How much tax do you pay in the UK? Take-home pay at every salary (2026/27)

Take-home pay at every common UK salary, 2026/27

Here is the headline lookup table. All figures assume a tax code of 1257L (the standard personal allowance), no pension contribution, no student loan, and England/Wales/NI income tax rates. Scotland is covered further down.

Want the figures for your exact salary, with pension, student loan, and benefit-in-kind options? Use the RR salary calculator for an exact answer in seconds.

How the figures are calculated

Two deductions come out of an employed salary in the UK: income tax and Employee National Insurance. Both are calculated band by band.

Income tax (England, Wales, NI), 2026/27

• £0 to £12,570: 0% (personal allowance)
• £12,571 to £50,270: 20% (basic rate)
• £50,271 to £125,140: 40% (higher rate)
• Above £125,140: 45% (additional rate)
• Personal allowance tapers above £100,000 at £1 for every £2 earned

Employee National Insurance, 2026/27

• £0 to £12,570: 0%
• £12,571 to £50,270: 8%
• Above £50,270: 2%

Note that NI rates dropped in April 2024 (from 10% to 8% on the main band) and have stayed there. NI thresholds are aligned with the personal allowance and the higher rate threshold, so the mental model is the same as income tax: the first £12,570 is deduction-free, the slice up to £50,270 is in the main band, and everything above £50,270 attracts 2% NI on top of 40% income tax.

Worked example: £30,000 salary

Take a £30,000 salary as the most common UK case (close to the median full-time earnings figure):

• Income tax: (£30,000 − £12,570) × 20% = £3,486
• Employee NI: (£30,000 − £12,570) × 8% = £1,394
• Total deductions: £4,880
• Take-home: £25,120 a year, or about £2,093 a month
• Effective combined rate: 16.3%

The marginal rate at this salary is 28% (20% income tax + 8% NI). That is what HMRC and your employer take from each additional pound.

Worked example: £60,000 salary (crossing into 40%)

At £60,000 you cross into the higher rate band. The calculation:

• Income tax on £37,700 at 20% = £7,540
• Income tax on £9,730 at 40% = £3,892
• Total income tax = £11,432
• NI on £37,700 at 8% = £3,016, plus £9,730 at 2% = £194.60
• Total NI ≈ £3,211
• Take-home: £45,357 a year, or about £3,780 a month

Above £50,270 the marginal rate jumps to 42% (40% income tax + 2% NI). We cover the planning options for higher earners in our 40% tax bracket guide.

Worked example: £110,000 salary (inside the £100k trap)

Once your salary passes £100,000, the personal allowance tapers away at £1 for every £2 you earn above. At £110,000, you have lost £5,000 of allowance, leaving £7,570:

• Income tax on £37,700 at 20% = £7,540
• Income tax on £64,730 at 40% = £25,892 (£110,000 − £7,570 − £37,700)
• Total income tax = £33,432
• Employee NI ≈ £4,194
• Take-home: £72,374 a year, or about £6,031 a month

The big number to notice: the effective marginal rate on income between £100,000 and £125,140 is around 62% (40% income tax + 2% NI + 20% allowance loss). A £5,000 pay rise in this band leaves only about £1,900 in your pocket. This is the strongest single argument for pension contributions, since pension money escapes the trap entirely.

Scotland: how take-home differs

Scottish taxpayers pay income tax under the Scottish rate bands. For 2026/27:

• £0 to £12,570: 0% (personal allowance, same as UK)
• £12,571 to £14,876: 19% (starter rate)
• £14,877 to £26,561: 20% (basic rate)
• £26,562 to £43,662: 21% (intermediate rate)
• £43,663 to £75,000: 42% (higher rate)
• £75,001 to £125,140: 45% (advanced rate)
• Above £125,140: 48% (top rate)

National Insurance and the £100,000 taper are the same as the rest of the UK. The practical impact: a Scottish taxpayer earning £50,000 takes home about £450 less a year than an equivalent earner in England. The gap widens substantially above £75,000.

The self-employed picture

If you are self-employed (sole trader), the income tax bands are the same, but National Insurance is different:

• Class 4 NI: 6% on profits between £12,570 and £50,270, then 2% above
• Class 2 NI: abolished from 6 April 2024, but voluntary contributions are still possible to protect State Pension entitlement

So a self-employed person with £30,000 of profit pays £3,486 of income tax and £1,045 of Class 4 NI, for a total deduction of £4,531 and net profit of £25,469. About £350 a year better off than an employee on the same gross figure, but they fund their own pension, sick pay, and holiday.

How pension contributions change the picture

A personal pension contribution reduces your taxable income, not your gross salary. So a higher rate taxpayer contributing £5,000 to a personal pension gets:

• £1,250 of basic rate relief added by HMRC into the pension
• £1,250 reclaimed through Self Assessment (or by tax code adjustment)
• Net cost: £3,750 of post-tax cash for £6,250 in the pension

Salary sacrifice goes one step further, by reducing your gross salary at source you also save Employee NI on the sacrificed amount. For higher-rate earners this is usually the most efficient way to fund a pension.

Things that move your take-home pay outside this table

• Tax code other than 1257L, particularly K codes (which collect prior-year underpayment), BR (all 20%), 0T (no allowance), and emergency W1/M1 variants
• Student loan repayments, 9% above the relevant threshold; Plan 1, 2, 4, or 5 each has a different threshold
• Workplace pension contributions, particularly salary sacrifice schemes that reduce gross pay at source
• Taxable benefits in kind, company car, private medical insurance, beneficial loans; collected through the tax code
• Marriage Allowance, an extra £252 a year if you qualify
• Workplace charity giving (Payroll Giving), donations come off taxable pay at source