Take-home pay calculator

How it works

The figures are for the 2026/27 tax year, which runs from 6 April 2026 to 5 April 2027. Income Tax is worked out on the year’s pay as if you are on the usual tax code 1257L and paid the same each month. On £39,000 a year in England that is £5,286 of Income Tax and about £2,114 of National Insurance, leaving roughly £2,633 a month.

Everyone gets a Personal Allowance of £12,570 before Income Tax starts. In England, Wales and Northern Ireland you then pay 20% on the next £37,700, so up to £50,270, 40% up to £125,140 and 45% above that.

Scotland sets its own rates on the same allowance: a starter rate of 19% up to £16,537, 20% up to £29,526, an intermediate rate of 21% up to £43,662, 42% up to £75,000, an advanced rate of 45% up to £125,140 and 48% above. Anyone earning less than about £33,500 pays slightly less than elsewhere in the UK; on £50,000 a Scottish taxpayer pays £1,496 more.

The Personal Allowance shrinks by £1 for every £2 of income over £100,000 and is gone at £125,140. Between those figures each extra pound costs 60p in Income Tax (67.5p in Scotland) plus 2p in National Insurance, the so-called 60% tax trap. Paying more into a pension lowers the income the taper is measured on.

Employee National Insurance is 8% of monthly pay between £1,048 and £4,189 and 2% above that, which is about £12,570 and about £50,270 a year. Unlike Income Tax it is worked out on each pay period on its own, so it does not even out over the year.

Student loans are repaid at 9% of pay above the threshold for your plan: £26,900 for Plan 1, £29,385 for Plan 2, £33,795 for Plan 4 and £25,000 for Plan 5. A Postgraduate Loan takes 6% above £21,000 and can come on top of another plan. Employers work out each month separately and round down to the pound.

The pension field treats your contribution as a net pay arrangement: it comes off before Income Tax but not before National Insurance or student loans. With relief at source a basic rate taxpayer ends up with the same take-home pay. Salary sacrifice also saves National Insurance, so it leaves a little more.

This is an estimate. Your payslip follows the tax code HMRC gives you, and bonuses, benefits in kind and other income can change it. The calculator has been checked against HMRC’s tax, National Insurance and student loan tables, and you can choose other countries in it as well.

Worked examples

The table shows what is left of a range of monthly salaries in England, on tax code 1257L with no student loan or pension contribution. The figures come from the same rules as the calculator above.

The marginal rate is the share of the next £100 of pay that goes in Income Tax and National Insurance.

Step by step: £3,250 a month

£3,250 a month is £39,000 a year. Income Tax is worked out on the year’s pay, and National Insurance on each month’s pay on its own.

Where you live matters. On £3,250 a month you take home £2,633 in England, Wales and Northern Ireland and £2,629 in Scotland, a difference of £4 a month.

Marginal rates: what you keep from a pay rise

The share of your whole salary that goes in deductions is not the same as the marginal rate, which is the share of a pay rise that does. The marginal rate is usually higher, and it jumps at a few points.

Between £12,570 and £50,270 a year, an employee in England, Wales or Northern Ireland pays 20% Income Tax and 8% National Insurance on each extra pound, and keeps 72p. Between £50,270 and £100,000 it becomes 40% and 2%, and 58p is kept. A student loan takes another 9% above its threshold, or 6% for a Postgraduate Loan.

In Scotland the intermediate rate of 21% applies from £29,527, so most Scottish employees keep 71p of each extra pound. The higher rate of 42% starts at £43,663, while National Insurance stays at 8% up to £50,270, so on pay between those two figures a Scottish taxpayer loses 50p of each extra pound.

What the calculator leaves out

The calculator is for someone whose only income is a salary from one employer. Income from self-employment, property, or savings above the Personal Savings Allowance is taxed either through your tax code or through Self Assessment, and counts towards the same bands as your salary.

If you or your partner get Child Benefit and one of you has adjusted net income over £60,000, the High Income Child Benefit Charge takes back 1% of the benefit for every £200 above that, and all of it at £80,000.

Benefits in kind, such as a company car or private medical insurance, are usually taxed in 2026/27 by lowering your tax code, which raises the Income Tax taken each month. From 6 April 2027 company cars, fuel, vans and medical insurance must instead be taxed through payroll, and most other benefits follow from April 2028.

Marriage Allowance lets a spouse or civil partner whose income is below the Personal Allowance transfer £1,260 of it to a partner who pays tax at the basic rate (in Scotland the starter, basic or intermediate rate), which is worth up to £252 a year. People over State Pension age pay no employee National Insurance, so they take home more from the same salary.

Tax codes, and why your payslip can differ

1257L means a Personal Allowance of £12,570. HMRC changes the code to collect or give back tax from other sources, such as benefits in kind or tax underpaid in an earlier year, so two people on the same salary can see different deductions.

Most codes are cumulative: each month the payroll looks at your pay and tax since 6 April, so tax overpaid earlier in the year comes back through later payslips. Emergency codes, marked W1, M1 or X, work on each pay period on its own, and codes such as BR or 0T give no tax-free pay at all. Either kind often takes too much until HMRC sends your employer the right code.

After the tax year ends your employer gives you a P60 showing your pay and deductions. If too much or too little was taken, HMRC usually puts it right with a refund or an adjusted code.

The employer’s cost

On top of your salary, your employer pays National Insurance of 15% on pay above £5,000 a year, or about £417 a month. On £3,250 a month that is about £425. Most employers can reduce the bill with the Employment Allowance of up to £10,500 a year, and there is no employer National Insurance on the pay of employees under 21 or apprentices under 25, up to £50,270 a year.

Employees aged at least 22 and earning over £10,000 a year are enrolled automatically in a workplace pension. The employer must pay at least 3% of qualifying earnings, which is pay between £6,240 and £50,270 a year, and the total must be at least 8%, so the employee usually pays 5% including tax relief. The calculator does not include the employer’s contribution.

Sources

• HMRC – Rates and thresholds for employers 2026 to 2027
• GOV.UK – Income Tax rates and Personal Allowances
• GOV.UK – Scottish Income Tax
• HMRC – Student and Postgraduate Loan deduction tables 2026 to 2027 (SL3)
• GOV.UK – High Income Child Benefit Charge
• GOV.UK – Marriage Allowance
• GOV.UK – What your tax code means
• GOV.UK – Emergency tax codes
• GOV.UK – Tax and National Insurance after State Pension age
• GOV.UK – Employment Allowance: check if you’re eligible
• GOV.UK – Workplace pensions: what you, your employer and the government pay
• The Pensions Regulator – Earnings thresholds
• HMRC – Phased introduction of mandatory payrolling for benefits in kind

How the tools are checked