Take-Home Salary Calculator
Whether you're weighing up a job offer, a pay rise or just want to know where your money goes, this UK take-home salary calculator estimates what's left after Income Tax, National Insurance, pension and student loan. Enter your salary, adjust the options to match your situation, and we'll break the figures down per year, month, week and day for the 2025/26 and 2026/27 tax years.
These figures are estimates for guidance only and are not financial advice. They assume a standard situation and the published rates/thresholds for the chosen tax year — always check your payslip and HMRC for your exact position.
How it works
We start from your annual salary and work down to take-home pay by applying the deductions a typical UK payslip would, using the published rates and thresholds for the tax year you pick. Here's what's going on behind each field.
Income Tax
Your tax code sets your tax-free personal allowance (1257L is the standard code), and the rest of your taxable pay is charged across the tax bands at increasing rates. Tick Resident in Scotland? and we switch to the Scottish bands instead. Special codes like BR, D0, D1, NT, 0T and K-codes are handled too. If your income climbs above the £100k mark we also taper the personal allowance away, which is why high earners can see an unusually large effective tax rate on that slice of pay.
National Insurance
Employee National Insurance is charged on earnings above the threshold for the year, at the main rate up to the upper limit and a lower rate beyond it. If you tick Over State Pension age we remove employee NI altogether, since you stop paying it once you reach State Pension age.
Pension
Enter your contribution as a percentage of salary and choose the scheme type, because the tax treatment differs. Auto-enrolment / net pay comes out before Income Tax (but not NI). Salary sacrifice comes out before both Income Tax and National Insurance, so it usually leaves you slightly better off for the same contribution. Relief at source is taken from your pay after tax, with the basic-rate top-up reclaimed by your provider. Pick the one your scheme actually uses — if you're not sure, your pension provider or HR can tell you.
Student loan
Pick your repayment plan — Plan 1, 2, 4 or 5 all repay 9% of everything you earn above the plan's threshold, while Postgraduate loans repay 6%. You only repay on income over the threshold, not your whole salary.
Sacrifice & childcare vouchers
Salary sacrifice and childcare vouchers are taken off your pay before Income Tax and National Insurance are worked out, so they reduce both. They lower your gross taxable pay, which is part of why your take-home can be higher than a simple "salary minus tax" sum would suggest.
Bonus, overtime & benefits
Bonus and overtime are added to your gross pay and taxed and NI'd as normal. Taxable benefits (BIK) — such as a company car — are added to your taxable income for Income Tax only; the employer pays the National Insurance on benefits, so your own NI is unaffected here.
A few assumptions: we model a standard cumulative PAYE position with one job and one income source, using the rates published for the tax year you choose. Daily figures assume roughly 260 working days a year. These are estimates to help you plan, not an exact replica of your payslip.
Questions & answers
Why does my take-home differ from my payslip?
Lots of small reasons. Your real tax code might include adjustments we don't know about, your employer may run a week-1/month-1 (non-cumulative) code, your pension or benefits might be set up differently, or you may have other income. We use a standard cumulative calculation, so treat any difference as a prompt to check your payslip rather than a sign one of you is wrong.
What's the difference between net pay and salary sacrifice pensions?
Both reduce your take-home, but salary sacrifice usually leaves you slightly better off for the same contribution. Net pay (and auto-enrolment) contributions come out before Income Tax only. Salary sacrifice contributions come out before Income Tax and National Insurance, so you save NI as well. Relief at source is different again: it's taken after tax, with your provider reclaiming the basic-rate relief on your behalf.
Does this include the £100k personal allowance taper?
Yes. Once your income passes £100,000 we taper the personal allowance away, which increases the effective tax rate on income in that range. If you earn near or above that level, that taper is already reflected in your estimate.
How are bonuses and overtime taxed?
We add them to your gross pay and tax and NI them at your normal rates for the year. In real life a one-off bonus in a single month can be over-taxed by PAYE and then evens out over the year — our figures show the annualised position rather than what a single bumper payslip might look like.
Do company car and other benefits affect my National Insurance?
Not your own. Taxable benefits (BIK) add to your taxable income for Income Tax, but the National Insurance on benefits is the employer's to pay (Class 1A), so your employee NI is unaffected in this calculator.
Which tax year should I choose?
Pick the year that matches the pay period you're interested in. We default to 2026/27, but you can switch to 2025/26 to check the previous year. Rates and thresholds change each year, so the same salary can give slightly different take-home figures between them.
Why do the weekly and daily figures look a bit odd?
They're your annual take-home split across the chosen period. Monthly is the annual figure divided by twelve, and daily assumes roughly 260 working days a year, so it won't line up exactly with any single week's or day's actual pay. Use the period toggles to show only the breakdowns that are useful to you.
Is this financial or tax advice?
No. These are estimates for general guidance only, not financial or tax advice, and no figure here is guaranteed. For your exact position, check your payslip and HMRC, and speak to a qualified adviser before making decisions about your money.