractor.
Pension tax rebate calculator if you pay into your own private pension scheme and are a higher rate taxpayer.

After you have used our refund calculators you will be given more information on each subject to guide you through the next steps.

There is a time limit to claim a tax refund

There is a time limit of four tax years for you to claim your refund. This could be good news because if you have overpaid income tax in more than one tax year you could get a larger tax rebate than you expected.

It also means you should act as quickly as possible to ensure you don’t miss out with the deadlines being very strict.