UK Salary Calculator 2026/27 — How to Work Out Your Exact Take-Home Pay

Most people know their gross salary. Few know exactly what arrives in their bank account — and even fewer know why the gap is what it is.

This post walks you through how UK take-home pay is calculated for the 2026/27 tax year, what each deduction actually means, and how to use our free calculator to get a figure that’s tailored to your specific situation.

Watch the full walkthrough

If you prefer to watch rather than read, this video covers everything below — including a live screen recording of the calculator and worked examples with student loans and pension contributions.

What the calculator covers

The OS Payroll salary calculator is free, requires no sign-up, and is updated for the 2026/27 tax year. You can calculate take-home pay for:

• Any gross salary (annual, monthly, weekly, daily or hourly — it converts automatically)
• England, Wales, Northern Ireland and Scotland (Scottish rates are separate)
• Any age bracket (National Insurance rules differ for workers over 65)
• Student loan repayments — Plan 1, Plan 2, Plan 4 and Postgraduate
• Pension contributions — entered as a percentage or a fixed monthly amount
• Non-standard tax codes — just type yours in and the figures update

Try it here: os-payroll.co.uk/pay-calculator

What gets deducted from your salary?

Three things reduce your gross pay to your net (take-home) pay:

Income Tax — collected by HMRC through the PAYE system. You pay nothing on your first £12,570 (the personal allowance), then 20% on earnings above that up to £50,270, 40% between £50,271 and £125,140, and 45% on anything above £125,140.

National Insurance (NI) — employee contributions that go towards your State Pension and other benefits. The rate is 8% on earnings between £12,570 and £50,270, and 2% above that.

Student loan repayments — if you have a student loan, repayments come off automatically once you earn above a threshold. The threshold varies by plan (more on this below).

Pension contributions and any other salary sacrifice schemes come off in addition to these, though pension contributions can reduce your taxable income.

Income tax bands for 2026/27

England, Wales and Northern Ireland only. Scottish rates are different — see below.

Note that these rates apply to taxable income — the amount above your personal allowance. So on a £35,000 salary, you don’t pay 20% on the full £35,000. You pay 20% on £22,430 (which is £35,000 minus the £12,570 allowance).

National Insurance rates for 2026/27

NI is not charged on pension contributions made through salary sacrifice, which is one reason workplace pensions are tax-efficient.

Student loan repayments

Student loan repayments are calculated on earnings above a threshold — not on your total salary. The threshold varies by plan:

Plan 2 is the most common for graduates who started university after 2012 in England or Wales. If you earn below the threshold for your plan, you pay nothing — regardless of how much you owe.

The calculator lets you add your student loan plan and shows the impact on your monthly take-home instantly.

Pension contributions

If you’re enrolled in a workplace pension through auto-enrolment, the minimum employee contribution is 5% of qualifying earnings. On a £35,000 salary, that’s roughly £92 per month coming off your take-home pay — but it’s money going into your retirement pot, not lost entirely.

Pension contributions made through salary sacrifice also reduce your National Insurance bill, because NI is calculated on your post-sacrifice salary. This makes pension contributions more efficient than they first appear.

In the calculator, enter your contribution as either a percentage or a fixed monthly amount and you’ll see the effect on your take-home straight away.

What is a tax code?

Your tax code tells your employer how much of your income to treat as tax-free. The most common code is 1257L, which corresponds to the standard £12,570 personal allowance.

If your code is different — because you have a company car, multiple jobs, untaxed income, or tax owed from a previous year — your take-home will be higher or lower than the standard calculation.

Common codes and what they mean:

• 1257L — standard personal allowance, no adjustments
• BR — all income taxed at basic rate (often used for a second job)
• D0 — all income taxed at higher rate
• NT — no tax deducted (rare — usually for specific circumstances)
• K codes — you have untaxed income that exceeds your personal allowance

If you’re not sure what your tax code is, you’ll find it on your payslip, your P60, or your HMRC Personal Tax Account online.

Enter your exact code in the calculator to get a figure that reflects your real situation.

Scottish Income Tax rates

If you live in Scotland, you pay Scottish Income Tax rates rather than the UK-wide rates. Scotland has more bands and slightly different thresholds:

Select Scotland in the calculator and it switches to these rates automatically.

How to work backwards from take-home pay

One feature people find particularly useful: the calculator can also work backwards. If you know how much you want to take home each month, you can enter that figure and the calculator will tell you the gross salary you’d need to achieve it.

This is helpful when negotiating a job offer, comparing two salaries, or working out whether a pay rise will actually make a meaningful difference to your monthly budget.

A worked example: £35,000 salary

To make this concrete, here’s what a standard £35,000 salary looks like in 2026/27 (England, tax code 1257L, no student loan or pension):

Add a Plan 2 student loan and the monthly figure drops by around £58, to approximately £2,335. Add a 5% pension contribution and it drops by a further £92, to around £2,243.

The calculator runs all of this in real time — you can try different combinations and see the effect immediately.

Figures based on 2026/27 HMRC rates. Standard tax code 1257L assumed unless otherwise stated. This post is for general information only and does not constitute financial or tax advice.