UK Take-Home Pay Calculator
This UK take home pay calculator turns your gross salary into net pay after income tax, National Insurance, pension and student loan.
Quick answer: Take-home pay is your gross salary minus income tax, National Insurance and any pension or student loan deductions. On a £30,000 salary in England for 2026/27, with no pension or student loan, the calculator gives £25,119.60 a year, which is £2,093.30 a month, after £3,486.00 tax and £1,394.40 National Insurance.
How to use the UK Take-Home Pay Calculator
- Enter your gross salary. Type your yearly salary before any deductions.
- Add your deductions. Choose your pension percentage, student loan plan and where you live in the UK.
- Read your net pay. See take-home pay per year, month and week, with the tax and National Insurance worked out step by step.
Formula & worked example
Formula: Take-home = salary − pension − Income Tax − National Insurance − student loan. Tax: 20% on the first £37,700 above the £12,570 allowance, 40% up to £125,140, then 45%. NI: 8% between £12,570 and £50,270, 2% above.
Example: £35,000 with a 5% pension (net pay): tax £4,136, NI £1,794.40, pension £1,750, take-home £27,319.60 a year (£2,276.63 a month).
Method & source: GOV.UK: Income Tax rates and Personal Allowances; Rates and thresholds for employers 2026 to 2027 (England, Wales and Northern Ireland). See how we test our calculators.
Next step: try hourly pay to salary or mortgage payments.
UK Take-Home Pay, Explained
A UK take-home pay calculator turns your gross salary – the figure in your job offer – into the money that actually reaches your bank account. Between the two sit Income Tax, National Insurance, any workplace pension contribution and, for many people, a student loan repayment.
This UK take home pay calculator uses the rates for the 2026/27 tax year for England, Wales and Northern Ireland, shows every deduction line by line and lets you compare how a pension or student loan changes your net pay. Scottish Income Tax has different bands and is not included yet.
From Gross Salary to Net Pay
Enter your gross annual salary and, if they apply, your pension contribution and student loan plan. The calculator works through the deductions in the same order as payroll.
- Income Tax: a Personal Allowance of £12,570, then 20% on the next £37,700, 40% above that, and 45% on taxable income over £125,140.
- Allowance taper: the Personal Allowance falls by £1 for every £2 of income above £100,000 and is gone by £125,140.
- National Insurance: 8% on earnings between £12,570 and £50,270, and 2% above £50,270.
- Pension: choose a net pay arrangement (reduces tax only) or salary sacrifice (reduces tax and National Insurance).
- Student loans: 9% of earnings above the threshold for Plans 1, 2, 4 and 5, plus 6% above £21,000 for a Postgraduate Loan.
Figures are held in a single tax-year file and checked against GOV.UK, and the tax year is shown next to every result so you always know which rules were used.
Why Your Payslip Looks Different From Your Salary
Gross salary is what you are offered, but take-home pay is what you can spend. Working it out before you accept a job or plan a budget avoids unpleasant surprises.
- Compare job offers on the pay you would really receive each month.
- Plan rent, a mortgage or a car loan from your true monthly income.
- See how much a pension contribution really costs after tax relief.
- Understand the effect of a pay rise, including the tax it triggers.
- Check your payslip against an independent estimate.
A UK take-home pay calculator will not replace your payslip, but it gives you a fast, transparent estimate you can trust for planning.
Worked walkthrough: a £35,000 salary
Take a salary of £35,000 with a 5% pension contribution through a net pay arrangement and no student loan. The pension is £1,750, so taxable income is £33,250. The Personal Allowance of £12,570 leaves £20,680 to be taxed at 20%, which is £4,136. National Insurance is charged on the full £35,000: 8% of (£35,000 − £12,570) = £1,794.40. Take-home pay is £35,000 − £1,750 − £4,136 − £1,794.40 = £27,319.60 a year, or about £2,276.63 a month. Adding a Plan 2 student loan takes a further £505.35 a year, and choosing salary sacrifice instead of net pay saves £140 of National Insurance.
Getting a more accurate take-home figure
- Use your gross salary from the job offer, not a figure that has already had tax or pension taken off.
- Choose the pension method your employer actually uses – ask payroll if you are unsure whether it is net pay, salary sacrifice or relief at source.
- Relief-at-source pensions work differently: tax relief is added to your pension pot. This tool does not model them, so treat pension results as approximate in that case.
- Between £100,000 and £125,140 the Personal Allowance is withdrawn, which creates an effective 60% rate on that slice of income. Pension contributions can reduce it.
- Your tax code can differ from the standard one because of benefits, underpaid tax or other jobs. If your payslip is very different, check your code on GOV.UK.
A worked example on £60,000
Take a salary of £60,000 with no pension or student loan. The Personal Allowance of £12,570 leaves £47,430 taxable. The first £37,700 is taxed at 20%, which is £7,540, and the remaining £9,730 at 40%, which is £3,892, so Income Tax is £11,432. National Insurance is 8% on earnings from £12,570 to £50,270 (£3,016) plus 2% above that (£194.60), a total of £3,210.60. Take-home pay is £45,357.40 a year, or £3,779.78 a month. Bands and allowances are published on GOV.UK Income Tax rates and Personal Allowances, and National Insurance thresholds on GOV.UK rates and thresholds for employers 2026 to 2027.
The deductions add up to 24.4% of the gross salary, but that average hides a higher rate at the top: the next £1 you earn is taxed at 40% plus 2% National Insurance, a marginal rate of 42%.
The 60% band between £100,000 and £125,140
Above £100,000 the Personal Allowance shrinks by £1 for every £2 earned, and it is gone entirely at £125,140. Someone on £110,000 has an allowance of only £7,570, and pays £33,432 in Income Tax against £27,432 on £100,000. That extra £10,000 of pay costs £6,000 in tax, an effective 60% on the slice, before National Insurance.
Pension contributions come off income before tax, so they can reclaim some of the allowance. A 10% pension contribution (£11,000) on the same £110,000 brings taxable income to £99,000, restoring the full allowance, and reduces take-home pay by only £4,600 even though £11,000 goes into the pension.
Net pay or salary sacrifice?
Both methods reduce the salary that is taxed, but only salary sacrifice also reduces National Insurance. On £60,000 with a 5% pension, take-home is £43,557.40 with a net pay arrangement and £43,617.40 with salary sacrifice, £60 more, because the sacrificed £3,000 is above the upper earnings limit and would have attracted 2% National Insurance. Relief-at-source pensions, where tax relief is added to the pension pot, work differently and are not modelled here.
Student and postgraduate loan repayments
Student loan repayments are 9% of earnings above a plan threshold, and a postgraduate loan adds 6% above its own threshold. They are calculated on your pay, so they reduce take-home pay without changing the tax you owe. On £60,000, a Plan 2 loan costs (£60,000 − £29,385) × 9% = £2,755.35 a year, taking take-home pay to £42,602.05. Thresholds are published on GOV.UK student loan repayment.
| Loan | Repay above | Rate |
|---|---|---|
| Plan 1 | £26,900 | 9% |
| Plan 2 | £29,385 | 9% |
| Plan 4 (Scotland) | £33,795 | 9% |
| Plan 5 | £25,000 | 9% |
| Postgraduate Loan | £21,000 | 6% |
What the estimate leaves out
The calculator covers England, Wales and Northern Ireland; Scotland sets its own Income Tax bands, so it shows a message instead of a wrong answer. It works from annual figures, so it ignores your tax code, benefits in kind, other income, self-employed National Insurance and payroll rounding, which is why a payslip can differ slightly. For freelancers, the freelance rate calculator works backwards from a target income. To turn a salary into an hourly figure, use the hourly to salary calculator, and to see what your net pay can support, try the mortgage calculator.
£40,000 and £45,000 after tax and student loan
A student loan repayment is taken from your pay on top of Income Tax and National Insurance, so a UK paycheck with a loan is smaller than one without. The table shows take-home pay for 2026/27 on £40,000 and £45,000, with no pension, for each student loan plan the calculator supports.
| Gross salary | Student loan | Repayment a year | Take-home a year | Take-home a month |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| £40,000 | No student loan | £0.00 | £32,319.60 | £2,693.30 |
| £40,000 | Plan 1 | £1,179.00 | £31,140.60 | £2,595.05 |
| £40,000 | Plan 2 | £955.35 | £31,364.25 | £2,613.69 |
| £40,000 | Plan 5 | £1,350.00 | £30,969.60 | £2,580.80 |
| £45,000 | No student loan | £0.00 | £35,919.60 | £2,993.30 |
| £45,000 | Plan 1 | £1,629.00 | £34,290.60 | £2,857.55 |
| £45,000 | Plan 2 | £1,405.35 | £34,514.25 | £2,876.19 |
| £45,000 | Plan 5 | £1,800.00 | £34,119.60 | £2,843.30 |
Each repayment is 9% of pay above the plan’s threshold, so the loan takes about £1,000 to £1,800 a year at these salaries. Choose your own plan, pension percentage and salary in the calculator above for an exact take-home pay figure. Rates are for England, Wales and Northern Ireland; check GOV.UK for the latest figures.
Frequently Asked Questions (FAQs)
Start with your gross salary, subtract pension contributions made before tax, then deduct Income Tax, National Insurance and any student loan repayment. What remains is your take-home pay.
The 2026/27 tax year, which runs from 6 April 2026 to 5 April 2027. The tax year is shown on the page and in the result, and the figures were checked against GOV.UK.
Not yet. Scotland sets its own Income Tax rates and bands, so choosing Scotland shows a message instead of a wrong answer. National Insurance and student loan rules are UK-wide.
With a net pay arrangement the pension is taken before Income Tax but National Insurance is still charged on the full salary. With salary sacrifice your contractual pay is reduced, so both tax and National Insurance are lower.
Payroll uses your tax code, weekly or monthly thresholds, rounding, benefits in kind and any other income. This calculator gives an annual estimate, so small differences are normal.
Yes. In the UK a paycheck is usually called a payslip, and this calculator estimates what is left after Income Tax, National Insurance, pension and student loan. Enter your gross salary to see take-home pay per year, month and week.
In 2026/27, with no pension, £45,000 leaves £34,514.25 a year, or £2,876.19 a month, after tax, National Insurance and a £1,405.35 Plan 2 repayment. Without a student loan the figure is £35,919.60 a year. Check GOV.UK for the latest rates.
With no pension or student loan, a £30,000 salary leaves about £25,120 a year (£2,093 a month) in 2026/27. Add your own pension and loan options for an exact figure.
Without pension or student loan, £50,000 leaves about £39,520 a year, or £3,293 a month, after income tax and National Insurance in 2026/27.
Yes. Choose your student loan plan, add a postgraduate loan if you have one, and set a pension percentage as net pay or salary sacrifice. Each deduction is listed separately.
Divide your yearly take-home pay by 12. The result already shows the monthly and weekly figures, plus tax and National Insurance as a share of gross pay.
Estimate only – not tax advice. Figures use the 2026/27 UK rates for England, Wales and Northern Ireland and simplified assumptions (standard tax code, no other income or benefits). Your payslip may differ. This is not tax, legal or financial advice; check GOV.UK or ask a qualified adviser. See our full disclaimer.
Guides that use this calculator
- £30,000 a Year After Tax in the UK (2026/27): Monthly and Weekly Take-Home – A £30,000 salary gives £25,119.60 a year after tax and National Insurance in 2026/27: £2,093.30 a month. See pension and student loan effects.
- UK Take-Home Pay Explained for 2026/27: Tax, NI, Student Loans and Pensions – How gross pay becomes take-home pay in 2026/27: Personal Allowance, tax bands, National Insurance, student loans, pensions and a salary table to £125,140.