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Tax year 2026/27 · Rest of UK · annual

UK Income Tax Calculator

Income tax owed across rUK and Scottish bands for 2026/27.

Tax year
Region
Schedule

Your details

Total income tax (year)

£6,486

Taxable income: £32,430

By band

Basic rate (20%)£32,430 → £6,486
Higher rate (40%)£0 → £0
Additional rate (45%)£0 → £0
Total income tax£6,486
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Interactive scenarios

Tax and deductions, your way

Tax year

Region

Pay schedule

Salary £45,000

Net (monthly)

£2,806

Income tax (monthly)

£541

NI (monthly)

£216

Effective rate

20.2%

Modelled on a 5% pension. Showing monthly figures, rest of UK, tax year 2026/27.

The full guide

Everything worth knowing about Income Tax

Worked examples with real figures, the rules underneath the number, and the traps that catch people out.

01

UK income tax calculator: what you owe, band by band

The UK income tax calculator applies the 2026/27 bands to your salary: 20% basic rate, 40% higher rate and 45% additional rate, after your £12,570 personal allowance. Only the slice of income inside each band pays that band's rate, so crossing a threshold never reprices your whole salary.

On £55,000 the effective income tax rate sits closer to eighteen percent than to forty. Seeing the bands stacked is usually enough to end the argument in the office.

A UK city skyline at dusk0%20%40%45%
Four income tax bands and one taper zone worth planning around.
02

UK income tax bands for the 2026/27 tax year

Only the money inside a band pays that band's rate. Crossing into higher rate reprices the slice above the threshold and nothing beneath it.

Between £100,000 and £125,140 the personal allowance falls away by a pound for every two pounds earned. The headline says forty percent. The real rate across that stretch is sixty, which is why a bonus there can leave £400 of every £1,000.

Thresholds move rarely while pay drifts upward, so more of each salary lands in a higher band every year without any rate changing at all.

Income tax bands

UK bands

Allowance 0%
0%
Basic 20%
20%
Higher 40%
40%
Additional 45%
45%
03

£55,000 of income tax, split by band

The first £12,570 pays nothing. The next £37,700 pays twenty percent, which is £7,540. The remaining £4,730 pays forty percent, which is £1,892.

Total income tax is £9,432 on £55,000, an average of just over seventeen percent, even though the top slice is charged at forty.

Push a pension contribution into that top slice and it costs sixty pence in the pound of take home rather than eighty. The income tax band you are in decides the price of every decision underneath it.

Worked payslip

Gross to net, line by line

Sample payslip

Month 06 · 2026/27

Gross pay

£2,916.67

Pension (5%)

£145.83

Taxable pay

£2,770.84

Income tax

£373.83

National Insurance

£149.52

Net pay

£2,247.66

04

What a UK pay rise is really worth after tax

New pay stacks on top of old pay, so it is charged at the rate of the band it lands in rather than your average rate. A £3,000 rise that crosses the higher rate threshold can hand over roughly £1,240 of itself.

Run the current salary, note the net. Run the new one, note the net. The difference between those two figures is the only number worth celebrating.

Then route part of the rise into the pension. Take home barely moves, the pot jumps and the tax bill falls. On the wrong side of a threshold that trade is close to free money.

05

Pension contributions, tax relief and take home pay

A pound in the pot costs a basic rate taxpayer eighty pence of take home and a higher rate taxpayer sixty. Inside the allowance taper it can cost forty. The band you sit in sets the price.

Salary sacrifice removes the contribution from gross pay, so it avoids National Insurance as well as income tax. Relief at source takes it from net pay and HMRC adds the basic rate back, leaving higher rate taxpayers to claim the rest through self assessment.

Employer matching outweighs a small salary difference within a couple of years, and the gap keeps widening for the rest of a working life.

Where each pound goes

Where each pound of salary lands

72%
14%
  • Net pay
  • Income tax
  • NI
  • Pension
  • Student loan
06

Four things that quietly change your result

A tax code change mid year. HMRC adjusts the code, payroll applies it, and the letter explaining it rarely gets read. Check the code on the payslip against the one you expect.

A taxable benefit such as private medical cover. It shrinks the allowance, so a perk raises the tax bill and take home falls in the month it starts.

A switch to salary sacrifice. Gross drops before anything else, which changes every line beneath it and can affect mortgage affordability too.

A bonus month. Income tax evens out across the year through the cumulative system. National Insurance never does.

07

Where the UK Income Tax Calculator gets its figures

Rates, bands and thresholds follow published HMRC and gov.uk figures for the 2026/27 tax year, held in one table that every tool reads. April arrives, the table changes, and the results move together.

Earlier years stay available through the year selector, so a late self assessment runs on the numbers that applied at the time rather than today's.

Some cases still need an accountant. K codes carrying negative allowances, bespoke sacrifice arrangements, the annual allowance taper for very high earners, and anything involving two employments at once.

08

More UK pay and tax calculators

UK Income Tax Calculator answers one question. The salary calculator turns gross into net, the income tax calculator splits the bill by band, the National Insurance calculator shows the step at the upper limit, and the pension calculator prices a percentage change three ways at once.

Every tool reads the same rate table, so two pages never disagree. Run this one, note the figure, then open the next and watch which line moves.

09

What the number will not tell you

Cash is the floor of a decision, not the decision. An hour a day handed back by a shorter commute is roughly two hundred and fifty hours a year, and nothing prices that against a manager worth working for.

Some benefits convert cleanly. Health cover has a taxable value, a learning budget has a receipt, extra leave has a daily rate. Share options that vest over four years and enhanced parental leave do not, so weigh those separately rather than treating them as salary.

Example gallery

Real inputs, real outputs

Graduate starter

First job, default workplace pension.

rUK

Gross / yr

£28,000

Pension

5%

Income tax

£3,086

NI

£1,234

Take home / month£1,857

Mid career

Standard tax code, modest pension uplift.

rUK

Gross / yr

£45,000

Pension

6%

Income tax

£6,486

NI

£2,594

Take home / month£2,768

Higher rate

Crossing the higher rate band.

rUK

Gross / yr

£72,000

Pension

8%

Income tax

£16,232

NI

£3,451

Take home / month£3,880

Scotland mid

Scottish bands applied.

Scotland

Gross / yr

£45,000

Pension

5%

Income tax

£6,882

NI

£2,594

Take home / month£2,773

About this calculator

The UK Income Tax Calculator works out how much income tax you owe across the relevant bands, rest-of-UK or Scottish, for the 2026/27 tax year.

Quick reference

Allowance 0%
0%
Basic 20%
20%
Higher 40%
40%
Additional 45%
45%

Frequently asked questions

How does the personal allowance taper work?+
Above £100,000 of adjusted income the allowance falls by £1 for every £2 earned, so it disappears by £125,140. That stretch carries an effective rate of 60 percent, which is why pension contributions in that band are worth so much.
Do Scottish rates change my National Insurance?+
No. Scotland sets income tax bands on earnings, while National Insurance stays the same across the UK. Switch the region toggle and only the tax line moves.
Is savings and dividend income covered?+
The calculator works on employment income. Savings and dividends use separate allowances and rates, so add them to a self assessment view rather than treating them as salary.
How much income tax do I pay on £60,000?+
About £11,432 in 2026/27: £7,540 at 20% on the basic rate slice and £3,892 at 40% on the £9,730 above the higher rate threshold. Your effective rate is roughly 19%.
What are the UK income tax bands for 2026/27?+
£12,570 personal allowance at 0%, then 20% to £50,270, 40% to £125,140 and 45% above. Between £100,000 and £125,140 the allowance tapers away, giving an effective 60% rate on that stretch.
Do I pay income tax on pension contributions?+
Salary sacrifice contributions never enter taxable pay. With relief at source you get 20% relief automatically, and higher rate taxpayers claim the rest through self assessment.
What is the 60 percent tax trap?+
Between £100,000 and £125,140 of adjusted income the personal allowance falls by £1 for every £2 earned, so each extra £1,000 can cost £600 in income tax. Pension contributions that bring you under £100,000 undo it.