UK Take Home Pay Calculator [2026/27]

How Our UK Take Home Pay Calculator Works

Using our online UK Take Home Pay Calculator allows you to accurately determine your net salary after essential HMRC deductions. Your gross salary is subject to Income Tax and Class 1 National Insurance (NI) contributions.

Whether you receive an annual salary or an hourly wage, our UK Take Home Pay Calculator automatically factors in your Personal Allowance (£12,570 for tax code 1257L) to deliver exact breakdown figures for daily, weekly, monthly, and yearly pay.

UK Income Tax Rates & Allowance Breakdown

In the UK, Income Tax is collected by HMRC through the Pay As You Earn (PAYE) system. For official government details on personal allowance rates, visit the official HMRC Income Tax Rates & Bands Guide.

If you also operate a VAT-registered business or work in the UK construction industry, you can use our Reverse VAT Calculator UK to handle HMRC Domestic Reverse Charge calculations. You can explore all our utilities on the SBS ToolBench homepage.

Scottish Income Tax vs England, Wales and Northern Ireland in 2026/27

Scotland has six income tax bands in 2026/27; England, Wales and Northern Ireland have three. Below roughly £33,500 a Scottish taxpayer keeps marginally more of their salary. Above that point they keep less, and the gap widens quickly once higher-rate tax starts at £43,663 in Scotland instead of £50,271. Switch the Where You Live dropdown in the calculator above to compare the two systems on your own salary.

England, Wales and Northern Ireland rates (2026/27)

Scottish rates (2026/27)

Scottish rates apply only to earnings, pensions and rental profit. Savings interest and dividends are still taxed at UK-wide rates, and National Insurance is identical everywhere in the UK. The thresholds above are the ones published by the Scottish Government in its Scottish Income Tax 2026 to 2027 technical factsheet.

National Insurance Thresholds for 2026/27

Employee (Class 1) National Insurance is 8% of everything you earn between £12,570 and £50,270 a year, then 2% on earnings above £50,270. There is no tax-free-allowance taper on NI and no regional variation, so a Glasgow and a Cardiff salary of the same size pay exactly the same NI.

One thing to watch: NI is worked out separately for each pay period rather than annualised. If your pay is uneven, for example a large bonus in March, you can pay more NI across the year than this calculator shows, because the bonus month pushes you over the monthly upper limit while quieter months waste allowance. Income tax corrects itself over the year; NI does not. HMRC publishes the current figures under National Insurance rates and categories.

Student Loan Repayments and Your Take Home Pay

A student loan takes 9% of everything you earn above your plan threshold (6% for a Postgraduate Loan), and it is collected through PAYE alongside tax and NI. It is not interest-sensitive month to month, so for take-home purposes it behaves like a third deduction. Select your plan in the calculator to see it in the breakdown.

Worked example: on £40,000 with a Plan 2 loan you repay 9% of £10,615, which is £955 a year or about £79.58 a month. Add a Postgraduate Loan on the same salary and a further 6% of £19,000 comes out, taking the combined deduction to £2,095 a year. That is why the calculator has a separate Postgraduate Loan checkbox: the two run at the same time rather than replacing each other. Thresholds are confirmed in the GOV.UK student loans terms and conditions for 2026 to 2027.

Take Home Pay on Common UK Salaries (2026/27)

The table below assumes a 1257L tax code, no pension contribution and no student loan. The Scotland column shows how the same gross salary lands differently north of the border.

The pattern is worth reading twice. At £25,000 and £30,000 Scotland is a few pounds a month better off because of the 19% starter band. By £50,000 a Scottish taxpayer is roughly £125 a month worse off, and by £100,000 the gap is about £275 a month. If you are negotiating a relocation or a remote contract across the border, that difference belongs in the conversation.

How Your Tax Code Changes Your Take Home Pay

The number in your tax code is your tax-free allowance divided by ten. 1257L means £12,570 of tax-free pay; 1000L means £10,000, usually because you owe tax from an earlier year or receive a taxable benefit such as a company car. Change the tax code field in the calculator and the Personal Allowance line moves with it.

• 1257L is the standard code for one job with the full allowance.
• BR taxes everything at 20% with no allowance, common on a second job.
• D0 and D1 tax everything at 40% and 45% respectively.
• K codes mean your taxable benefits exceed your allowance, so income is added rather than deducted.
• W1, M1 or X suffixes are emergency codes. Each pay period is taxed in isolation, which is why a first payslip in a new job often looks wrong.

Why Your Payslip May Not Match This Calculator

This tool models the annual PAYE position on salary alone. Most gaps between it and a real payslip come from one of five things.

• Pension contributions. A 5% net-pay or salary-sacrifice contribution reduces taxable pay before tax is worked out, so your real tax bill is lower than shown.
• Salary sacrifice for other benefits such as a cycle scheme or an electric car cuts both taxable pay and NI.
• Benefits in kind like private medical cover are usually collected through a reduced tax code rather than a payslip line.
• Emergency or month-1 codes in a new job, which HMRC corrects later.
• Other income such as rent, dividends or a second job, which uses up allowance the calculator assumes is free.

If you also invoice as a sole trader or contractor, our reverse VAT calculator strips VAT back out of a gross invoice total, and the UK degree classification calculator handles the other common UK number people ask us about.

Frequently Asked Questions About UK Take Home Pay