Free UK tool · 2025/26 tax year
Work out your exact take home pay after income tax, National Insurance, pension, and student loan. Free, private, no sign up — your numbers never leave your device.
Your data never leaves your device. Ever.How to use
The salary calculator UK above is built for the 2025/26 tax year. Enter a few details and the breakdown updates live as you type.
The breakdown shows every deduction, then your final take home pay alongside the effective and marginal tax rates. Toggle the view between monthly and weekly using the buttons at the top of the card.
Understanding your results
A take home pay calculator is only useful if you understand the lines underneath it. Here is each deduction in plain English.
Charged on your taxable income — that is, your gross pay minus pension contributions and the Personal Allowance (£12,570 for 2025/26). For England, Wales, and Northern Ireland, the bands above the allowance are 20% (Basic), 40% (Higher), and 45% (Additional). Earn over £100,000 and the Personal Allowance starts tapering away at £1 per £2 above the threshold.
Most employees pay Class 1 NI. For 2025/26 the rate is 8% on earnings between £12,570 and £50,270, and 2% on anything above £50,270. Unlike income tax, NI is calculated on your gross pay and is not reduced by personal pension contributions (salary-sacrifice schemes are an exception).
If you took out an undergraduate loan in England or Wales between 2012 and 2023, you're on Plan 2. Repayment is 9% of every pound you earn above £27,295 per year (2025/26 threshold). This calculator currently supports Plan 2. Plan 1, Plan 4, Plan 5, and Postgraduate plans use different thresholds and rates.
Your contribution is treated as salary sacrifice in this UK tax calculator 2026 — it comes off your gross pay before income tax is calculated. That's why a 5% pension doesn't just reduce your take home by 5% of gross — it also reduces your tax bill, so the real cost to you is smaller than the headline number.
The effective rate is your total deductions divided by your gross pay — what proportion of every pound you actually lose. The marginal rate is the tax you'd pay on your next pound of earnings. They're usually different, and the gap matters for decisions like overtime, bonuses, and pension top-ups.
UK specifics
The 2025/26 UK tax year runs from 6 April 2025 to 5 April 2026. All thresholds, bands, and rates in this calculator are set to those in force during that period. The next tax year, 2026/27, begins on 6 April 2026 — figures will be updated then.
Scotland sets its own income tax bands. For 2025/26 they are: 19% Starter (to £2,306), 20% Basic (to £13,991), 21% Intermediate (to £31,092), 42% Higher (to £62,430), 45% Advanced (to £125,140), and 48% Top above that. Switch the region toggle in the calculator to apply them. National Insurance, the Personal Allowance, and the £100,000 taper are set by Westminster and apply UK-wide.
When your pension contribution is treated as salary sacrifice (or pulled from gross via a net-pay scheme), it reduces your taxable income — so you pay less income tax on what's left. A higher-rate taxpayer paying £100 into a pension effectively only loses £60 of take home pay, because £40 of income tax would otherwise have been due. The calculator models this directly: change your contribution percentage and watch the income tax line move.
This salary calculator covers the four most common deductions: income tax, NI, pension, and Plan 2 student loan. It doesn't include benefits-in-kind tax, salary-sacrifice for childcare or cycle-to-work schemes, marriage allowance transfers, or the High Income Child Benefit Charge. For most salaried employees the four lines above account for almost all the difference between gross and net.
FAQ
The questions people most often type into Google about UK take home pay.
On a £35,000 gross salary in England, Wales, or Northern Ireland for the 2025/26 tax year, your take home pay is roughly £28,572 a year, or about £2,381 per month. That assumes no pension contributions and no student loan.
Adding a 5% pension contribution lowers your taxable income and changes the figure. Use the salary calculator above to model your exact situation.
Yes. Pension contributions made through salary sacrifice or net-pay arrangements reduce your taxable income, so you pay less income tax on your earnings.
National Insurance is calculated on your gross salary and is generally not reduced by personal pension contributions — though salary-sacrifice schemes do reduce it. The calculator on this page treats your pension as salary sacrifice for the income tax calculation.
For the 2025/26 tax year, Plan 2 student loans are repaid at 9% of any income above £27,295 per year. Plan 1, Plan 4, Plan 5, and Postgraduate loans use different thresholds and rates.
This calculator currently supports Plan 2. More plans are coming soon.
Take home pay is your gross salary minus income tax, National Insurance, any student loan repayments, and any pension contributions.
Income tax uses the £12,570 Personal Allowance and the bands above it (20%, 40%, 45%). National Insurance is charged at 8% between £12,570 and £50,270, then 2% above £50,270. The calculator above runs through each step and shows the full breakdown.
Yes. Scotland sets its own income tax bands. For 2025/26 the Scottish bands are 19% Starter, 20% Basic, 21% Intermediate, 42% Higher, 45% Advanced, and 48% Top.
National Insurance is the same across the whole UK because it is set by Westminster. Use the region toggle in the calculator above to switch between England/Wales/NI and Scotland.
If your gross income exceeds £100,000, your £12,570 Personal Allowance is reduced by £1 for every £2 you earn above that threshold. By £125,140 your Personal Allowance has been fully tapered to zero.
This creates an effective marginal income tax rate of 60% on earnings between £100,000 and £125,140. The calculator handles this automatically and shows your effective and marginal rates underneath the take home figure.
Yes, completely free. There is no sign up, no email collection, and no paywall. Everything runs in your browser — none of the figures you enter are sent to a server or stored anywhere outside your device.
The calculator uses the 2025/26 UK tax year, which runs from 6 April 2025 to 5 April 2026. Bands, thresholds, and rates are set to those in force during that period for England, Wales, Northern Ireland, and Scotland.
The full picture
Vault is the home for everything this calculator hints at — your net worth, your spending, your plan, your tax, all in one private view. Same principles: free, private, local only. Nothing you enter ever leaves your device.
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