A job offer quotes one number. Your bank balance shows a smaller one, and the gap between them depends on where you live in the UK, which student loan plan you’re on, and how your pension is set up, three things most quick calculators quietly ignore.
Free finance tool · UK 2026/27
UK Take-Home Pay Calculator
Gross to net for 2026/27, with rest-of-UK or Scottish tax bands, National Insurance, every student loan plan, and pension contributions.
You're in the Personal Allowance taper zone. Between £100,000 and £125,140 you lose £1 of tax-free allowance for every £2 earned, which pushes your real marginal rate to around 60% in this band.
Assumes a net pay arrangement or salary sacrifice pension, both deduct before Income Tax is calculated. A relief-at-source scheme works differently and isn't modelled here, check your payslip if you're not sure which applies to you.
What this calculator does and doesn't model
Income Tax (rest-of-UK and Scottish bands), the Personal Allowance taper, Class 1 National Insurance, employer's National Insurance, and every student loan plan's repayment rate use the exact official 2026/27 rates and thresholds, each cited with a source below. Not modelled: relief-at-source pensions, the Blind Person's Allowance, Marriage Allowance transfers, and irregular income like bonuses taxed in a single pay period. This assumes a steady annual salary under standard Category A National Insurance.
UK take-home pay calculator FAQ
How is my take-home pay calculated?
Gross salary minus pension contribution gives your taxable income. Income Tax is worked out across the 2026/27 bands for your region (rest-of-UK or Scotland), National Insurance is calculated separately on its own thresholds, and any student loan repayment comes off last. What is left is your take-home pay.
What is the difference between the rest-of-UK and Scottish tax bands?
England, Wales and Northern Ireland use three Income Tax bands above the Personal Allowance: 20%, 40% and 45%. Scotland sets its own rates and uses six: 19%, 20%, 21%, 42%, 45% and 48%. National Insurance and student loan rules are UK-wide and identical either way, only Income Tax differs.
Which student loan plan am I on?
Plan 1 covers most people who started an undergraduate course before September 2012 (or in Scotland/Northern Ireland any year). Plan 2 covers English and Welsh undergraduates starting between 2012 and 2023. Plan 5 covers English and Welsh undergraduates starting from August 2023 onward. Plan 4 covers Scottish student loans. A Postgraduate Loan is separate and stacks on top of any of these if you also did a taxable Master's or Doctoral loan.
Does my pension contribution reduce my tax?
Under the two most common workplace pension setups, net pay arrangement and salary sacrifice, yes: your contribution comes off before Income Tax is calculated. A third setup, relief at source, deducts your contribution after tax and the pension provider claims basic-rate relief back separately, which this calculator does not model. Check your payslip, if the pension line appears before the tax calculation, this tool applies to you.
What is the difference between salary sacrifice and a normal pension?
Both reduce your Income Tax the same way. Salary sacrifice goes further: it formally lowers your contractual salary, which also reduces the income used for National Insurance and student loan repayments, worth an extra 8-10% on top for most people. A standard net pay arrangement pension does not touch your NI or student loan figures, only your Income Tax.
Why does the calculator show a marginal rate as well as an effective rate?
Your effective rate is your total deductions divided by your gross salary, useful for understanding your overall tax burden. Your marginal rate is what happens to the next pound you earn, which is what actually matters for deciding whether a raise, bonus, or extra pension contribution is worth it. They can differ a lot in the £100,000 to £125,140 band, where the Personal Allowance tapers away.
Is the "60% tax trap" between £100,000 and £125,140 real?
The trap itself is real, losing your Personal Allowance as you earn more genuinely pushes your marginal rate above the standard 40% higher rate. But the "60%" figure widely quoted online doesn't hold up against the actual bands: using the official fixed £50,270 higher-rate threshold, someone going from £100,000 to £110,000 owes £5,000 more Income Tax on that £10,000, a 50% marginal rate (52% including National Insurance), not 60%. This calculator uses the exact HMRC threshold structure rather than the commonly repeated shorthand, so trust the number it shows you over a rounded rule of thumb.
Is this accurate for bonuses, overtime, or a year with irregular income?
This models a steady annual salary paid evenly across the year. A one-off bonus is taxed on top of your existing income in the pay period it lands, which can look like a much higher rate on payslip than your real annual average, that evens out over the year but this calculator does not simulate that month-by-month effect.
Is my salary information private?
Yes. Every calculation happens in your browser. Nothing you enter is sent to a server, logged, or stored.
Free UK take-home pay calculator by ANUPRESS
Why Scotland needs its own calculation entirely
England, Wales and Northern Ireland share one set of Income Tax bands: 20%, 40%, 45%. Scotland sets its own rates every year and currently uses six: 19% Starter, 20% Basic, 21% Intermediate, 42% Higher, 45% Advanced, and 48% Top. The Personal Allowance is identical either way, £12,570, but a Scottish taxpayer earning £45,000 pays a genuinely different amount of Income Tax than someone on the same salary in Manchester or Cardiff. National Insurance and student loan rules don’t change by region, only Income Tax does, which is exactly why this calculator asks where you pay tax before it shows a number.
Is the “60% tax trap” actually 60%?
Between £100,000 and £125,140, your £12,570 Personal Allowance tapers away, £1 lost for every £2 you earn above £100,000. That part is genuinely true and genuinely costs you real money. But the specific “60%” figure repeated across a lot of finance content doesn’t survive contact with the actual fixed HMRC thresholds: using the official £50,270 higher-rate threshold, someone whose income rises from £100,000 to £110,000 owes exactly £5,000 more in Income Tax on that £10,000, a 50% marginal rate, 52% once you add National Insurance. Not 60%. Not 62%. We checked this by working through the actual band arithmetic rather than repeating a widely-copied rule of thumb, and even the worked examples on some of the sites quoting “60%” show underlying totals that match our 52%, they just mislabel the final percentage. Trust the number this calculator shows you.
Picking the right student loan plan
Plan 1 covers most people who started an undergraduate degree before September 2012, plus anyone from Scotland or Northern Ireland regardless of start date. Plan 2 covers English and Welsh undergraduates who started between 2012 and 2023. Plan 5 replaced Plan 2 for new English and Welsh starters from August 2023 onward. Plan 4 is the separate Scottish undergraduate loan. A Postgraduate Loan for a Master’s or Doctorate is entirely separate from all four and stacks on top, repaid at 6% rather than 9%, so it’s common to be repaying two loans simultaneously if you did a taxable postgraduate qualification after an undergraduate one.
The pension detail that changes your numbers by hundreds of pounds a year
Most workplace pensions use a net pay arrangement, your contribution comes off before Income Tax is worked out, but National Insurance and student loan repayments are still calculated on your full salary. Salary sacrifice goes further: your actual contractual salary is reduced, which lowers the income used for NI and student loan repayments too, not just tax. For a basic-rate taxpayer, that’s roughly an extra 8-9p saved per pound sacrificed on top of the tax saving, worth checking which setup your employer actually uses before assuming the numbers here without the salary sacrifice box ticked.