Salary Take-Home Calculator UK
See exactly how much of your gross salary lands in your bank account — after income tax, National Insurance, student loan, and pension.
In 2025/26 a UK worker on the median full-time salary of £37,430 takes home around £30,469/year — or £2,539/month — after income tax and National Insurance. The figure changes dramatically with student loan repayments, pension contributions, and which side of the £50,270 higher-rate threshold you sit on. This calculator shows the breakdown line by line: gross, tax, NI, student loan, pension, and net. It uses the current frozen-to-2028 tax bands, the post-April-2024 NI rates (8% main, 2% upper), and treats pension via salary sacrifice — which is the most tax-efficient way for most UK employees to save.
Income
Pension and salary sacrifice
Student loans and deductions
Employer cost
Take-home result
Estimated take-home pay
Calculating…
Calculating…
Annual take-home
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Monthly take-home
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Income Tax
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Employee NI
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Pension
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Employer cost
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UK take-home pay — quick lookup
If you’d rather not run the calculator, the table below shows take-home pay across the most common UK salary brackets for the 2025/26 tax year. No student loan, no pension contributions, no salary sacrifice — just gross salary, income tax, and National Insurance. England, Wales, and Northern Ireland rates.
| Gross salary | Income tax | NI | Take-home / year | Take-home / month | % take-home |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| £20,000 | £1,486 | £594 | £17,920 | £1,493 | 89.6% |
| £25,000 | £2,486 | £994 | £21,520 | £1,793 | 86.1% |
| £30,000 | £3,486 | £1,394 | £25,120 | £2,093 | 83.7% |
| £35,000 | £4,486 | £1,794 | £28,720 | £2,393 | 82.1% |
| £40,000 | £5,486 | £2,194 | £32,320 | £2,693 | 80.8% |
| £50,000 | £7,486 | £2,994 | £39,520 | £3,293 | 79.0% |
| £60,000 | £11,432 | £3,211 | £45,357 | £3,780 | 75.6% |
| £75,000 | £17,432 | £3,511 | £54,057 | £4,505 | 72.1% |
| £100,000 | £27,432 | £4,011 | £68,557 | £5,713 | 68.6% |
| £125,140 | £43,145 | £4,513 | £77,482 | £6,457 | 61.9% |
| £150,000 | £54,332 | £5,011 | £90,658 | £7,555 | 60.4% |
| £200,000 | £76,832 | £6,011 | £117,158 | £9,763 | 58.6% |
Figures use 2025/26 rates frozen until April 2028: Personal Allowance £12,570, basic rate 20%, higher rate 40% above £50,270, additional rate 45% above £125,140. NI Class 1 employee: 8% on £12,570–£50,270, 2% above. The PA is tapered between £100,000 and £125,140 — which is why take-home drops from 68.6% to 61.9% in that band.
How UK PAYE actually works
Your gross salary is what your contract says. Take-home is what’s left after four deductions in this order:
- Income tax — calculated using your tax bands and code (typically 1257L)
- National Insurance (NI) — separate from income tax, with different thresholds
- Student loan — if applicable, calculated on the portion above the relevant plan threshold
- Pension contribution — usually via salary sacrifice (more on this below)
Income tax (2025/26)
Three bands plus the Personal Allowance, all frozen until April 2028:
On a £35,000 salary, you pay 20% on the £22,430 above the PA, which is £4,486 in tax. Increase the salary by £1,000 and you pay another 20% (£200) until you hit the higher rate threshold.
National Insurance
NI Class 1 (employee) rates changed in April 2024 — the main rate dropped from 10% to 8%, but everything above £50,270 is still 2%. The thresholds:
The drop from 8% to 2% at £50,270 sounds like good news, but it coincides with income tax rising from 20% to 40% — so your combined marginal rate on the next £1 jumps from 28% to 42%. NI also has no cap, so on a £200,000 salary you pay 2% on the entire £149,730 above the upper limit.
Student loan
Five UK student loan plans, each with its own threshold. The repayment is 9% of earnings above the threshold (6% for Postgraduate). Crucially, only earnings above the threshold count — not your full salary:
- Plan 1 (pre-Sept 2012 England/Wales, all NI): £24,990 threshold
- Plan 2 (Sept 2012–July 2023 England/Wales): £27,295 threshold
- Plan 4 (Scottish loans): £31,395 threshold
- Plan 5 (August 2023 onwards England/Wales): £25,000 threshold
- Postgraduate (Master’s/PhD): £21,000 threshold, 6% rate
A Plan 2 graduate on £35,000 pays 9% on £7,705 — that’s £693/year or £58/month. The threshold doesn’t change with inflation, so the real burden grows each year until the loan is written off (after 30–40 years depending on plan).
The marginal rate ladder
Most UK earners spend their working lives crossing thresholds. Each crossing changes the marginal rate (what you pay on the next £1):
That £100k–£125,140 band is the most painful in UK tax. The PA disappears at £1 per £2 of extra income, which is mathematically equivalent to an extra 20% tax band stacked on top. For every £100 extra you earn in this band, you keep just £38. The implications for pay rises, bonuses, and salary sacrifice are huge — covered in the next section.
Four worked examples
Real take-home figures from the calculator, with the reasoning.
Example 1 — Emma
Graduate, £30,000 first job, Plan 2 loan, 5% pension sacrifice
Pension contribution: £1,500/yr
Emma’s salary sacrifice reduces her taxable income to £28,500. On that effective gross: tax £3,186, NI £1,274, student loan £108 (just £9/month — only on the slice above the £27,295 threshold, after pension sacrifice has been applied). Take-home: £23,931/year, or £1,994/month.
The pension sacrifice is doing real work. Putting £1,500 into her pension only reduces her take-home by about £1,080 — a 28% saving from combined tax (20%) and NI (8%). She’s also slightly under the student loan threshold on her sacrificed pay, paying less than she would without the pension contribution.
Example 2 — David
£55,000 post-promotion, just into higher rate, no pension
Marginal rate: 42% on next £1
David has just crossed the £50,270 higher-rate threshold. Tax: £9,432 (basic 20% on £37,700 + higher 40% on the £4,730 above). NI: £3,111. Take-home: £42,457/year, £3,538/month.
If David adds a 10% pension via salary sacrifice (£5,500/yr), his take-home drops to £39,160/month — a £275/month decrease for £458/month going into his pension. That’s a 40% effective discount on his pension contributions because his marginal rate is 42%. Almost no other UK financial decision delivers this much value.
Example 3 — Sophie
£105,000 senior manager, caught in PA taper
Sophie is £5,000 into the 60% marginal trap. Tax: £30,432, NI: £4,111. Take-home: £70,457/year, £5,871/month. The £5,000 above £100k cost her £3,100 in extra tax and NI — a 62% effective rate on that slice.
If Sophie sacrifices that exact £5,000 into pension, her take-home drops to £68,558 — a difference of just £1,899 for a £5,000 pension contribution. That’s a 62% effective discount, the highest in the UK system. Sophie’s net cost is £158/month and her pension grows by £417/month. Anyone in the £100k–£125,140 band who can spare the cash flow should be maximising pension sacrifice here.
Example 4 — Marcus
£150,000 senior role, additional rate, no pension
Above £125,140 the PA is gone and the worst of the taper is behind you. Tax: £54,332, NI: £5,011. Take-home: £90,658/year, £7,555/month. Marcus keeps 60.4% of his gross.
The marginal rate drops back to 47% (45% tax + 2% NI). Pension sacrifice still saves him 47% on contributions — less efficient than Sophie’s 62% but still substantially better than basic-rate. The annual allowance for tax-relieved pension contributions is £60,000, and starts tapering down for those earning above £260,000, so high earners should max out before that taper kicks in.
Salary sacrifice — the biggest take-home lever
If you only do one thing with this calculator, run a salary sacrifice scenario. The mechanism is simple: you agree to a lower contractual salary, and your employer puts the difference into a non-cash benefit. Because the deduction happens before tax and NI, you save both — typically 28% to 62% depending on your marginal rate. Three common UK schemes:
Scheme 1
Pension salary sacrifice
Worker on £50,000 sacrificing 5% (£2,500/yr) into pension.
Available at nearly all UK employers. No allowance limit until you hit the £60,000 pension annual allowance. Most efficient way to increase pension contributions.
Scheme 2
Electric vehicle (ULEV) lease
Salary sacrifice for a fully electric car lease. Taxed as Benefit in Kind at just 2% (rising to 5% by 2028).
Limited to fully electric vehicles. BiK rises 1% per year from 2025 — so the maths gets less favourable over time. Best value while you’re a higher-rate taxpayer.
Scheme 3
Cycle to Work scheme
Salary sacrifice for a bike (up to £1,000 typically, sometimes higher) repaid over 12 months.
One-off purchase, 12-month repayment. Small ownership transfer fee at end. Most useful for higher-rate taxpayers buying a quality commuting bike or e-bike.
The pattern is consistent: salary sacrifice converts taxed income into untaxed benefits, and the discount equals your marginal rate. For the £100k–£125,140 band where the marginal rate hits 62%, salary sacrifice is essentially a structural advantage of the UK tax system — designed to encourage retirement savings, but accessible to anyone whose employer offers the scheme. Larger UK employers (FTSE 250+) typically offer all three; smaller businesses usually offer at least pension, and increasingly cycle-to-work.
Two scenarios that catch UK earners by surprise
What if…
You get a pay rise from £100k to £125,140?
What if…
You add a Plan 2 student loan to a £35k salary?
Key terms explained
UK payroll uses its own vocabulary, and most of it isn’t explained on the payslip. The eight terms below cover what you need to read any UK payslip, P60, or job offer.
- PAYE Pay As You Earn
- The system HMRC uses to collect income tax and NI directly from your salary before you receive it. Your employer is required to deduct the right amount each pay period based on your tax code, and remit it to HMRC monthly. PAYE is why most UK employees don’t need to file a tax return — the deductions happen automatically.
- Personal Allowance PA
- The amount you can earn tax-free each year — £12,570 in 2025/26, frozen until April 2028. It reduces by £1 for every £2 you earn above £100,000, so it’s completely gone by £125,140. The taper creates the most punishing marginal tax band in the UK system (62% combined rate).
- Tax code
- A code like 1257L your employer uses to calculate how much tax to deduct. 1257L means standard £12,570 PA, “L” suffix means standard taxpayer. Codes starting with K (e.g. K500) mean you owe HMRC and have a negative allowance — usually from underpaid tax or company benefits. Codes ending in M or N are from the Marriage Allowance transfer. Check yours on your P60 or via the HMRC app.
- National Insurance NI, NICs
- A separate tax funding the State Pension and NHS. Class 1 (employees) pay 8% on £12,570–£50,270, then 2% above. Class 1 has no upper cap. Self-employed people pay different rates via Class 2 and Class 4. NI doesn’t apply to pension income, which is one of the structural advantages of saving for retirement.
- Salary sacrifice
- An agreement to take a lower contractual salary in exchange for non-cash benefits — pension contributions, EV lease, cycle-to-work, childcare vouchers. Because the deduction happens before tax and NI, you save both. Effective discount: 28% for basic-rate, 42% for higher-rate, up to 62% inside the £100k taper. Available at most UK employers — ask HR if it isn’t obvious.
- Higher rate threshold
- £50,270 in 2025/26, frozen until April 2028. Earnings above this are taxed at 40% (income tax) plus 2% NI. Crossing this threshold creates a 14-percentage-point jump in marginal rate (from 28% to 42%) — which is why pay rises around this number often deliver less than expected.
- Marginal rate
- The tax + NI rate you pay on the next £1 of income, not your average rate. It matters because pay rises, bonuses, overtime, and side income are taxed at the marginal rate, not the lower headline rate. Knowing your marginal rate is the key to making rational decisions about extra hours, second jobs, and pension contributions.
- P60 / P45
- P60 is the annual summary of your pay and deductions, issued in April after the tax year ends. Keep it — you’ll need it for mortgage applications, tax returns, and benefits claims. P45 is what your old employer gives you when you leave a job. You hand it to your new employer so they use the correct tax code. Without a P45, HMRC defaults to an emergency tax code (1257L W1/M1) which usually overtaxes you for a month or two.
Five mistakes UK earners make on take-home
These come from looking at real payslips, HMRC overpayment claims, and r/UKPersonalFinance threads. The fixes are usually simple; the cost of not fixing them is large.
Not checking your tax code
If your tax code is wrong, you’re either overpaying (HMRC will refund eventually, sometimes years later) or underpaying (HMRC will reclaim, sometimes painfully). Common wrong codes: BR (basic rate on everything, no PA) when you’ve changed jobs, 0T (no PA at all) when you’ve started without a P45, or codes still reflecting an old company car you returned. Check your code on every payslip and the HMRC app monthly.
Cost: up to £2,500/yr in wrong code Fix: HMRC personal tax account → update employment detailsOpting out of pension auto-enrolment
Refusing your workplace pension means refusing the employer’s 3% (minimum) match. On a £35,000 salary, that’s £1,050/year of free money you turn down — plus the tax and NI relief on your own 5% contribution. The annual return on those contributions is effectively infinite the second they’re added; nothing else in personal finance comes close. If you genuinely can’t afford it, drop your own contribution to the minimum but never opt out.
Cost: ~£1,050/yr employer match lost Fix: opt back in via HR — 5 minutesUsing “relief at source” instead of salary sacrifice
If your employer offers both, salary sacrifice is almost always better. With relief at source (the default for personal pensions), basic-rate relief is added automatically (£100 contribution becomes £125 in your pot), but higher-rate taxpayers must claim the extra via Self Assessment — and recover nothing on NI. With salary sacrifice, you save tax and NI upfront, no claim needed. For a higher-rate taxpayer, that’s the difference between a 32% and 42% saving on the same contribution.
Cost: 10% extra deductions on pension Fix: ask HR to switch you to salary sacrificeNot sacrificing into pension at £100k+
Inside the £100,000–£125,140 band, the marginal rate is 62% — meaning every extra pound earned is worth just 38p in your pocket. The flip side: every pound sacrificed into pension saves 62p in tax. Anyone earning £100,001 to £125,140 should sacrifice exactly £25,140 minus £100,000 into pension (or whatever brings them back to £100k). The discount is essentially a one-time gift from the UK tax system, and it doesn’t exist at any other income level.
Cost: 62% on every £ above £100k Fix: sacrifice to bring gross back to £100kForgetting student loan in your take-home maths
Plan 2 graduates often forget that 9% of their salary above £27,295 isn’t really theirs. On a £40,000 job offer, the loan repayment is £143/month — enough to materially change whether the offer feels affordable. Always include student loan in any take-home calculation, including when comparing job offers, deciding on rent, or planning a mortgage application (lenders factor it in even if you don’t).
Cost: £58–£250/mo not accounted for Fix: select the right plan in any UK salary calculatorFrequently asked questions
Why does my actual payslip show a slightly different figure?
The most common reasons: your tax code isn’t 1257L (the standard), your pension contribution isn’t 5% (or isn’t via salary sacrifice), you have a benefit-in-kind like a company car, you’re on an emergency tax code, or you’ve changed jobs mid-year and tax is being recalculated. The calculator assumes the standard PA, no BiK, and pension via salary sacrifice — if any of these differ, expect a few percent variance. Compare your YTD figures on the payslip to the calculator at the same gross to identify the gap.
Does this work for Scotland?
No — Scotland has its own tax bands (starter 19%, basic 20%, intermediate 21%, higher 42%, advanced 45%, top 48%). The thresholds also differ. This calculator uses England, Wales, and Northern Ireland rates, which cover roughly 92% of UK taxpayers. NI is UK-wide and identical. For Scottish take-home, expect 2–4% less in the higher bands compared to the figures shown here. We’ll add a dedicated Scotland calculator soon.
How do I know which student loan plan I’m on?
It depends when and where you started university. Plan 1: started in England or Wales before September 2012, or any Northern Ireland student. Plan 2: started in England or Wales between September 2012 and July 2023. Plan 4: studied in Scotland (any year). Plan 5: started in England or Wales from August 2023 onwards. Postgraduate: separate from undergrad, repaid in parallel if you have both. Check your plan via the Student Loans Company login at gov.uk.
What’s the difference between salary sacrifice and “relief at source” pension?
Salary sacrifice: your gross salary is reduced before tax and NI are calculated. You save both income tax (20/40/45%) and NI (2/8%) on the contribution. Most efficient method.
Relief at source: your contribution comes from your net pay, and the pension provider adds 25% (the basic-rate refund). Higher-rate taxpayers must claim the extra 20% via Self Assessment, and recover nothing on NI. Less efficient — especially for higher earners.
If your employer offers both, sacrifice almost always wins. Some employers also rebate part of their NI saving back to you (typically 50–100%), which makes it even better.
Is the £12,570 Personal Allowance going to change?
It’s frozen at £12,570 until April 2028 under the current government’s fiscal plans. Tax bands (£50,270 higher rate, £125,140 additional rate) are also frozen. With inflation above 2.5% in 2024–2025, this constitutes a real-terms tax rise — known as “fiscal drag” — pushing more people into higher tax bands as wages rise. Plan accordingly.
Does the calculator include pension contributions?
The calculator can model pension contributions via salary sacrifice — set the percentage and it reduces your taxable income before tax and NI. By default it shows take-home without any pension, so you can compare scenarios. If your pension is via “relief at source” (less common, but used by some smaller employers), use a different approach: the contribution comes from net pay, and you claim higher-rate relief via Self Assessment.
What’s the Marriage Allowance and should I claim it?
If you’re married or in a civil partnership and one of you earns under £12,570 (the PA), they can transfer £1,260 of their unused PA to the other partner — saving the higher earner £252/year (£1,260 × 20%). The recipient must be a basic-rate taxpayer (income £12,571–£50,270). Apply once at gov.uk/marriage-allowance and it renews automatically. You can backdate up to 4 tax years.
Does take-home include bonuses?
The calculator assumes the figure you enter is your total gross income for the year, including any guaranteed bonus. For variable bonuses, run two scenarios: base salary and base + expected bonus. Bonuses are taxed at your marginal rate, so a £5,000 bonus on a £50,000 base costs you £2,100 in tax and NI (42%) — meaning you actually receive £2,900. The HMRC PAYE system sometimes overtaxes bonuses in the month they’re paid (it assumes you’ll earn at that rate all year), with the excess refunded over the following months.
Related calculators
These build on the same numbers and decisions as your take-home calculation.
Methodology & sources
How the maths works
Income tax is calculated band-by-band using 2025/26 thresholds (frozen to April 2028): 0% on the Personal Allowance, 20% on the basic band, 40% on the higher band, 45% on the additional band. The PA is tapered between £100,000 and £125,140 by reducing it £1 for every £2 above £100,000.
National Insurance Class 1 (employee) uses post-April-2024 rates: 8% on earnings between the Primary Threshold (£12,570) and Upper Earnings Limit (£50,270), then 2% above. There’s no cap on the upper rate.
Student loan calculation: 9% of earnings above the relevant plan threshold (6% for Postgraduate). Pension contributions via salary sacrifice reduce gross income before tax and NI are calculated.
Take-home = Gross − Pension sacrifice − Income tax − National Insurance − Student loan.
UK rules used (2025/26 tax year)
- Personal Allowance: £12,570 (frozen to April 2028), tapered above £100,000.
- Tax bands (England/Wales/NI): 20% basic to £50,270, 40% higher to £125,140, 45% additional above.
- NI Class 1 employee: 8% on £12,570–£50,270, 2% above. Post-April-2024 rates.
- Student loans: Plan 1 £24,990 / Plan 2 £27,295 / Plan 4 £31,395 / Plan 5 £25,000 / Postgrad £21,000. All 9% rate except Postgrad at 6%.
- Pension annual allowance: £60,000 (most people). Tapers above £260,000.
- Marriage Allowance: £1,260 of PA transferable between basic-rate couples.