Take-Home Pay Calculator
The HMRC headline number says one thing, what arrives in your account says another. Enter your gross salary and the calculator returns annual, monthly and weekly net pay for 2025/26, with income tax, employee NI, student loan plans, and any salary-sacrifice pension contributions all factored in.
Your inputs
Take-home pay
£35,920
Monthly
£2,993
Weekly
£691
The deductions
- Personal allowance
- £12,570
- Pension (salary sacrifice)
- £0
- Income tax
- £6,486
- National Insurance
- £2,594
- Total deductions
- £9,080
- Effective tax rate (income tax + NI)
- 20.2%
How this works
The calculator applies the standard 2025/26 personal allowance of £12,570 (tapering above £100,000), the three income tax bands, and employee NI at 8% on earnings between £12,570 and £50,270 plus 2% above. Salary-sacrifice pension contributions are deducted before tax and NI are calculated, so they save you both. Student loan deductions are added if you select a plan.
The model assumes a standard tax code (1257L), no taxable benefits in kind, no other income, and that you are paid through PAYE.
Frequently asked questions
- What's in 2025/26 take-home pay?
- For a UK employee: gross salary, minus income tax (20% basic, 40% higher, 45% additional), minus employee National Insurance (8% between £12,570 and £50,270, 2% above), minus any student loan deductions, minus any salary-sacrifice pension contribution. The personal allowance is £12,570 and tapers by £1 for every £2 of income above £100,000, fully gone at £125,140.
- How does salary sacrifice pension affect take-home pay?
- Salary sacrifice reduces your gross salary by the contribution amount before income tax and NI are calculated, so you save income tax AND NI on the sacrificed amount. The contribution goes straight into your pension. This is more tax-efficient than a relief-at-source contribution because you also get NI relief, which a standard contribution doesn't give you.
- Which student loan plan am I on?
- Plan 1 if you started uni before September 2012 in England/Wales (threshold £24,990, 9%). Plan 2 if you started Sept 2012 – Aug 2023 in England/Wales (£27,295, 9%). Plan 4 for Scottish loans (£31,395, 9%). Plan 5 for England loans from August 2023 (£25,000, 9%). Postgraduate loan is separate and charged at 6% above £21,000, it stacks on top of any undergraduate plan.
- Does this work for limited company directors?
- Only partly. If you run a limited company and pay yourself a small salary plus dividends, this calculator covers just the salary portion. For the full picture across salary + dividend + corporation tax, use our Salary & Dividend Optimiser instead.
Drawing dividends from your own Ltd? This calculator misses half the picture
Limited company owners typically take a small PAYE salary alongside dividends from post-tax profit. The take-home pay calculator handles the salary leg only. To see the full position, use the salary & dividend optimiser, which prices corporation tax and dividend tax into the same model.
Open the optimiser