Choose how often you pay, then enter each employee's gross pay for one pay period and their National Insurance category. You get the employer (secondary) Class 1 National Insurance for the period and for the year, the Employment Allowance if you claim it, the Apprenticeship Levy if your pay bill is over £3 million, and every step of the working. The rates are HMRC's for the 2026 to 2027 tax year, from 6 April 2026 to 5 April 2027, and they are the same in England, Scotland, Wales and Northern Ireland. Your employees' own Income Tax and National Insurance come out of their pay and are not part of this figure.
Enter your employees
Pick the pay frequency, then add one row per employee with their gross pay for one period: the wages, bonuses and commission that National Insurance is charged on. Fortnightly and four-weekly pay use the weekly thresholds multiplied by 2 or 4. Company directors' National Insurance follows its own rules (HMRC leaflet CA44), so check a director's figure with your payroll software.
Choose the right category
Employers pay 15% on earnings above the secondary threshold: £96 a week, £417 a month or £5,000 a year in 2026/27. For employees under 21 (letters M and Z), apprentices under 25 on a government-recognised apprenticeship (H) and veterans in the first 12 months of their first civilian job (V), the rate is 0% up to £967 a week, £4,189 a month or £50,270 a year. HMRC's 2026/27 rates still list category V, but its CWG2 guide only confirms the veterans' relief up to April 2026: check it before relying on it. For new employees who spend at least 60% of their time at one Freeport or Investment Zone tax site, it is 0% up to £481 a week, £2,083 a month or £25,000 a year, for up to 3 years. Above those thresholds, 15%.
Claim the Employment Allowance
If you are eligible, up to £10,500 comes off your employer National Insurance for the year. It cannot be more than the bill itself, and the difference is not paid back. Only one company in a group of connected companies or charities can claim it, against one payroll. A public body cannot, nor can a company whose only employee paid above the secondary threshold is its sole director.
Check the Apprenticeship Levy
If your annual pay bill, together with any connected companies or charities, is over £3 million, you pay 0.5% of it less a £15,000 allowance, monthly through your Employer Payment Summary. The pay bill counts all earnings subject to employer Class 1 National Insurance, including pay below the thresholds and the pay of under-21s and apprentices.
Rounding and using the result
Each employee's contribution for the period is rounded to the nearest penny, with an exact half penny rounded down, as HMRC's exact percentage method does. The yearly figures assume the same pay every period. Copy the working in one click, export it as a CSV file or save it to Priostack.
Employer NI per employee = (pay for the period − threshold) × 15%, or nothing when the pay is not above the threshold.
Employer NI a year = employer NI for the period × pay periods in the year (52, 26, 13, 12 or 1).
Total a year = employer NI a year − Employment Allowance + Apprenticeship Levy, where the levy = 0.5% × annual pay bill − £15,000, when that is positive.
Example: HMRC's worked examples
In HMRC's examples, an employee under 21 (category M) paid £5,000 in a month costs nothing on the pay between £417 and £4,189, then (£5,000 − £4,189) × 15% = £121.65. An apprentice under 25 (category H) paid £4,500 costs (£4,500 − £4,189) × 15% = £46.65. A Freeport employee (category F) paid £5,000 costs (£5,000 − £2,083) × 15% = £437.55. HMRC works these on the 2025/26 figures, and the employer rate and these thresholds are the same in 2026/27. On the same basis, a standard employee paid £2,500 a month costs (£2,500 − £417) × 15% = £312.45 a month, or £3,749.40 a year.
