UK take-home pay is not “gross minus one tax rate.” PAYE usually removes Income Tax and employee National Insurance first, then any pension, salary sacrifice, or student loan your payroll is told to collect. The Salary After Tax Calculator UK applies the published 2026 to 2027 bands so you can compare offers. It is an estimate, not a payslip.
What PAYE actually deducts
PAYE is the collection method. Your employer estimates Income Tax from your tax code and year-to-date pay, then estimates Class 1 National Insurance from earnings in that pay period. Student loan and workplace pension are extra instructions, not part of the basic tax tables. If the tax code is wrong, the first months of a new job can look nothing like an annual model.
The generic salary after tax calculator is a flat-rate planner: net = gross × (1 − tax rate). Use it only when you already have a single rate. Do not treat that page as a UK engine.
Income Tax versus National Insurance
Income Tax uses your Personal Allowance (usually £12,570 in 2026/27) and then charges bands on taxable pay. England, Northern Ireland and Wales share the main table: 20% on the first £37,700 of taxable income, 40% up to an income of £125,140, and 45% above that. Scotland sets its own starter-to-top rates on employment income. Those figures come from GOV.UK Income Tax rates and GOV.UK Scottish Income Tax.
Employee National Insurance is separate. For Category A in 2026/27, nothing is due until the primary threshold (£12,570). Then 8% applies up to the upper earnings limit (£50,270) and 2% above. Employer NI is 15% above a £5,000 secondary threshold. That employer figure is a cost to the company, not a deduction from your net. Source: HMRC rates and thresholds for employers 2026 to 2027.
The Personal Allowance taper
Above £100,000 of adjusted net income the allowance falls by £1 for every £2. It reaches zero at £125,140. That stretch is often described as a 60% effective Income Tax band because you lose allowance while also paying 40%. The calculator tapers the allowance. It does not model High Income Child Benefit Charge or Marriage Allowance.
Pension contributions and salary sacrifice
A workplace pension can be relief at source, a net-pay arrangement, or salary sacrifice. Those three are not the same for National Insurance. In the ToolLabz model, the pension percentage reduces taxable pay only. Salary sacrifice reduces both taxable pay and NI-able pay. If your scheme is sacrifice, put the percentage in the sacrifice field so NI falls as well. If you are unsure, read your enrolment letter rather than guessing.
How a student loan changes take-home
Plans 1, 2, 4 and 5 deduct 9% of earnings above that plan’s threshold. A postgraduate loan deducts 6% above £21,000 and can sit on top of an undergraduate plan. Thresholds for 2026/27 are on the same HMRC employer page. The calculator uses annual earnings after salary sacrifice. It does not know your remaining balance or write-off date.
Worked example: £60,000 in England
Gross £60,000, no pension, no sacrifice, no student loan, England. Personal Allowance £12,570 leaves £47,430 taxable. Income Tax is 20% on £37,700 (£7,540) plus 40% on £9,730 (£3,892), total £11,432. Employee NI is 8% on £37,700 (£3,016) plus 2% on £9,730 (£194.60), total £3,210.60. Net is about £45,357.40 a year, or about £3,780 a month. A 5% salary sacrifice on the same salary lowers both tax and NI; a 5% employee pension lowers tax only in this model.
Assumptions and limits
- Tax year 2026 to 2027, reviewed 6 September 2026 against GOV.UK. Budgets can change bands.
- Assumes tax code 1257L and Category A National Insurance.
- No benefits in kind, Blind Person’s Allowance, or emergency tax codes.
- Self-employed Class 2/4 NI and dividend tax belong on their own tools, not this page.
Buying a home at the same time? Estimate purchase tax on the Stamp Duty Calculator UK rather than folding SDLT into a salary model. Sole traders should stay on the self-employed UK sketch.