Salary & Take-Home Pay · Methodology

How the calculation works

Convert annual, monthly, weekly or hourly gross pay into an annual amount, estimate take-home pay under UK 2026/27 Income Tax, National Insurance and student-loan rules, then measure what happens to additional earnings.

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Included

  • Annual, monthly, weekly or hourly regular gross pay
  • User-entered paid hours and weeks for hourly pay
  • An annual bonus
  • England, Wales and Northern Ireland tax bands
  • Scottish non-savings, non-dividend tax bands
  • Personal Allowance tapering above £100,000
  • Employee and employer Class 1 National Insurance
  • Salary sacrifice, net pay and relief-at-source pension treatments
  • Employer pension contributions
  • Student Loan Plans 1, 2, 4 and 5
  • Postgraduate Loan deductions
  • Next-£1,000 and next-£10,000 comparisons

Outside this method

  • Individual tax codes and prior-period PAYE adjustments
  • Benefits in kind and taxable expenses
  • Multiple employments or self-employment
  • Marriage Allowance and Blind Person’s Allowance
  • Child Benefit charges and childcare eligibility
  • Savings, dividends, property or other income
  • Pension annual-allowance and tapered-allowance charges
  • Exact pay-period payroll rounding

Calculation

Core formulas

Annual gross salary

Annual pay = monthly pay × 12, weekly pay × 52, or hourly pay × paid hours × paid weeks

All regular-pay inputs are converted to one annual amount before the tax calculation. The annual bonus is added separately.

Personal Allowance

PA = max[0, £12,570 − (adjusted income − £100,000) ÷ 2]

The standard allowance is reduced by £1 for each £2 of adjusted income above £100,000 and reaches zero at £125,140.

Income Tax

Tax = Σ taxable income within each regional band × band rate

The selected England/Wales/Northern Ireland or Scottish 2026/27 bands are applied after the available Personal Allowance.

Employee National Insurance

8% × pay from £12,570 to £50,270 + 2% × pay above £50,270

The illustration assumes standard employee National Insurance category A.

Student-loan deduction

9% × max(0, loan pay − plan threshold)

A Postgraduate Loan adds a separate 6% deduction above £21,000.

Salary sacrifice

Cash pay = gross pay − sacrificed pension contribution

Income Tax, National Insurance and student-loan earnings are calculated after the sacrificed amount for this current-year illustration.

Marginal deduction

Incremental deduction = result at salary + increment − current result

The next-£1,000 and next-£10,000 panels recalculate the full position rather than multiplying one headline tax rate.

Timing convention

When cash flows occur

Regular pay is converted to an annual amount and combined with any annual bonus. The result is smoothed across one complete 2026/27 tax year. Displayed monthly and weekly figures divide the annual estimate by 12 and 52; they do not reproduce a specific payroll calendar.

Limitations

What the result cannot establish

  • PAYE tax codes can collect underpayments, benefits and reliefs that are absent from the standard annual calculation.
  • National Insurance and student-loan deductions use pay-period thresholds, so a concentrated bonus can produce a different payslip result from annual smoothing.
  • Hourly pay assumes the entered hours and paid weeks remain constant; unpaid leave, overtime and variable shifts are not modelled.
  • Pension contribution definitions vary by scheme; this model applies percentages to salary and excludes the bonus.
  • Relief at source assumes the user successfully claims any additional tax relief above the provider’s basic-rate addition.
  • Salary sacrifice cannot reduce cash earnings below National Minimum Wage and can affect earnings-related benefits.
  • Pension salary-sacrifice National Insurance rules are scheduled to change from April 2029; this calculator applies 2026/27 rules only.

Reference tests

Numerical checks

CaseInputsExpected result
Equivalent pay frequencies£60,000 annual; £5,000 monthly; or £30.7692308 hourly at 37.5 hours for 52 weeksEach converts to approximately £60,000 annual regular pay before deductions
Standard England salary£60,000 salary; no pension; no student loan£11,432 Income Tax, £3,210.60 employee NI and £45,357.40 annual take-home
Personal Allowance taper£110,000 salary; England; no pension or loan£7,570 Personal Allowance and approximately 60% marginal Income Tax before NI
Plan 2 threshold£30,000 annual pay; Plan 2£55.35 annual student-loan deduction before payroll rounding
Salary sacrifice£60,000 salary; 5% sacrifice; no bonus or loan£57,000 cash salary and approximately £450 employer NI saving

Evidence

Sources