UK Take-Home Pay Calculator 2026/27: your pay after tax

We start from your gross pay, change it to a yearly figure (12 months or 52 weeks), then take off each deduction in turn using the 2026 to 2027 rates from GOV.UK and HMRC's employer rates. Everything is worked out in your browser and every step is shown in the breakdown.

This is an estimate for an employee on a standard tax code with National Insurance category A. Your payslip is worked out pay day by pay day, so it can differ by a few pounds a year.

• Pension (net pay): taken out before tax is worked out.
• Income Tax: the first £12,570 is your tax-free Personal Allowance. The rest is taxed in bands, and the bands depend on where you live.
• National Insurance: 8% of pay between £12,570 and £50,270 a year, and 2% above that.
• Student and postgraduate loans: a share of pay over the repayment threshold for your plan.
• Take-home pay: gross pay minus all of the above.

The bands below are for income including the standard £12,570 Personal Allowance, as GOV.UK shows them. Wales uses the same bands as England (see Welsh Income Tax). Scotland sets its own (Scottish Income Tax).

England, Wales and Northern Ireland

• Personal Allowance: up to £12,570 (0%)
• Basic rate: £12,571 to £50,270 (20%)
• Higher rate: £50,271 to £125,140 (40%)
• Additional rate: over £125,140 (45%)

If you live in Scotland you pay Scottish Income Tax on your pay, which has 6 bands instead of 3. National Insurance, student loans and the Personal Allowance work the same way as in the rest of the UK. Where you live is decided by your main home, not by where your employer is.

• Personal Allowance: up to £12,570 (0%)
• Starter rate: £12,571 to £16,537 (19%)
• Basic rate: £16,538 to £29,526 (20%)
• Intermediate rate: £29,527 to £43,662 (21%)
• Higher rate: £43,663 to £75,000 (42%)
• Advanced rate: £75,001 to £125,140 (45%)
• Top rate: over £125,140 (48%)

Your Personal Allowance goes down by £1 for every £2 of adjusted net income over £100,000, and is zero at £125,140 (GOV.UK). Each pound in that range is taxed at 40%, and it also removes £0.50 of allowance, which is taxed at 40% as well. That works out at an Income Tax rate of 60% on the extra pay.

Add National Insurance and the calculator shows that, on £110,000, 62% of the next pound you earn goes in deductions. Pension contributions can bring your adjusted net income back down, which is why a pension is worth a closer look in this range.

Most employees pay Class 1 National Insurance in category A: nothing on the first £12,570 a year, 8% up to £50,270, and 2% above that (GOV.UK). You stop paying employee National Insurance when you reach State Pension age. Employer National Insurance is paid by your employer and does not come out of your pay, so it is not included.

You repay a share of what you earn over the threshold for your plan, taken from your pay with your tax (GOV.UK). A postgraduate loan is repaid at the same time as an undergraduate loan, at 6% of earnings over £21,000. The repayment is worked out on your pay before a net pay pension, because employers use the same pay as for National Insurance (GOV.UK employer guidance).

Thresholds for 2026 to 2027:

• Plan 1: 9% of earnings over £26,900 a year
• Plan 2: 9% of earnings over £29,385 a year
• Plan 4: 9% of earnings over £33,795 a year
• Plan 5: 9% of earnings over £25,000 a year

There are two common ways a workplace or personal pension gets tax relief (GOV.UK). With net pay, your contribution comes out of your pay before Income Tax is worked out, so you get full relief at your own rate. With relief at source, you pay from pay that has already been taxed and your provider adds basic-rate relief of 20% to the pot. If you pay tax above that rate, you claim the rest through Self Assessment, which this calculator shows separately and does not add to your take-home pay.

Example: a 5% net pay contribution on £50,000 is £2,500 a year. It lowers your Income Tax to £6,986 from £7,486, so your take-home pay falls by £2,000 rather than by the full £2,500. This calculator does not check your pension against the annual allowance.

It is built for employees on a standard tax code. It does not include a different tax code, benefits in kind such as a company car, bonuses paid in one month, more than one job, Marriage Allowance or Blind Person's Allowance, the High Income Child Benefit Charge, salary sacrifice, self-employment, umbrella companies or dividends. Check your tax code on your payslip or in your personal tax account, and you can compare with HMRC's own Income Tax estimate.