How the UK Salary Calculator Works

Your take-home pay — what actually lands in your bank account — is what's left after Income Tax, National Insurance, pension contributions and any student loan repayments come out of your gross salary. PAYE (Pay As You Earn) is the system HMRC uses to collect these deductions through your employer's payroll, so you never see most of the money personally.

Income Tax

Everyone in the UK gets a Personal Allowance of £12,570 for 2026/27 that's tax-free (frozen at this level until April 2031). Above that, Income Tax is charged in bands: 20% from £12,571 to £50,270 (basic rate), 40% from £50,271 to £125,140 (higher rate), and 45% above £125,140 (additional rate). Only the income that falls in each band is taxed at that band's rate, so a higher salary doesn't push your earlier income into a higher rate. The 2025 Autumn Budget extended the freeze on Income Tax thresholds to April 2031, so the bands won't move with inflation for several more years.

The £100k Personal Allowance taper

If you earn over £100,000, your Personal Allowance is withdrawn by £1 for every £2 of income above the threshold, disappearing entirely at £125,140. This creates an effective marginal tax rate of 60% in the £100k–£125,140 band — each additional £1 of income costs you 40% in higher-rate tax plus another 20% on the £0.50 of Personal Allowance you lose. Pension contributions are one of the most common ways to manage this, since they reduce the income figure used for the taper.

Scotland's separate bands

Scottish taxpayers pay Income Tax on non-savings, non-dividend income at rates set by the Scottish Parliament. Scotland uses six rate bands instead of three: starter (19%), basic (20%), intermediate (21%), higher (42%), advanced (45%) and top (48%). The higher rate kicks in at £43,663 instead of £50,271, so middle and high earners generally pay more Income Tax than they would in England. The Personal Allowance, savings income and dividend income are still taxed at the UK-wide rates.

National Insurance and other deductions

Class 1 employee NI for 2026/27 is 8% on earnings between £12,570 and £50,270, then 2% on anything above. Pension contributions reduce your taxable income for Income Tax — for relief-at-source pensions HMRC automatically tops up your contribution at the basic rate — but they don't normally reduce your NI base unless you're in a salary sacrifice arrangement. Student loan repayments are 9% of income above the plan threshold (6% for Postgraduate Loans) and run alongside any tax and NI deductions.