UK PAYE Salary Calculator

Starting from your gross salary, the calculator deducts Income Tax, employee National Insurance, and any student loan repayments and pension contributions you enter. Income Tax is charged only on income above your tax-free Personal Allowance, and then in bands at increasing rates.

Every year from 2018/19 to 2026/27, each with its own Income Tax, National Insurance, student loan, Child Benefit and pension allowance figures, so you can check an old payslip or P60 as well as the current year. The main differences in earlier years: the 45% additional rate started at £150,000 of taxable income until 2022/23, rather than £125,140; Scotland had five bands rather than six until 2024/25, with a 41% higher rate and 46% top rate until 2022/23; employee National Insurance was 12% up to the upper limit until 2021/22; and the High Income Child Benefit Charge ran from £50,000 to £60,000 until 2023/24. When a year gives exactly the same answer as 2026/27, the calculator says so.

It is the amount you can earn before paying any Income Tax — £12,570 for the 2026/27 tax year. Above that, tax is charged in bands. In England, Wales and Northern Ireland the basic rate of 20% applies to the first £37,700 of taxable income, meaning the higher rate starts once gross pay passes £50,270. It was £12,500 in 2019/20 and 2020/21 and £11,850 in 2018/19; pick an earlier tax year and the calculator uses that year's allowance and bands.

Once income passes £100,000 the Personal Allowance is reduced by £1 for every £2 above that figure, so it is gone entirely at £125,140 (with the £12,570 allowance in use since 2021/22). Because you lose allowance as well as paying higher-rate tax, each extra pound earned between £100,000 and £125,140 is taxed at an effective rate of 60%. The calculator applies this taper automatically. Read the full guide to the 60% tax trap, including how pension contributions get the allowance back.

If you or your partner get Child Benefit and your adjusted net income is over £60,000, you pay back 1% of it for every £200 of income above that, so all of it is repaid once income reaches £80,000. Adjusted net income is your taxable pay after pension contributions and salary sacrifice, so paying more into a pension can reduce or remove the charge. If both partners are over £60,000, whoever has the higher income pays. Enter the number of children for whom you are in receipt of Child Benefit (there's no limit, as it's paid for every child) and the calculator shows the charge as a deduction, along with how much Child Benefit you keep. It is normally paid through Self Assessment, although employed people who don't file a return for any other reason can have it collected through their tax code instead. Before 6 April 2024 the charge started at £50,000 and took 1% for every £100 above it, so it was all repaid by £60,000; the calculator uses those figures for 2023/24 and earlier.

Because the High Income Child Benefit Charge claws back Child Benefit as your income rises, on top of 40% Income Tax and 2% National Insurance. With two children, each extra £200 of pay costs around £23 of Child Benefit, pushing the marginal rate to roughly 54%; with three children it is about 58%. Pension contributions and salary sacrifice reduce adjusted net income, so they save tax and Child Benefit at the same time — which is why they are often most valuable in this income range. Before April 2024 the same thing happened between £50,000 and £60,000, and twice as steeply, because the charge was withdrawn over half the income range. Read the full guide to the Child Benefit tax trap, including a worked example and how pension contributions bring it back.

Yes. Scotland sets its own Income Tax rates and bands for earned income, with more bands than the rest of the UK. Select Scotland and the calculator uses the Scottish rates. Scottish tax codes start with an S, but you can enter one with or without it: the region you select decides the rates, including for the flat-rate codes — SBR is 20%, SD0 21% (the intermediate rate) and SD1 the higher rate. National Insurance is not devolved, so it is the same wherever you live in the UK.

Since April 2024, employee National Insurance has been charged at 8% on earnings between £12,570 and £50,270, and at 2% on everything above £50,270. Earlier years used different figures — 12% and 2% until 2021/22, with a lower starting threshold — and in 2022/23 and 2023/24 the rate changed partway through the year (see the next question). Unlike Income Tax, it is normally worked out on each pay period rather than annually. If you are over State Pension age you stop paying employee National Insurance altogether — tick that box and the calculator removes it.

Because the rate changed partway through both years. In 2022/23 employee National Insurance was 13.25% (3.25% above the upper limit) until 5 November 2022 and 12% (2%) after that, and the starting threshold rose from £9,880 to £12,570 a year on 6 July 2022. In 2023/24 the main rate fell from 12% to 10% on 6 January 2024. The calculator works on a whole year, so for those two years it uses the blended annual figures HMRC publishes for exactly that purpose — 12.73% and 2.73% from £11,908 for 2022/23, and 11.5% for 2023/24. Payslips worked out month by month used whichever rate was in force at the time, so their total can differ a little. Pick either year and the results explain the figure used.

Repayments are 9% of income above your plan's threshold. For 2026/27 the calculator uses £26,900 for Plan 1, £29,385 for Plan 2, £33,795 for Plan 4 (Scotland) and £25,000 for Plan 5. A postgraduate loan is charged separately at 6% above £21,000, and can apply on top of an undergraduate plan. Earlier tax years use that year's own thresholds. Plan 4 started in April 2021 (before then, Scottish loans were repaid under Plan 1), Postgraduate Loan repayments started in April 2019, and Plan 5, for courses starting from August 2023, is only offered from 2026/27 because its repayments began in April 2026. If you are unsure which plan you are on, check your online student loan account.

The three methods are taxed differently. Salary sacrifice reduces your gross pay before both tax and National Insurance, so it saves on both. Auto-enrolment (net pay arrangement) takes the contribution before Income Tax but after National Insurance. Relief at source takes it from your pay after tax, and the pension provider reclaims basic-rate relief — higher-rate taxpayers must claim the rest through Self Assessment. The calculator models all three.

It warns you. If the gross amount going into your pension from your pay is more than that year's annual allowance — £60,000 from 2023/24, £40,000 before that — it says so, including where the allowance is tapered because your income is high (from 2023/24 the taper starts at £260,000 of adjusted income; the limits were lower in earlier years). It doesn't work out the annual allowance charge itself, because that depends on things the calculator doesn't know: your employer's contributions, which count towards the allowance too, and any unused allowance you can carry forward from the previous three years. Your pension scheme can tell you your total pension savings for the year.

It lets one partner transfer a tenth of their Personal Allowance to the other — £1,260 since 2021/22, worth up to £252 off the receiving partner's tax bill (£1,250 and £250 in 2019/20 and 2020/21, £1,190 and £238 in 2018/19). It only helps where one partner earns below the Personal Allowance and the other is a basic-rate taxpayer. Tick whichever side applies to you.

It estimates PAYE deductions from employment income. It does not model taxable benefits in kind such as a company car or private medical cover, self-employed income or Class 2/4 National Insurance, dividend or savings income, capital gains, or tax code adjustments carried over from a previous year. If your affairs include any of these, treat the result as a starting point rather than a final figure.

Several reasons are common: your tax code may include adjustments the calculator does not know about; PAYE is calculated cumulatively across the tax year, so a mid-year pay change takes time to even out; National Insurance is worked out per pay period, so irregular pay or a bonus month can look different; and employers vary in how they process pension and benefit deductions. Your payslip and your P60 are the authoritative record.

No — Income Tax and National Insurance are worked out from your annual salary either way, so choosing “4 weeks” as your pay period doesn't change how much tax you owe overall. What it does change is the figures shown: someone paid every 4 weeks gets 13 payments a year rather than 12, so the take-home figure is your annual pay split into thirteenths, not twelfths — a genuinely different number from a monthly payslip, even though the tax rules are identical.

Yes — select “Add another sacrifice” to add as many as you need, for example cycle-to-work alongside an electric car scheme. Each one is listed separately in the results table, and all of them come off your pay before Income Tax and National Insurance are worked out. If the sacrifices you enter add up to more than your available pay, the calculator scales them down proportionally and flags it, rather than showing an impossible negative salary.

Yes — each sacrifice row has its own “per year / month / 4 weeks” toggle next to the amount, so you can enter it however your employer or scheme describes it. The calculator converts it to an annual figure before working out tax, National Insurance and take-home pay, so it makes no difference to the result which period you pick — and you can mix periods across rows, for example one sacrifice given monthly alongside another given yearly.