How this calculator works

Type in your gross salary and this tool walks it through the same order HMRC and your payroll software actually use: it works out your Personal Allowance first, applies Income Tax on what's left, calculates National Insurance separately on a different threshold, then subtracts your pension and student loan on top. The result is your real annual take-home, plus a monthly and weekly figure.

Region matters because Scotland has run its own Income Tax bands since 2018. Rest-of-UK employees pay 20% up to £50,270, then 40%, then 45%. Scotland has six bands instead of three, starting at 19% and topping out at 48% above £125,140, so identical salaries produce different tax bills either side of the border. Selecting Scotland switches the calculator onto the correct band structure automatically.

If your income (after pension and any salary sacrifice) sits between £100,000 and £125,140, the calculator also applies the Personal Allowance taper. HMRC withdraws £1 of your tax-free allowance for every £2 you earn in that band, which is why this stretch of income is often called the 60% trap. You don't need to do anything to trigger this, it happens automatically based on the salary you enter.

One thing worth knowing about the pension field: this calculator treats your employee pension contribution as reducing both your taxable income and your National Insurance, the way a salary sacrifice pension works. That's accurate if your workplace pension is salary sacrifice. If it's a net pay or relief-at-source scheme instead, which many workplace pensions are, your contribution still reduces your tax the same way, but it won't reduce your National Insurance. In that case your real NI bill will be very slightly higher than the figure shown here. Check your payslip or ask HR which type you're on if you're not sure, since it's usually named on your pension scheme paperwork.

Understanding your inputs

Gross Annual Salary is your salary before any deductions, exactly as written in your contract or offer letter, not what lands in your bank account.

Region determines which Income Tax bands apply. Choose Scotland only if you're a Scottish taxpayer, which HMRC defines by where you live, not where your employer is based.

Tax Code is optional. Leave it blank and the calculator uses the standard 2026/27 Personal Allowance of £12,570. If you know your actual code, entering it can change your result, for example an emergency BR code taxes everything at 20% with no tax-free allowance at all, which catches a lot of people by surprise in a new job.

Employee Pension % is your own contribution as a percentage of gross salary, entered as it appears on your payslip.

Student Loan covers all five UK repayment plans. Not sure which one you're on? It depends on where you studied and when you started, not where you currently live, and our student loan repayment guide covers how to tell them apart.

Marriage Allowance, Other Salary Sacrifice and Benefits-in-Kind live under Advanced Options because most people don't need them. Marriage Allowance only applies if one partner earns under £12,570 and the other is a basic-rate taxpayer. Benefits-in-kind, like a company car or private healthcare, add to your taxable income even though you never see the cash.

Worked example

Take someone on a £45,000 salary in England, contributing 5% to a salary sacrifice pension, with a Plan 2 student loan and no other adjustments.

Their pension contribution is £2,250, bringing adjusted income to £42,750. That's comfortably below the £100,000 taper, so the full £12,570 Personal Allowance applies, leaving £30,180 of taxable income, all inside the basic-rate band. Income Tax comes to £6,036. National Insurance is calculated on the same £42,750 at 8% above the £12,570 threshold, coming to £2,414.40. The Plan 2 student loan threshold is £29,385, so 9% applies to the £15,615 above it, a repayment of £1,405.35.

Add it up: £45,000 salary minus £6,036 tax, £2,414.40 NI, £2,250 pension and £1,405.35 student loan leaves a take-home of £32,894.25 a year, which works out to £2,741 a month or £633 a week. Run the same salary through with Scotland selected instead and the tax bill rises to £6,128.57, because the Scottish Intermediate band (21%) catches part of this income where rUK's basic rate (20%) wouldn't yet, trimming take-home to £32,801.68.

2026/27 rates at a glance

Common Mistakes

The most frequent one is comparing this figure to a payslip from partway through the tax year and assuming something's wrong. Cumulative PAYE catches up gradually, so a single month's payslip, especially after a pay rise, bonus, or new job, rarely matches an annualised calculation exactly. Give it a few months to settle.

Another is leaving the pension field at the 5% default without checking it against an actual payslip. It's there as a placeholder, not a national average, and a few percentage points either way changes both the tax and take-home figures meaningfully.

People also frequently pick the wrong student loan plan, particularly Plan 2 versus Plan 5, since both cover English undergraduates and the difference comes down entirely to start date, not subject or university. Getting this wrong changes the repayment threshold by thousands of pounds.

Finally, entering a tax code without understanding what it does is a common one. A blank field assumes the standard allowance, which is right for most people, but pasting in a code from an old payslip without checking it's still current can silently apply an emergency rate or the wrong allowance.

Sources and verification

Figures verified against HMRC, the Scottish Government and the Department for Education on 03 September 2026. Applies to the 2026/27 tax year.

Income Tax bands and Personal Allowance: HMRC. Scottish Income Tax bands: Scottish Government technical factsheet, published 13 January 2026. National Insurance thresholds and rates: HMRC. Student loan thresholds: Department for Education/HMRC. Marriage Allowance: HMRC.