A take-home pay calculator that goes beyond the basics — Income Tax for England, Wales, Northern Ireland and Scotland, National Insurance, student loan repayments and pension contributions, all worked out together and laid out like a proper ledger.
Your details
Before tax, your contracted gross salary.
Optional. Added to salary and taxed the same way.
Not sure? Check your payslip or scheme booklet — most auto-enrolment workplace pensions use a net pay arrangement.
Most people have at most one of these — pick whichever applies to you.
Leave blank for standard Personal Allowance (£12,570). Enter your code if yours differs — shown on your P60 or payslip.
Salary sacrifice for childcare vouchers reduces pay before tax and NI. Basic-rate taxpayers: up to £243/month tax-free. Higher-rate taxpayers who joined before April 2011: up to £124/month.
Company car, private medical, gym etc. Added to your taxable income for Income Tax (not NI). Use the value shown on your P11D form from your employer.
Your breakdown
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Scenario B
Most people have at most one of these — pick whichever applies to you.
Leave blank for standard Personal Allowance (£12,570).
Scenario B breakdown
Scenario A vs Scenario B
How UK take-home pay is worked out
A quick walkthrough of the moving parts behind the numbers above, using 2026/27 figures (6 April 2026 to 5 April 2027).
Income Tax
Everyone gets a Personal Allowance of £12,570 before any Income Tax is due. Above that, England, Wales and Northern Ireland use three bands, while Scotland sets its own rates with six bands.
England, Wales & NI
Rate
£12,571 – £50,270
20% (basic rate)
£50,271 – £125,140
40% (higher rate)
Over £125,140
45% (additional rate)
Scotland
Rate
£12,571 – £16,537
19% (starter rate)
£16,538 – £29,526
20% (basic rate)
£29,527 – £43,662
21% (intermediate rate)
£43,663 – £75,000
42% (higher rate)
£75,001 – £116,760
45% (advanced rate)
Over £116,760
48% (top rate)
If you earn over £100,000, your Personal Allowance shrinks by £1 for every £2 over that threshold, disappearing completely at £125,140 — which is why earnings in that band are taxed especially hard. In Scotland, this taper has a knock-on effect on the bands themselves: because the bands apply to taxable income (after your Personal Allowance), a shrinking allowance pushes more of your income into each higher band sooner. That's why the 48% top rate starts at roughly £116,760 of gross income rather than £125,140 — the £125,140 figure is where the Personal Allowance reaches zero, not where the top rate begins. The calculator above accounts for this automatically.
National Insurance
National Insurance is the same across the whole UK regardless of region. For 2026/27, employees pay 8% on earnings between £12,570 and £50,270, and 2% on anything above that. Nothing is due below £12,570.
Student loan repayments
Repayments only apply to income above your plan's threshold, and are calculated independently for each plan you hold.
Plan
2026/27 threshold
Rate above threshold
Plan 1
£26,900
9%
Plan 2
£29,385
9%
Plan 4 (Scotland)
£33,795
9%
Plan 5
£25,000
9%
Postgraduate Loan (Plan 3)
£21,000
6%
Pension contributions
How a pension contribution affects your take-home pay depends on the method your employer uses. Salary sacrifice reduces the salary used for both tax and National Insurance. A net pay arrangement reduces the salary used for tax only, with National Insurance still based on your full pay. Relief at source takes the contribution from your pay after tax and National Insurance, then your provider tops it up with basic-rate relief — higher and additional rate taxpayers can usually claim extra relief separately through HMRC.
Self-employed take-home
If you are self-employed, Income Tax is calculated on the same bands but National Insurance is different. You pay Class 2 (£3.45/week, if profit exceeds £6,845) and Class 4 (9% on profits £12,570–£50,270; 2% above). There is no employee NI and no PAYE — you pay via Self Assessment each January.
NI Class
Applies when
Rate
Class 2
Profit ≥ £6,845
£3.45/week (£179.40/year)
Class 4 main
Profit £12,570–£50,270
9%
Class 4 upper
Profit above £50,270
2%
Example: £35,000 profit → £4,486 Income Tax + £179 Class 2 + £2,019 Class 4 = £6,684 total tax → approximately £28,316 take-home. The Cicero Self-Employed Tax Tracker calculates all of this precisely, including mileage, invoices, MTD quarterly summaries, and payments on account.