SalaryCalculator
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Tax year 2026/27 · Rest of UK · annual

UK Salary Calculator

Gross to net salary with tax, NI, pension and student loan.

Tax year
Region
Schedule

Your details

Take-home pay (annual)

£27,320

£2,277 per month · £525 per week

Income taxNIPensionStudent loanNet pay

Breakdown (annual)

Gross pay£35,000
Income tax− £4,136
National Insurance− £1,794
Pension contribution− £1,750
Student loan− £0
Net pay£27,320
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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 Salary

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

01

UK salary calculator: from gross salary to take home pay

A UK salary calculator turns your gross salary into take home pay by applying the 2026/27 income tax bands, National Insurance, your pension contribution and any student loan repayment. On £35,000 with a standard 5% pension, take home pay is around £27,320 a year, roughly £2,277 a month.

Type your salary above and the breakdown appears in the order payroll builds it. Check it against a payslip you already have. If net pay agrees within a pound, every scenario you run after that is worth trusting.

A UK employment contract and a pen on a wooden desk beside a mug of tea£
The contract fixes gross. Everything interesting happens underneath it.

Match a real payslip first

Copy the tax code, pension percentage and student loan plan from the slip. A UK salary calculator that agrees with last month is one you can plan next year with.

02

How the UK Salary Calculator works: the order payroll applies deductions

Deductions are not a flat set that each take a bite of the same cake. They run in sequence, and the sequence decides the cost of every one after the first.

Pension goes first under salary sacrifice, leaving gross pay before tax and National Insurance ever see it. Under relief at source it leaves net pay instead and HMRC tops the pot up. Same percentage on paper, different payslip.

Income tax then applies band by band against the tax code. National Insurance follows, worked out per pay period rather than across the year. Student loan sits on top of all of it and never reduces taxable pay.

Change the order and the answer changes. That is why a payslip with the same gross as a colleague's can pay a different net.

Pay flow

Gross, pension, tax, National Insurance, net

72%
14%
  • Net pay
  • Income tax
  • NI
  • Pension
  • Student loan
03

£35,000 salary: income tax and National Insurance, line by line

Take £35,000, a standard tax code and five percent into an auto enrolment pension. The pension takes £1,750 first, so income tax looks at £33,250.

The allowance covers £12,570 at nothing. The rest falls in the basic rate band, giving income tax near £4,136. National Insurance charges eight percent above the primary threshold, close to £1,794.

Take home lands around £27,320 a year, roughly £2,277 a month.

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

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%
05

National Insurance rates and thresholds

The rate steps down above the upper earnings limit rather than up, so a higher earner pays less NI on an extra pound than a basic rate earner does.

It is also calculated per pay period. A £6,000 bonus paid in March costs less NI than £500 a month across the year, because the March slice is pushed past the limit in one go while the monthly version never reaches it.

Self employed contributions follow a parallel shape on trading profits rather than salary, with their own thresholds and a lower headline rate.

06

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
07

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.

08

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.

09

The five year view: small monthly gaps become big money

Sixty payslips turn small monthly differences into serious money. A £40 monthly gap is £2,400 across five years before anything grows.

Pension shows it hardest. Two extra percent on £45,000, matched by an employer and topped by relief, adds close to £2,000 a year to the pot. Compound that for thirty years at a modest rate and it clears six figures.

Multiply the monthly gap by sixty for the cash answer, then apply growth to the yearly pension gap for the long one.

Five year view

The same decision, five years apart

Year 1
£480
Year 2
£960
Year 3
£1,440
Year 4
£1,920
Year 5
£2,400

A £40 monthly gap kept for five years adds up to £2,400 before any growth.

10

Where the UK Salary 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.

11

More UK pay and tax calculators

UK Salary 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.

12

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 Salary Calculator converts a gross salary into the net pay you'll actually receive after income tax, National Insurance, pension and student loan deductions. Switch between annual, monthly and weekly figures to match how you think about your pay.

Quick reference

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

Frequently asked questions

Does the salary calculator include my pension?+
Yes, once you enter a contribution rate. Most workplace schemes run on salary sacrifice or net pay arrangements, and both reduce the figure your income tax is worked out on. Enter the percentage from your pension statement and the yearly and monthly results update straight away.
Why is my first payslip of the tax year different?+
PAYE spreads your personal allowance evenly across the year, so month one gets one twelfth of it. If you changed job, had a bonus, or your tax code moved, the split shifts and the first payslip looks odd. By month three the running totals usually settle.
Can I use this for a day rate contract?+
Multiply your day rate by the number of billable days you expect, then enter that as annual pay. It gives a fair view of the PAYE position, though it will not model dividends or company expenses if you work through a limited company.
How much tax will I pay on £40,000?+
On £40,000 in 2026/27 with the standard personal allowance, income tax is £5,486 (20% of £27,430) and employee National Insurance is about £2,194 (8% of £27,430). Take home pay lands near £32,320 a year, around £2,693 a month, before pension or student loan.
Does the salary calculator use 2026/27 tax rates?+
Yes. Every figure follows the current UK tax year by default, and you can switch tax year, region and pay schedule above the calculator to check older payslips or Scottish rates.
Is overtime taxed at a higher rate?+
Overtime is taxed at your marginal rate, the band the extra pay falls into, not your average rate. On a basic rate salary most overtime keeps about two thirds after income tax and National Insurance.
What salary do I need to take home £3,000 a month?+
Roughly £48,000 to £50,000 a year on a standard tax code with a 5% pension, depending on student loan and region. Enter salaries in that range above and adjust until the monthly net reads £3,000.