Enter your gross pay for a year, a month or a week. The calculator takes off Income Tax, employee National Insurance, student and postgraduate loan repayments and your pension contribution, then shows your take-home pay for the year, the month and the week, with every step. It uses the rates and thresholds for the tax year 6 April 2026 to 5 April 2027, for England, Wales and Northern Ireland or for Scotland, and assumes the standard 1257L tax code.
Enter your pay
Use your pay before any deductions, from your contract or the top of your payslip, and say whether it is for a year, a month or a week. Income Tax is worked out on the whole year and shared equally between your pay days. National Insurance and student loan repayments are worked out on each pay, with that pay period’s thresholds, as your employer’s payroll does.
Income Tax
The standard Personal Allowance is £12,570, and it goes down by £1 for every £2 of income above £100,000. In England, Wales and Northern Ireland you then pay 20% on the next £37,700, 40% up to £125,140 of income and 45% above. Scottish taxpayers pay six rates, from 19% to 48%: choose Scotland if your main home is there.
National Insurance and student loans
Employees pay 8% National Insurance on earnings between £1,048 and £4,189 a month (£242 and £967 a week, £12,570 and £50,270 a year) and 2% above. Student loan repayments are 9% of pay above your plan’s threshold, from £25,000 a year for Plan 5 to £33,795 for Plan 4, plus 6% above £21,000 for a Postgraduate Loan, rounded down to the pound each pay day.
Pension contributions
Enter your own contribution as a percentage of gross pay, including tax relief. With relief at source, you pay 80% of it and your provider claims the other 20% from the government. With a net pay arrangement, it comes off your pay before Income Tax. With salary sacrifice, your pay itself is lower, so you also pay less National Insurance and smaller loan repayments.
What is not included
The calculator assumes the standard 1257L tax code and National Insurance category A. It does not include benefits in kind, the Marriage Allowance, the Blind Person’s Allowance, extra pension relief claimed through Self Assessment, or deductions specific to your employer. Payroll works Income Tax out cumulatively through the year with your tax code, so a payslip can differ slightly from these figures.
Taxable income = pay for the year − Personal Allowance
Income Tax = taxable income × the rate of each band, shared equally between pay days
National Insurance = (pay up to the upper limit − primary threshold) × 8% + (pay − upper limit) × 2%
Student loan = (pay − plan threshold) × 9%, rounded down to the pound
Take-home pay = gross pay − pension − Income Tax − National Insurance − loan repayments
Example: £35,000 a year in England
The Personal Allowance of £12,570 leaves £22,430 taxable at 20%: £4,486.00 of Income Tax. National Insurance is 8% of the same £22,430: £1,794.40. Take-home pay is £28,719.60 a year, or £2,393.30 a month. In Scotland the same salary pays £4,501.07 of Income Tax (£753.73 at 19%, £2,597.80 at 20% and £1,149.54 at 21%), leaving £28,704.53.
