UK Take-Home Pay Calculator 2026/27

The UK Take-Home Pay Calculator shows what actually lands in your bank account after the deductions on your payslip. Enter your salary as an annual, monthly or hourly figure, choose whether you pay Scottish income tax, add your workplace pension percentage and student loan plan, and you get your yearly, monthly and weekly take-home pay together with a line-by-line breakdown of income tax, National Insurance, student loan repayments and pension contributions. It uses the HMRC rates and thresholds for the 2026/27 tax year, which runs from 6 April 2026 to 5 April 2027.

For 2026/27 the personal allowance remains £12,570, frozen as it has been since 2021. In England, Wales and Northern Ireland you pay 20% on the next £37,700, 40% up to £125,140 and 45% above that. The personal allowance is withdrawn by £1 for every £2 of adjusted net income above £100,000, which creates an effective 60% marginal rate between £100,000 and £125,140. Scotland sets its own bands: 19% starter, 20% basic, 21% intermediate, 42% higher (from £43,663), 45% advanced (from £75,001) and 48% top rate above £125,140, with the starter and basic thresholds raised by 7.4% this year. Employee National Insurance (Class 1, category A) is 8% on earnings between £12,570 and £50,270 and 2% above that, and is the same across the whole UK.

Worked example: an employee in England earning £40,000 who pays 5% into a pension by salary sacrifice and repays a Plan 2 student loan. The £2,000 pension contribution reduces pay to £38,000. Income tax is 20% of £25,430 (£38,000 minus the £12,570 allowance) = £5,086. National Insurance is 8% of £25,430 = £2,034.40. The Plan 2 repayment is 9% of the £8,615 above the £29,385 threshold = £775.35. Take-home pay is £30,104.25 a year, about £2,508.69 a month or £578.93 a week, and the effective rate of tax, NI and student loan is 19.74% of gross salary. The same person in Scotland pays £5,131.07 of income tax and takes home £30,059.18 a year.

How you pay into your pension matters. With salary sacrifice your salary is formally reduced, so you save income tax, National Insurance and student loan repayments on the contribution. A net pay arrangement takes the contribution before income tax but after NI, so you get full tax relief but no NI saving. With relief at source (common for group personal pensions) you pay 80% from your net pay and the provider claims the 20% basic-rate relief from HMRC; higher- and top-rate taxpayers claim the extra relief through Self Assessment, which this calculator does not add back. Student loans are repaid at 9% above your plan threshold — £26,900 for Plan 1, £29,385 for Plan 2, £33,795 for Plan 4 and £25,000 for Plan 5 — and Postgraduate Loans at 6% above £21,000, taken on top of any undergraduate plan.

The results are an annual estimate. Payroll works pay period by pay period, so tax codes other than 1257L, emergency codes, benefits in kind, bonuses, irregular hours or changes during the year will make your real payslip differ. The calculator assumes a standard 1257L tax code, employee NI category A, no other income and no Marriage Allowance or Blind Person's Allowance. Welsh taxpayers currently pay the same rates as England. Always check your payslip and HMRC's personal tax account if something looks wrong.