Annual deductions from £35,000:
- Income tax: £4,486
- National Insurance: £1,794
2026/27 rates for England, Wales, and Northern Ireland: Personal Allowance £12,570 (tapered above £100,000, gone at £125,140), 20% basic rate to £50,270, 40% higher rate to £125,140, 45% above. Employee National Insurance is 8% between £12,570 and £50,270, 2% above. Scotland uses different income tax bands and isn't modeled here. Not tax advice - confirm with HMRC or a tax adviser.
Work Out Your Salary After Tax in the UK
The Tools Kit's free UK Take-Home Pay Calculator shows what your salary is actually worth once income tax, National Insurance, student loan repayments and pension contributions have come out. Enter an annual salary and it returns your monthly, weekly and annual net pay, with each deduction listed separately so you can see where the money goes.
It uses 2026/27 income tax rates for England, Wales and Northern Ireland, and runs entirely in your browser. For example, a £35,000 salary takes home about £2,393 a month with no student loan, or £2,351 a month with a Plan 2 loan.
How to Use the UK Take-Home Pay Calculator
- 1
Enter your annual salary
Type your gross yearly salary in pounds, before any tax or deductions. Commas are fine, so 35,000 and 35000 both work.
- 2
Choose your student loan plan
Pick No student loan, Plan 1, Plan 2, Plan 4 (Scotland), Plan 5 or Postgraduate Loan. Each plan has its own repayment threshold and rate.
- 3
Add a pension contribution
Enter the percentage of salary you pay into a workplace pension, or leave it at 0. The calculator takes it off your pay before tax and National Insurance.
- 4
Read your take-home pay
See your monthly, weekly and annual take-home pay, with the yearly income tax, National Insurance, student loan and pension amounts listed underneath.
Monthly pay is the annual take-home divided by 12 and weekly pay is the annual figure divided by 52, rounded to the nearest pound. If you are paid by the hour, convert your rate to a yearly figure first with the hourly to salary calculator.
2026/27 Income Tax and National Insurance Rates
Income tax is charged in bands, so each rate applies only to the slice of salary inside that band. National Insurance has its own thresholds and is worked out separately on the same pay.
- Personal Allowance: the first £12,570 is tax-free. It falls by £1 for every £2 earned over £100,000 and disappears at £125,140.
- Basic rate, 20%: on income above the allowance up to £50,270.
- Higher rate, 40%: from £50,270 up to £125,140.
- Additional rate, 45%: on income above £125,140.
- Employee National Insurance: 8% on earnings between £12,570 and £50,270, then 2% above £50,270.
Worked example on £50,000: income tax is 20% of £37,430 (the amount above £12,570) = £7,486, and National Insurance is 8% of the same £37,430 = £2,994. Take-home pay is £50,000 − £7,486 − £2,994 = £39,520 a year, or about £3,293 a month. Move up to £60,000 and the extra £9,730 above £50,270 is taxed at 40% and 2% instead, giving £45,357 a year, or about £3,780 a month.
These are the rest-of-UK bands. Scotland sets its own income tax rates and thresholds, which this calculator does not model, so Scottish taxpayers should treat the income tax line as an estimate only.
Student Loan Deductions by Plan
Student loan repayments come out of your pay through PAYE alongside tax and National Insurance. They depend only on how much you earn above your plan's threshold, not on how much you still owe. The calculator uses these thresholds:
- Plan 1: 9% of income above £26,900
- Plan 2: 9% of income above £29,385
- Plan 4 (Scotland): 9% of income above £33,795
- Plan 5: 9% of income above £25,000
- Postgraduate Loan: 6% of income above £21,000
On £45,000 with a Postgraduate Loan, the repayment is 6% of £24,000 = £1,440 a year, bringing take-home pay to £34,480, or about £2,873 a month. You can choose one plan at a time here. If you repay an undergraduate plan and a Postgraduate Loan together, the dedicated UK student loan calculator works out both repayments at once.
How Pension Contributions Change Your Net Pay
The pension percentage is taken off your gross salary before anything else, in the same way a salary sacrifice scheme works. That means it lowers the pay on which income tax, National Insurance and student loan are worked out, so a pound into your pension costs you less than a pound of take-home pay.
On a £35,000 salary, a 5% contribution puts £1,750 a year into the pension. Income tax falls from £4,486 to £4,136 and National Insurance from £1,794 to £1,654, so annual take-home goes from £28,720 to £27,460: a cost of £1,260 for £1,750 saved. If your workplace scheme is not salary sacrifice, your National Insurance will not fall in the same way. To see what regular contributions could grow to over time, try the compound interest calculator.
Common uses
- Checking what a job offer or pay rise is worth per month after tax
- Seeing how much a student loan plan takes from each payslip before you accept a role
- Comparing take-home pay with and without a higher pension contribution
- Building a monthly budget on real net income rather than gross salary, or checking what you can afford before using the mortgage calculator and stamp duty calculator
- Turning annual net pay into an hourly figure with the salary to hourly calculator
Working out a US paycheck instead? The paycheck calculator handles federal, FICA and state tax. More pay and money tools are in the calculator tools collection.
UK take-home pay terms explained
| Term | What it means here |
|---|---|
| Gross salary | Your annual pay before any deductions; the figure on a job offer or contract |
| Take-home pay / net pay | What reaches your bank account after income tax, National Insurance, student loan and pension are deducted |
| Personal Allowance | The first £12,570 of income on which no income tax is paid, reduced by £1 for every £2 earned over £100,000 |
| Basic, higher and additional rate | The 20%, 40% and 45% income tax bands used for England, Wales and Northern Ireland |
| National Insurance (NI) | Employee Class 1 contributions: 8% on earnings between £12,570 and £50,270, 2% above that |
| Repayment threshold | The income above which a student loan plan starts taking 9% (or 6% for a Postgraduate Loan) |
| Salary sacrifice | Giving up part of your salary in exchange for an employer pension contribution, which lowers the pay that tax and NI are worked out on |
| PAYE | Pay As You Earn, the system your employer uses to deduct tax and NI from each payslip |
Take-home pay by salary
Full breakdowns for the salaries people look up most, 2026/27 rates.
- £18,000/year = £1,373/month
- £20,000/year = £1,493/month
- £22,000/year = £1,613/month
- £25,000/year = £1,793/month
- £28,000/year = £1,973/month
- £30,000/year = £2,093/month
- £32,000/year = £2,213/month
- £35,000/year = £2,393/month
- £40,000/year = £2,693/month
- £45,000/year = £2,993/month
- £50,000/year = £3,293/month
- £55,000/year = £3,538/month
- £60,000/year = £3,780/month
- £70,000/year = £4,263/month
- £80,000/year = £4,746/month
- £100,000/year = £5,713/month
- £120,000/year = £6,346/month
- £150,000/year = £7,607/month
Frequently Asked Questions
Take-home pay is your gross salary minus income tax, employee National Insurance, any student loan repayment and any pension contribution. This calculator takes the pension off first, then applies the 2026/27 income tax bands above the £12,570 Personal Allowance, 8% and 2% National Insurance, and your student loan plan, and divides the annual result by 12 for monthly pay and by 52 for weekly pay.
On 2026/27 rates for England, Wales and Northern Ireland, £30,000 a year is £25,120 after tax, or about £2,093 a month. That is after £3,486 income tax and £1,394 National Insurance, with no student loan or pension deducted.
About £2,393 a month (£28,720 a year) with no student loan or pension. With a Plan 2 student loan it drops to about £2,351 a month, because Plan 2 takes 9% of the £5,615 earned above its £29,385 threshold, which is £505 a year.
In England, Wales and Northern Ireland: no tax on the first £12,570 (the Personal Allowance), 20% basic rate up to £50,270, 40% higher rate up to £125,140, and 45% additional rate above that. The Personal Allowance shrinks by £1 for every £2 of income over £100,000 and is gone by £125,140.
Employees pay Class 1 National Insurance of 8% on earnings between £12,570 and £50,270 a year, and 2% on everything above £50,270. On a £50,000 salary that is £2,994 a year.
Plans 1, 2, 4 and 5 take 9% of what you earn above the plan threshold used here: £26,900 for Plan 1, £29,385 for Plan 2, £33,795 for Plan 4 and £25,000 for Plan 5. A Postgraduate Loan takes 6% above £21,000. If you earn below your threshold, nothing is deducted.
Not in one go. The calculator takes one student loan plan at a time. If you repay both, run it with your undergraduate plan, then subtract the Postgraduate Loan deduction (6% of salary above £21,000), or use the separate UK Student Loan Calculator on The Tools Kit, which combines an undergraduate plan with a Postgraduate Loan.
In this calculator, yes. The pension percentage is treated like salary sacrifice, so it is taken off your gross pay before income tax, National Insurance and student loan are worked out. On £35,000, a 5% contribution sets aside £1,750 a year but reduces annual take-home by only £1,260, from £28,720 to £27,460.
Not for income tax. Scotland sets its own income tax bands and rates, which this calculator does not model. National Insurance and student loan repayments work the same way across the UK, but a Scottish taxpayer’s income tax, and so their take-home pay, will be different.
The calculator assumes the standard Personal Allowance and an even annual salary. A different tax code, bonuses, benefits in kind, a pension scheme that is not salary sacrifice, or overtime in a single month will all change your actual payslip. It is a guide, not tax advice; confirm with HMRC or your employer.
Between £100,000 and £125,140 your Personal Allowance is withdrawn at £1 for every £2 you earn, so each extra pound in that range is effectively taxed at 60%, plus 2% National Insurance, rather than the 40% headline rate. Above £125,140 there is no allowance left and the 45% additional rate applies.
Reviewed by Raja Jahangir · Last reviewed: October 2026
How is UK take-home pay calculated?
UK take-home pay is gross salary minus income tax, employee National Insurance, any student loan repayment, and pension contributions. Income tax applies only to earnings above the Personal Allowance, in bands that rise with income, and National Insurance has its own thresholds. The calculation uses England, Wales, and Northern Ireland bands; Scotland's differ.
Does a pension contribution reduce your tax?
Yes. A salary-sacrifice pension contribution is taken off gross pay before income tax and National Insurance are calculated, so every pound contributed costs less than a pound of take-home pay. A 5% contribution on a £35,000 salary sets aside £1,750 a year while reducing both tax and National Insurance on that amount.
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