2026/27 tax year

Take-Home Pay Calculator

See exactly what you take home after income tax, National Insurance, student loan repayments and pension contributions. Updated for the 2026/27 tax year with the latest HMRC rates. Works for weekly, fortnightly, monthly and annual pay.

Last updated: April 2026

Your details
Tick all that apply. You can have an undergraduate and postgraduate loan at the same time.
Auto-enrolment default is 5% of qualifying earnings (£6,240 to £50,270). Some employers use gross salary instead.
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Where your pay goes
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How UK take-home pay is calculated

Your take-home pay is what remains after several mandatory deductions are subtracted from your gross salary. The main deductions for most UK employees are income tax, National Insurance contributions (NI), pension contributions, and potentially student loan repayments. Each has its own thresholds and rates, and they interact in ways that are not always obvious.

Income tax

For the 2026/27 tax year, most people receive a tax-free Personal Allowance of £12,570. Income above this is taxed in bands: 20% up to £50,270, 40% up to £125,140, and 45% above that. If you earn over £100,000, your Personal Allowance is reduced by £1 for every £2 above that threshold, creating an effective 60% marginal rate in the £100,000 to £125,140 bracket. Scotland has its own six-band system with rates from 19% to 48%.

National Insurance

Employees pay 8% NI on earnings between £12,570 and £50,270 per year, and 2% on anything above that. If you are over State Pension age, you no longer pay employee NI. NI is calculated per pay period (weekly or monthly), not annually, which can produce slightly different results from a simple annual calculation for some edge cases.

Student loan repayments

Student loan deductions depend on which plan you are on. Plan 1 (pre-2012 England/Wales) has a threshold of £26,065 at 9%. Plan 2 (2012-2023 England/Wales) uses £28,470 at 9%. Plan 4 (Scotland) uses £33,795 at 9%. Plan 5 (post-2023 England) uses £25,000 at 9%. Postgraduate loans are repaid at 6% above £21,000 and stack on top of undergraduate repayments.

Pension contributions

Under auto-enrolment, the minimum employee contribution is 5% of qualifying earnings (the portion between £6,240 and £50,270). Some employers calculate pension contributions on your full gross salary instead. Salary sacrifice pension arrangements reduce your gross pay before tax and NI are calculated, giving additional savings, but this calculator uses the standard deduction method where pension comes from net pay with basic rate tax relief.

What your results mean

The effective tax rate shown is the total percentage of your gross salary taken in deductions. Most people on average salaries pay an effective rate significantly lower than their marginal rate. For example, someone earning £35,000 pays around 20% in combined tax and NI, even though their marginal rate on the last pound earned is 28% (20% tax + 8% NI).

If your effective rate seems higher than expected, check whether student loan repayments or the Personal Allowance taper (above £100,000) are contributing. These are often overlooked when people estimate their take-home pay.

Frequently asked questions

No. This calculator shows your take-home pay as an employee. Employer NI (15% above £5,000) and employer pension contributions (minimum 3%) are paid by your employer on top of your salary and do not reduce your take-home pay. If you want to see your total cost to employer, that would be a separate calculation.
Plan 1 covers English and Welsh students who started before September 2012. Plan 2 covers those who started between September 2012 and July 2023. Plan 4 is for Scottish students. Plan 5 is for English and Welsh students starting from September 2023 onwards (repayments begin April 2026). If you took a postgraduate Master's or Doctoral loan from 2016 onwards, that is a separate Postgraduate loan repaid at 6%.
When you earn above £100,000, your Personal Allowance (£12,570) is reduced by £1 for every £2 earned above that threshold. This means for every extra £1 you earn, you lose 50p of tax-free allowance, which is then taxed at 40%. The result is an effective marginal rate of 60% on income between £100,000 and £125,140. This is one of the quirks of the UK tax system and catches many people by surprise.
This calculator models standard pension contributions deducted after tax (net pay with relief at source). With salary sacrifice, your gross salary is reduced before tax and NI are applied, meaning you save NI as well as tax on your pension contribution. We have a separate Salary Sacrifice Calculator that models this specifically.
Yes. Many graduates have both an undergraduate loan (Plan 1, 2, 4 or 5) and a Postgraduate loan. These are repaid simultaneously: 9% above the undergraduate threshold plus 6% above £21,000. If you are on both Plan 1 and Plan 2 (rare but possible if you studied at different times), the thresholds work in sequence: you repay 9% above the lower threshold, and when your income exceeds the higher threshold, the 9% is split between both loans.