Three deductions stand between a UK salary and the money that reaches a bank account: income tax, Class 1 National Insurance, and, for most employees, a workplace pension. Graduates add a fourth. None of them appear on a job advert, which is why a £40,000 offer feels smaller than it sounded. This calculator applies the actual 2026/27 figures, including the six Scottish bands and the Personal Allowance taper, and shows the marginal rate on your next £1,000 of pay, which matters more than the average rate when you are weighing a pay rise or a pension increase. For the US equivalent see the take-home pay calculator, and for an hourly figure the hourly to salary calculator.
How much take-home pay do you get on each UK salary in 2026/27?
The table below assumes no pension contribution and no student loan, so it is the ceiling rather than the typical payslip. The last column is the extra income tax a Scottish taxpayer pays on the same salary, which is the number most UK salary calculators leave out.
| Gross salary | Income tax | National Insurance | Take-home / month | You keep | Scotland costs |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| £20,000 | £1,486 | £594 | £1,493 | 89.6% | £40 less |
| £25,000 | £2,486 | £994 | £1,793 | 86.1% | £40 less |
| £30,000 | £3,486 | £1,394 | £2,093 | 83.7% | £35 less |
| £35,000 | £4,486 | £1,794 | £2,393 | 82.1% | £15 more |
| £40,000 | £5,486 | £2,194 | £2,693 | 80.8% | £65 more |
| £45,000 | £6,486 | £2,594 | £2,993 | 79.8% | £396 more |
| £50,270 | £7,540 | £3,016 | £3,310 | 79.0% | £1,555 more |
| £55,000 | £9,432 | £3,111 | £3,538 | 77.2% | £1,650 more |
| £60,000 | £11,432 | £3,211 | £3,780 | 75.6% | £1,750 more |
| £70,000 | £15,432 | £3,411 | £4,263 | 73.1% | £1,950 more |
| £80,000 | £19,432 | £3,611 | £4,746 | 71.2% | £2,300 more |
| £100,000 | £27,432 | £4,011 | £5,713 | 68.6% | £3,300 more |
| £125,140 | £42,516 | £4,513 | £6,509 | 62.4% | £5,563 more |
| £150,000 | £53,703 | £5,011 | £7,607 | 60.9% | £6,308 more |
Calculated from HMRC 2026/27 rates and the Scottish Rate Resolution for 2026-27. Monthly figures are annual take-home divided by 12. Assumes a standard 1257L tax code, no pension, no student loan and no taxable benefits.
The pattern worth noticing is that the share you keep falls steadily rather than in steps. At £20,000 you keep 89.6% because most of the salary sits inside the Personal Allowance. By £60,000 you keep 75.6%, and at £125,140 only 62.4%. Between those points nothing dramatic happens at the higher-rate threshold itself, because the 6 percentage point jump in National Insurance relief (from 8% down to 2%) partly offsets the 20 point jump in income tax. The real cliff is at £100,000, covered further down.
What are the 2026/27 UK income tax rates and thresholds?
For England, Wales and Northern Ireland there are three rates and one allowance. Nothing changed from 2025/26, and nothing is scheduled to change before April 2031.
| Band | Taxable income | Rate | Tax on the full band |
|---|---|---|---|
| Personal Allowance | Up to £12,570 | 0% | £0 |
| Basic rate | £12,571 to £50,270 | 20% | £7,540 |
| Higher rate | £50,271 to £125,140 | 40% | £34,976 |
| Additional rate | Over £125,140 | 45% | No upper limit |
Source: House of Commons Library briefing CBP-10618, Direct taxes: Rates and allowances for 2026/27, published 7 April 2026. The Personal Allowance has been £12,570 since April 2022 and the freeze runs to April 2031, confirmed at Budget 2025 (HM Treasury, 28 November 2025).
The basic rate band is £37,700 wide. That number, not £50,270, is what the tax system actually uses, and it is why the higher-rate threshold moves when the allowance moves. Once income passes £100,000 and the allowance starts to disappear, the £37,700 band stays the same width but begins at £0 of taxable income instead of £12,571, which is what produces the 60% effective rate. To see the band maths on any figure, use the tax bracket calculator, and for the full UK picture the UK income tax guide.
How much National Insurance comes out of your pay?
Class 1 employee National Insurance is charged at 8% on earnings between £12,570 and £50,270 a year, then 2% on everything above. The 8% slice is capped at £2,996 a year, which is the most anyone pays at the main rate. National Insurance is set UK-wide, so Scotland, Wales and Northern Ireland use the same thresholds even where income tax differs.
| Threshold | Weekly | Monthly | Annual | Rate above it |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Lower earnings limit | £123 | £533 | £6,396 | 0% (builds State Pension) |
| Primary threshold | £242 | £1,048 | £12,570 | 8% |
| Upper earnings limit | £967 | £4,189 | £50,270 | 2% |
| Secondary threshold (employer) | £96 | £417 | £5,000 | 15%, no ceiling |
Source: Commons Library briefing CBP-10618 (7 April 2026) and HMRC rates and thresholds for employers 2026 to 2027, updated 6 April 2026. The employee main rate fell from 12% to 10% in January 2024 and to 8% in April 2024, and has stayed at 8% since.
Two details catch people out. The first is that National Insurance is worked out on each pay period rather than on the year, so a one-off bonus can push a single month above the weekly-equivalent upper earnings limit and attract 8% on a slice that an annual calculation would have charged at 2%. The second is that National Insurance stops entirely at State Pension age, even if you keep working, which is worth around £3,000 a year to someone on £50,270 and is the checkbox at the top of this calculator.
Why is take-home pay different in Scotland?
Scotland sets its own rates and bands on earned income and has six of them rather than three. For 2026/27 the basic and intermediate thresholds rose 7.4%, while the higher, advanced and top thresholds stayed frozen. The Scottish Government estimates that around 55% of Scottish taxpayers pay less than they would elsewhere in the UK, and the crossover is near £33,500.
| Scottish band | Income | Rate | Marginal rate with NI | Same slice in England |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Starter | £12,571 to £16,537 | 19% | 27% | 28% |
| Basic | £16,538 to £29,526 | 20% | 28% | 28% |
| Intermediate | £29,527 to £43,662 | 21% | 29% | 28% |
| Higher | £43,663 to £75,000 | 42% | 50% to £50,270 | 28% |
| Advanced | £75,001 to £125,140 | 45% | 47% | 42% |
| Top | Over £125,140 | 48% | 50% | 47% |
Source: Scottish Government, Income tax proposals for 2026-27, 13 January 2026, and the draft Scottish Rate Resolution published with the Scottish Budget 2026 to 2027. National Insurance rates are UK-wide.
The band that does the damage is £43,663 to £50,270. A Scottish taxpayer pays the 42% higher rate there while still paying 8% National Insurance, because the National Insurance upper earnings limit is a UK figure and stays at £50,270. That is a 50% marginal rate on £6,607 of pay. The same slice costs an English taxpayer 28%. It is the reason a £50,270 salary nets £1,555 a year less in Scotland while a £30,000 salary nets £35 a year more, and it is the strongest argument for pension contributions anywhere in the UK system below six figures. Scottish taxpayers with a Plan 4 student loan face 59% on that band once the 9% repayment is added.
What is the 60% tax trap between £100,000 and £125,140?
Above £100,000 the Personal Allowance is withdrawn at £1 for every £2 of income. Each extra £2 earned is taxed at 40%, and the £1 of allowance it destroys is also taxed at 40%, so £2 of pay produces £1.20 of tax. That is a 60% effective rate, 62% with the 2% National Insurance charge. The allowance is gone entirely at £125,140, where the rate drops back to 47%.
A £10,000 pay rise from £100,000 to £110,000 (England, Wales, NI, 2026/27)
£100,000 £110,000
Personal Allowance 12,570 7,570
Income tax 27,432 33,432
National Insurance 4,011 4,211
Take-home 68,557 72,357
-------------
Extra gross pay +10,000
Extra take-home +3,800
Kept 38%
Lost to tax and NI 62%
Instead: sacrifice the £10,000 into a pension
Take-home 68,557 (unchanged)
Pension pot +10,000
Net cost of a £10,000 pension contribution 3,800The arithmetic makes the £100,000 to £125,140 band the cheapest place in the UK system to fund a pension. A £10,000 contribution made by salary sacrifice costs £3,800 of take-home pay, because the sacrifice both avoids the 40% tax and restores the allowance that was being taxed at 40%. Anyone in that band losing tax-free childcare or the 30 free hours at the £100,000 cliff edge gains more again, since those benefits are tested on adjusted net income, which salary sacrifice reduces. Model the long-run effect with the UK pension guide or the compound interest calculator.
How much does a student loan take out of your pay?
Student loan repayments are 9% of earnings above a plan threshold, or 6% for postgraduate loans, and they are collected through payroll alongside tax. They are not tax, but they behave like it on a payslip and they raise the marginal deduction rate on every pound above the threshold.
| Plan | Who is on it | 2026/27 threshold | Rate | Repayment on £40,000 |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Plan 1 | England/Wales pre-Sept 2012, and Northern Ireland | £26,900 | 9% | £1,179 |
| Plan 2 | England/Wales, Sept 2012 to Aug 2023 | £29,385 | 9% | £955 |
| Plan 4 | Scotland (SAAS loans) | £33,795 | 9% | £558 |
| Plan 5 | England/Wales, from Sept 2023 | £25,000 | 9% | £1,350 |
| Postgraduate | Masters and doctoral loans | £21,000 | 6% | £1,140 |
Plan 1 rose from £26,065, Plan 2 from £28,470 and Plan 4 from £32,745 for 2026/27. Plan 5 stays at £25,000 and the postgraduate threshold stays at £21,000, both frozen by legislation. The Plan 2 threshold is then frozen at £29,385 from April 2027 to April 2030, announced at Budget 2025.
A graduate on £40,000 with a Plan 2 loan takes home £2,614 a month rather than £2,693. A graduate with both a Plan 2 and a postgraduate loan repays £2,095 a year and takes home £2,519 a month, which is £174 a month less than the headline figure. The combined marginal deduction rate for that person is 43%: 20% income tax, 8% National Insurance, 9% Plan 2 and 6% postgraduate. In Scotland above £43,663 the same two loans push the marginal rate to 65%. For the repayment timeline rather than the monthly figure, see the UK student loan guide.
How does a pension contribution change take-home pay?
A pension contribution lowers take-home pay, but by less than the amount paid in, and how much less depends on which of two mechanisms your employer uses. Both are common and most payslips do not label them clearly.
Under a net pay arrangement the contribution comes off pay before income tax but after National Insurance is worked out. A 5% employee contribution on a £35,000 salary, taken on the qualifying earnings band, is £1,438 a year, and it reduces take-home by £1,150.40. The £287.60 difference is 20% income tax relief. Under salary sacrifice you give up contractual pay, so the contribution escapes National Insurance as well. A £3,000 sacrifice on a £60,000 salary reduces take-home by £1,740 rather than £3,000, a saving of £1,260 made up of 40% tax relief and 2% National Insurance relief. Many employers also pass some of their own 15% National Insurance saving into the pot.
| Automatic enrolment figure | 2026/27 |
|---|---|
| Earnings trigger for enrolment | £10,000 |
| Qualifying earnings band | £6,240 to £50,270 |
| Minimum total contribution | 8% of qualifying earnings |
| Minimum employer share | 3% |
| Typical employee share | 5% |
Source: Department for Work and Pensions review of the automatic enrolment earnings trigger and qualifying earnings band for 2026/27, which held both at 2025/26 levels.
Because the band excludes the first £6,240, a 5% contribution is 5% of £28,760 on a £35,000 salary, not 5% of £35,000. That is £1,438 instead of £1,750, and it is the single most common reason a pension deduction looks smaller than expected. One change is coming: from April 2029 the National Insurance relief on pension contributions made through salary sacrifice will be capped at £2,000 a year, with contributions above that subject to both employee and employer National Insurance (Budget 2025, 26 November 2025). HMRC analysis puts 74% of basic-rate taxpayers below the cap, so the people affected are mostly higher earners sacrificing large amounts. Nothing changes before April 2029, and ordinary employer contributions outside salary sacrifice keep full relief.
Why does the threshold freeze cut your pay every year?
The Personal Allowance and the higher-rate threshold have been frozen since April 2022 and will stay frozen until April 2031, a freeze extended twice and confirmed at Budget 2025. Because the thresholds do not move while pay does, every inflation-matching pay rise pushes a larger share of income into tax. The Office for Budget Responsibility calls this fiscal drag, and it is the main reason take-home pay percentages have fallen without a single rate changing.
In practice: if the £50,270 higher-rate threshold had risen with inflation since 2021/22 it would sit well above £60,000 by now. A worker whose salary has tracked inflation from £45,000 in 2021 to around £56,000 today has moved from paying no 40% tax to paying it on roughly £5,700 of income, which costs about £1,140 a year more than it would have under an uprated system. The practical response is the same either way: use salary sacrifice to keep taxable pay under the threshold that matters to you, since a contribution reduces the figure the thresholds are tested against.
What does a pay rise actually add to your take-home pay?
The average rate tells you what you keep overall. The marginal rate tells you what you keep from the next pound, and it is the only number that matters when you are deciding whether to take on extra responsibility, work overtime, or move the money into a pension instead. In England, Wales and Northern Ireland there are four marginal rates, and they do not run in order.
| Income band | Income tax | National Insurance | Marginal rate | With a Plan 2 loan | You keep |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| £12,571 to £50,270 | 20% | 8% | 28% | 37% | 72p in the pound |
| £50,271 to £100,000 | 40% | 2% | 42% | 51% | 58p |
| £100,001 to £125,140 | 40% plus taper | 2% | 62% | 71% | 38p |
| Over £125,140 | 45% | 2% | 47% | 56% | 53p |
The band above £125,140 is cheaper at the margin than the band below it. That inversion is why a £5,000 bonus can be worth more to someone on £130,000 than to someone on £110,000, and it is one of the few places in the UK system where earning more makes each extra pound more valuable rather than less. The calculator above shows your own marginal rate on the next £1,000, which is the figure to compare against any pension or sacrifice decision. Scotland has eight marginal bands once National Insurance and the taper are layered in, running 27%, 28%, 29%, 50%, 44%, 47%, 69.5% and 50%.
How is UK take-home pay calculated, step by step?
Five steps, in this order, because the order changes the answer. Using a £40,000 salary in England with a 5% net pay pension and a Plan 2 loan:
- Start with gross pay of £40,000.
- Take off the pension. 5% of qualifying earnings (£40,000 minus £6,240) is £1,688. Taxable pay is now £38,312.
- Work out income tax on taxable pay minus the Personal Allowance: £38,312 minus £12,570 is £25,742, all inside the basic rate band, so £5,148.40 of tax.
- Work out National Insurance on the full £40,000, because a net pay pension does not reduce it: 8% of £27,430 is £2,194.40.
- Work out the student loan on the full £40,000: 9% of £10,615 is £955.35.
Take-home is £40,000 minus £1,688 minus £5,148.40 minus £2,194.40 minus £955.35, which is £30,013.85 a year or £2,501 a month. Run the same salary through the calculator with salary sacrifice instead of a net pay arrangement and take-home rises to £2,525 a month. The £1,688 then escapes National Insurance (worth £135.04 a year) and it also drops the earnings the student loan is charged on (worth £151.92 a year), so the switch is worth £23.92 a month for identical pension saving. Above £50,270 the National Insurance saving from sacrifice falls to 2% a pound, so the advantage per pound narrows even though the income tax relief doubles to 40%.
The formula in one line: take-home equals gross pay, minus pension, minus income tax on pay after pension, minus National Insurance on pay after any salary sacrifice, minus student loan on the same figure National Insurance used.
Mistakes people make reading a UK payslip
- Dividing the annual salary by 12 and expecting that figure. On £40,000 the gross month is £3,333 and the net month is £2,693. The gap is £640 before any pension.
- Assuming the higher-rate threshold is the expensive line. The marginal rate rises from 28% to 42% there, a 14 point jump. At £100,000 it jumps from 42% to 62%, a 20 point jump, and almost nobody plans for it.
- Treating a 5% pension as 5% of salary. On qualifying earnings it is 5% of pay above £6,240, so a smaller number than expected.
- Forgetting that a bonus is taxed in the month it is paid. National Insurance uses the pay period, so a bonus can be charged 8% on a slice that the annual view would have taxed at 2%. The tax usually corrects itself over the year; the National Insurance does not.
- Reading a Scottish payslip against an English calculator. At £50,270 the error is £1,555 a year, and almost every generic UK calculator defaults to the English bands.
- Ignoring the tax code. This calculator assumes the standard 1257L code. A K code, a company car, medical insurance or an underpayment being collected through PAYE all change the real figure.
- Counting employer National Insurance as a deduction. The employer pays 15% above £5,000 on top of your salary. It never appears in your take-home, but it is why pay rises cost an employer more than the rise itself.
Frequently asked questions
How much is take-home pay on £40,000 in the UK in 2026/27?
A £40,000 salary in England, Wales or Northern Ireland gives take-home pay of £2,693 a month, or £32,319.60 a year, for 2026/27. That is after £5,486 of income tax and £2,194.40 of Class 1 National Insurance, and assumes no pension contribution and no student loan. You keep 80.8% of gross. In Scotland the same salary nets £2,687.88 a month because of the 21% intermediate rate.
What are the UK income tax rates for 2026/27?
For England, Wales and Northern Ireland in 2026/27 the Personal Allowance is £12,570, the basic rate is 20% on the next £37,700 of taxable income (to £50,270), the higher rate is 40% from £50,271 to £125,140, and the additional rate is 45% above £125,140. All rates and thresholds are unchanged from 2025/26 and are frozen until April 2031. Source: Commons Library briefing CBP-10618, 7 April 2026.
How much National Insurance do I pay in 2026/27?
Employees pay Class 1 National Insurance at 8% on earnings between the primary threshold of £12,570 a year (£242 a week) and the upper earnings limit of £50,270 a year (£967 a week), then 2% on everything above that. The maximum 8% charge is £2,996 a year. Rates are unchanged from 2025/26. Earnings between the lower earnings limit of £123 a week and the primary threshold are charged at 0% but still build State Pension entitlement.
Why is my marginal tax rate 50% in Scotland?
Between £43,663 and £50,270 a Scottish taxpayer pays the 42% Scottish higher rate of income tax while still paying 8% National Insurance, because National Insurance thresholds are set UK-wide and the upper earnings limit stays at £50,270. That is a 50% marginal rate on that slice of pay. In England, Wales and Northern Ireland the same slice is taxed at 20% plus 8%, so 28%. The 22 point gap is the largest single difference between the two systems.
What is the 60% tax trap on £100,000?
Above £100,000 the Personal Allowance is reduced by £1 for every £2 of income, so £2 of extra pay loses £1 of allowance and that £1 is then taxed at 40%. The effective marginal rate between £100,000 and £125,140 is 60%, or 62% once the 2% National Insurance rate is added. Earning £110,000 instead of £100,000 adds only £3,800 to take-home pay. A £10,000 pension contribution in that band costs just £3,800 of net pay.
How much is my student loan repayment in 2026/27?
You repay 9% of earnings above your plan threshold: £26,900 for Plan 1, £29,385 for Plan 2, £33,795 for Plan 4 (Scotland) and £25,000 for Plan 5. Postgraduate loans are 6% above £21,000. On £40,000 with a Plan 2 loan that is £955.35 a year, about £80 a month. A graduate with both a Plan 2 and a postgraduate loan on £40,000 repays £2,095.35 a year, which lifts the marginal deduction rate on that pay to 43%.
Does a pension contribution increase my take-home pay percentage?
No, a pension contribution reduces take-home pay, but it costs less than the amount paid in. Under a net pay arrangement a £1,438 contribution on a £35,000 salary reduces take-home by £1,150.40, because 20% income tax relief applies but National Insurance does not. Under salary sacrifice you also save National Insurance, so a £3,000 sacrifice on £60,000 reduces take-home by £1,740 rather than £3,000. Both leave the full amount in the pension.
What is the minimum workplace pension contribution for 2026/27?
The automatic enrolment minimum is 8% of qualifying earnings, of which at least 3% must come from the employer, leaving 5% from the employee. Qualifying earnings for 2026/27 are the band between £6,240 and £50,270, and the earnings trigger for automatic enrolment is £10,000. Because the first £6,240 is excluded, a 5% employee contribution on a £35,000 salary is £1,438 a year, not £1,750.
Related calculators and guides
This calculator is for general information and is not personalised tax or financial advice. It assumes a standard 1257L tax code, Class 1 employee National Insurance, no taxable benefits in kind, no Marriage Allowance or Blind Person's Allowance, and no other income. Your real figures depend on your tax code, pay frequency, bonuses and benefits. Check your payslip and HMRC's personal tax account, or speak to a qualified adviser, before making decisions based on these estimates.