How take-home pay is calculated in the UK

Estimated take-home pay is what remains of the period's gross cash pay after the employee deductions that apply.

For 6 April 2026 to 5 April 2027, this calculator starts from gross pay. It then works out Income Tax, Category A employee National Insurance, and any Student Loan or Postgraduate Loan you select.

A pension is not one identical subtraction.

• Net pay lowers the pay charged to Income Tax and takes the contribution from cash. National Insurance stays on the gross pay.
• Relief at source takes its cash contribution after tax and National Insurance.
• Salary sacrifice lowers the cash pay first, so Income Tax and National Insurance both use the reduced amount.

On a salary of £30,000 in England, paid monthly, with the standard Personal Allowance, Category A National Insurance, no pension and no loan, the estimated take-home pay is £2,093.34.

That month is £2,500. Category A National Insurance is £116.16. £2,093.34 is what remains. The £290.50 shown here is one-twelfth of estimated annual Income Tax. Actual PAYE on a payslip can differ because payroll uses tax codes, tax periods and its applicable rounding rules.

The short answer

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The estimate starts with gross pay for the period, then applies the selected pension method, a share of annual Income Tax, Category A National Insurance for that period, and any selected Student Loan or Postgraduate Loan

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The pension step is not the same for every scheme. Net pay, relief at source and salary sacrifice change taxable pay, National Insurance earnings and the cash deduction in different places. Employer National Insurance is not one of these deductions. The sections below follow the six steps, then work one £30,000 month.

Start with gross pay and the pay frequency

The starting point is the gross salary and how often it is paid. A yearly salary shown as a regular month is the nearest penny of that salary divided by 12. An exact half penny of that split rounds up. A salary entered directly as a month, a week or an hourly rate is used as entered.

£30,000 divided by 12 is £2,500.00 exactly, so twelve of those months add back to the year. The £30,000 after tax page and the calculator both use that month.

The tax nation has to be selected. For employment income in this estimate, Wales and Northern Ireland use the same Income Tax rates as England. Scotland uses different earned-income rates. National Insurance thresholds do not change with that choice.

The worked example uses the standard Personal Allowance of £12,570. In this calculator, tax code 1257L is that allowance for one employment. It is not a reading of every code that can appear on a payslip, and it does not include other income, benefits or reliefs.

How the three pension methods are deducted

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Net pay reduces taxable pay and cash, while National Insurance stays on gross pay

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The employer’s own pension contribution is paid by the employer. It is not deducted again from the employee.

Net pay

The contribution comes off before Income Tax. On a £35,000 salary, the regular month is £2,916.67. Twelve of those months are £35,000.04, four pence more than the year, because each month is the nearest penny. Category A National Insurance on that month is £149.49, and a £50 net-pay contribution does not change it.

The £50 is £600 over twelve months. Income Tax is then worked out on £34,400 rather than £35,000, so the annual tax is £4,366.00 instead of £4,486.00. The estimated month, with that £50 and no Student Loan, is £2,353.35. Without the pension it is £2,393.35. Take-home pay falls by £40, not £50, because the month’s tax equivalent falls by £10. The £35,000 after tax page is the no-pension version of this salary.

Relief at source

The cash contribution is deducted after Income Tax and National Insurance. National Insurance stays on the gross pay. HMRC’s illustration, where the relevant basic rate is 20%, is that a £100 contribution is an £80 payment from the member. The scheme claims £20 and adds it to the pension.

HMRC’s relief-at-source guidance, last updated 21 August 2026, says the scheme claims relief at the relevant basic rate.

For a Scottish taxpayer who pays no more than the 19% starter rate, or who pays no tax, the scheme still claims 20%. HMRC does not recover the difference, and the scheme must not give 19% instead. A Scottish taxpayer at the 21% intermediate rate claims the extra 1% from HMRC. The scheme must not add that 1% itself.

Relief above the basic rate in England, Wales and Northern Ireland is also a claim, generally through Self Assessment or a tax-code change. This calculator does not add that extra relief to the month as cash already received.

England school employment in the Teachers’ Pension Scheme is a different calculation from these three workplace methods. The England Teacher take-home pay calculator covers that member contribution. It does not replace this general estimate, and it does not cover Scotland, Wales or Northern Ireland.

Salary sacrifice

The employee gives up cash pay, and the employer pays that amount into the pension. Income Tax and employee National Insurance are then calculated on the lower cash pay. On a Category A week of £1,000, employee National Insurance is £58.66. After £100 is sacrificed, it is calculated on £900 and is £52.64. That is an illustration of the rule, not a suggestion to sacrifice pay.

A published measure would charge employee and employer National Insurance on pension salary sacrifice above a £2,000 limit from 6 April 2029. The policy note, published 4 December 2025, says the operative date is 6 April 2029 and that the detailed design is still to be set in secondary legislation. This 2026/27 estimate does not apply that limit.

Income Tax uses the annual amount

Income Tax on this salary is calculated for the tax year. The Income Tax bands guide sets out those slices. £30,000 minus the £12,570 Personal Allowance is £17,430. In England, Wales and Northern Ireland that slice is inside the 20% band, because the basic-rate width is £37,700 and £12,570 plus £37,700 is £50,270. £17,430 times 20% is £3,486.00.

The month shows £290.50 of that annual tax, because £3,486.00 divided by 12 is £290.50. Twelve times £290.50 returns the annual figure. A payroll might withhold a different amount. This equivalent does not depend on a cumulative code, or on a week 1 or month 1 basis.

Scotland taxes the same £17,430 of earned income at more than one rate. The first £3,967 is at 19%, which is £753.73. The next £12,989, up to £16,956, is at 20%, which is £2,597.80. The remaining £474, up to £17,430, is at 21%, which is £99.54. The annual total is £3,451.07. The nearest penny of that tax for one month is £287.59. Twelve of those pennies are £3,451.08, which is one penny more than the annual tax. Category A National Insurance is still £116.16. The estimated Scottish month is £2,096.25.

The Personal Allowance can be smaller once adjusted net income is above £100,000. This £30,000 example is not in that position.

National Insurance uses the payroll period

Employee National Insurance is not a twelfth of an annual bill. The employee National Insurance guide explains the weekly and monthly limits. For Category A in 2026/27, nothing is deducted on the first £1,048 of a month. Earnings above that, up to £4,189, are charged at 8%. Earnings above £4,189 in the same month are charged at 2%.

£2,500 is below £4,189. Category A on that month is (£2,500 minus £1,048) times 8%, which is £1,452 times 8% = £116.16. There is no 2% slice.

The published annual upper earnings limit is £50,270. £4,189 times 12 is £50,268, so dividing £50,270 by 12 does not give the monthly limit. Adding twelve lots of £116.16 is a projection of this one month. It is not an annual National Insurance assessment. Other category letters are not estimated. The employer’s 15% contribution, on earnings above the secondary threshold, is not deducted from the employee.

A Student Loan is a separate deduction

A Student Loan or Postgraduate Loan is calculated on the earnings used for Class 1 National Insurance in that pay period. It is not calculated on taxable income, and it is not cumulative across the year. The percentage is worked out on earnings above the threshold for that period, then rounded down to the nearest pound.

Plan 2 for 2026/27 has a monthly threshold of £2,448.75 and a rate of 9%. On the £2,500 month, the excess is £51.25. Nine percent of £51.25 is £4.6125, which rounds down to £4. The estimated month becomes £2,500.00 minus £290.50 minus £116.16 minus £4.00 = £2,089.34. This Plan 2 row is calculated from the published threshold. It is not an HMRC worked example of a £30,000 salary. The calculator does not choose a plan. Plans 1, 4 and 5 use different thresholds.

A Postgraduate Loan is separate and can be deducted as well as one undergraduate plan. Its monthly threshold is £1,750 and its rate is 6%. HMRC’s SL3 example for a month of £2,083 is an excess of £333, then £19.98, rounded down to £19.00. That £19.00 is the loan deduction in the example. It is not a full take-home figure for that month.

A net-pay contribution does not reduce the earnings used for these loans. Salary sacrifice does, because the cash pay is lower before the loan percentage is applied.

HMRC tells an employer that, if the employee cannot identify Plan 1, Plan 2 or Plan 4, payroll software uses Plan 5 until an SL1. If the employee has more than one plan, the employer starts on the plan with the lowest recovery threshold until an SL1. This calculator does neither. It calculates a loan only when a plan is selected.

£30,000 annual salary: monthly take-home pay example

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A £2,500 England month in 2026/27, with no pension and no Student Loan

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£2,500.00 minus £290.50 minus £116.16 is £2,093.34. The same sum with the Scottish tax equivalent is £2,096.25. You can change the region, pension or loan in the calculator. The £30,000 after tax page starts from this salary.

Why twelve estimates may not match the year

£30,000 divides exactly into twelve months of £2,500.00. Annual Income Tax of £3,486.00 also divides into twelve equal tax equivalents of £290.50. Category A National Insurance is calculated separately for each £2,500 month and comes to £116.16 per month. Twelve identical monthly estimates can be added together for a projection, but employee National Insurance is not calculated here as one annual assessment.

That is not true of every salary. The regular month of £35,000 is £2,916.67, and twelve of those months are four pence above £35,000. Where the annual Income Tax does not divide into equal pennies, twelve monthly tax equivalents can also differ from the annual tax by a few pence. The £30,000 Scottish tax equivalent is one of those cases: twelve times £287.59 is one penny above £3,451.07.

A regular week of £30,000 is the nearest penny of the salary divided by 52, which is £576.92. Fifty-two of those weeks are 16 pence short of £30,000. Category A National Insurance on that week is £26.79. Fifty-two times that week is a projection, not an annual National Insurance assessment.

What this estimate does not do

It does not run PAYE. A real payroll uses the tax code, the pay date, and cumulative or non-cumulative tables. The Income Tax line here is the annual liability spread over the period.

It also leaves out other National Insurance category letters, employer National Insurance, directors’ annual earnings periods, more than one job, taxable benefits, savings interest and dividends. It does not decide which Student Loan plan applies. It does not apply the salary-sacrifice National Insurance limit that starts on 6 April 2029.

The £290.50 shown here is one-twelfth of estimated annual Income Tax. Actual PAYE on a payslip can differ because payroll uses tax codes, tax periods and its applicable rounding rules. Another mistake is to divide the annual National Insurance limits by 12. The monthly Category A limits are the published £1,048 and £4,189, not £12,570 divided by 12 or £50,270 divided by 12.

Estimate another salary

The calculator repeats this sequence for a salary, frequency, nation, pension and loan that you select. The salary comparison calculator runs it twice, and the UK salary table repeats it down a range of annual salaries. Income Tax bands and employee National Insurance explain the two charges used above. The methodology records the rounding and the assumptions. The sources list the official pages used for the rates.

Questions

What is taken off gross pay in this estimate?

Gross pay for the period, then the pension treatment you select, then a share of annual Income Tax, then Category A National Insurance for that period, then a Student Loan or Postgraduate Loan if you select one. Employer National Insurance is not deducted.

Why is Income Tax shown as £290.50 on a £2,500 month?

£3,486.00 is the annual Income Tax on a £30,000 England salary with the standard allowance and no pension. Divided by 12, that is £290.50. It is an annual-tax equivalent. This page does not calculate PAYE.

Why can twelve months differ from the annual salary by a few pence?

£30,000 divides exactly. £35,000 does not: the nearest penny of the month is £2,916.67, and twelve of those months are four pence above £35,000. The Scottish tax equivalent of the £30,000 salary has the same kind of one-penny gap.

Does a pension reduce National Insurance?

Net pay and relief at source do not. Salary sacrifice can, because both Income Tax and National Insurance then use the lower cash pay. Extra Scottish or higher-rate pension relief is not added to the month as cash already received.

When does a Student Loan come off?

Only when you select a plan. Plan 2 on the £2,500 month is £4.00, rounded down to the pound. The calculator does not choose Plan 5 for you, and it does not apply an employer’s lowest-threshold rule.

Does this match a payslip?

No. A payslip is the employer’s calculation for that pay period. PAYE can withhold a different Income Tax figure from the annual-tax equivalent shown here. The payslip is the figure that was paid. Change the region, pension or loan in the calculator.

Sources

Opened on 24 October 2026:

• Rates and thresholds for employers 2026 to 2027. Last updated 1 September 2026. Personal Allowance, England and Scotland PAYE widths, Class 1 thresholds, employer secondary threshold, and Student Loan and Postgraduate Loan thresholds.
• National Insurance rates and categories. Category A employee rates and the official week of £1,000 at £58.66.
• Income Tax rates and Personal Allowances. The £12,570 allowance and the main bands.
• Relief at source. Last updated 21 August 2026. Scottish starter-rate members are still claimed at 20%. Intermediate-rate members claim the extra 1% themselves.
• Salary sacrifice reform from 6 April 2029. Published 4 December 2025. Not applied to 2026/27.
• Student loan repayment guidance for employers. Last updated 6 April 2026. Plan 5 default and the lowest-threshold rule for more than one plan. The calculator does not apply either rule.

Opened on 18 October 2026:

• SL3, 2026 to 2027. Postgraduate Loan month of £2,083, with a deduction of £19.00.

The £30,000, £35,000, Plan 2 and salary-sacrifice amounts were recalculated from those rules on 18 October 2026. Apart from the £1,000 National Insurance week and the SL3 loan example, they are not HMRC worked examples of these salaries.