UK Take-Home Pay & Tax Calculator

2025/26 tax year

Estimate your take-home pay with income tax, National Insurance, pension contributions and student loan deductions. Uses standard UK PAYE rules for the selected tax year.

Your details

Employee PAYE only  •  simple assumptions
£
Enter how much you pay from your pay. Pre-tax reduces taxable income; after-tax is taken from your net pay.
£
For things like blind person’s allowance or transferred marriage allowance.
Advanced options
£
Standard personal allowance is £12,570 in both 2024/25 and 2025/26 (tapered away over £100k).

Your results

Enter your details on the left and hit Calculate to see your breakdown.

Take-home (per year)

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After tax, NI, pension & loans

Take-home (per month)

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Assuming 12 equal monthly pays

Total deductions (per year)

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Tax, NI, pension, loans
Item Per year Per month Per week
No results yet.
This tool is a simplified guide only. It uses standard 2024/25 or 2025/26 UK income tax bands, Scottish rates where selected, standard employee Class 1 NI (category A) and current student loan thresholds. You can choose whether pension contributions are treated as pre-tax (salary-sacrifice / net pay) or after-tax (relief-at-source style). Employer contributions, complex tax codes and specialist arrangements are not modelled – always check your actual payslip or HMRC if anything looks off.

FAQs & assumptions

Which tax years does this support?
The calculator currently supports the UK tax years 2024/25 and 2025/26. The main personal allowance is £12,570 in both years, with the allowance tapering away once income exceeds £100,000 (gone completely at £125,140). Income tax bands are frozen over this period, so rUK bands are the same in both years – only student loan thresholds and some Scottish bands change.
How are pension contributions treated?
You enter how much you pay into your pension, either as a percentage of gross pay or as a fixed £ amount per pay period. Then pick one of two modes:
  • Pre-tax (salary sacrifice / net pay) – your contribution comes off your gross first. Income tax, NI and student loans are calculated on the reduced figure. This usually gives the biggest boost to your take-home for a given contribution.
  • After-tax (relief at source / personal contribution) – tax and NI are calculated on your full gross pay. Your contribution is then deducted from your net pay. Many personal pensions and some workplace schemes work like this.
The calculator only models the amount that leaves your payslip. It does not attempt to show any extra tax relief claimed by the provider from HMRC in relief-at-source schemes – that would affect how much ends up in your pension pot, not your immediate take-home pay.
What’s the difference between Scotland and rUK?
Scotland uses more income tax bands with different thresholds and rates. The calculator uses the published Scottish bands for the selected year and applies them after your personal allowance. England, Wales and Northern Ireland share the standard rUK bands (basic, higher, additional).
How is National Insurance calculated?
Employee Class 1 NIC is calculated on earnings above the primary threshold (~£12,570 per year) up to the upper earnings limit (~£50,270), at 8%, with 2% above that. If you tick “over State Pension age” or “skip NI” the calculator will not deduct employee NI. Employer NI is not modelled.
How are student loans handled?
You can pick one main loan plan (1, 2 or 4) and optionally a postgraduate loan. Repayments are:
  • 9% of income over the threshold for Plan 1, 2 or 4.
  • 6% of income over the postgraduate threshold.
Thresholds update when you change the tax year, based on current HMRC guidance. For simplicity, the calculator assumes that if you pick pre-tax pension mode, contributions reduce the income used for loan calculations; if you pick after-tax mode, they do not.
Why don’t my results match my payslip exactly?
Real-world payslips can include overtime, irregular bonuses, benefits-in-kind, multiple employments, different pension setups, prior-year tax corrections and more. This tool deliberately keeps things simple to stay fast and offline-friendly – treat it as a useful estimate rather than an accounting system.