How your take-home pay is calculated
Your take-home pay is your salary minus these deductions:
- Pension contributions. With salary sacrifice they come off before tax and National Insurance; with a net pay arrangement, before tax only; with relief at source, after tax, with your pension provider adding 20% basic-rate relief.
- Income Tax, after your Personal Allowance, using the rates for where you live. Scotland sets its own rates; England, Wales and Northern Ireland use the same ones.
- National Insurance at 8% between £12,570 and £50,270, and 2% above.
- Student loan repayments if you have a loan: 9% (or 6% for a postgraduate loan) of earnings above your plan’s threshold.
Scottish taxpayers
If you live in Scotland you pay Scottish income tax: starter (19%), basic (20%), intermediate (21%), higher (42%), advanced (45%) and top (48%) rates. On salaries under about £33,500 you pay slightly less income tax than in England; above that you pay more. National Insurance is the same everywhere in the UK.
The Autumn Budget
The Autumn Budget on 28 October 2026 didn’t change Income Tax or National Insurance: the rates and thresholds are the same in 2027/28 and stay frozen until April 2031. Tax on savings interest outside an ISA does rise from April 2027. See what changes for you with our Autumn Budget calculator and our guide to what the Budget means for your money.
About these estimates
The calculator works out your tax for the full tax year and spreads it evenly across your pay, assuming the standard 1257L tax code. Your payslip can differ by a few pounds, because National Insurance is worked out each pay period. See our methodology and sources for every assumption and the HMRC sources we use.