Work out what actually lands in your bank account after income tax, National Insurance, pension and student loan — with every band shown, so you can check the working instead of trusting a black box.
Open the calculator →Four separate deductions come out of a UK salary, and they use different thresholds — which is why the total rarely matches any single percentage you have in your head.
The first £12,570 is your personal allowance and is not taxed. After that:
| Band | Taxable income | Rate |
|---|---|---|
| Basic rate | First £37,700 above the allowance | 20% |
| Higher rate | Up to £125,140 | 40% |
| Additional rate | Above £125,140 | 45% |
England, Wales and Northern Ireland. Scotland is different — see below.
NI uses its own thresholds, not the tax bands. As an employee you pay 8% on earnings between £12,570 and £50,270, then 2% on everything above £50,270. Note that NI does not get cheaper as you earn more in the way people often assume — it gets cheaper only above the upper limit.
If you contribute through salary sacrifice or a net pay arrangement, the contribution comes off before income tax is worked out. That is why a pension contribution costs you less in take-home pay than its headline amount.
Repayments are a percentage of income above a plan-specific threshold, and the plan matters a great deal:
| Plan | Threshold | Rate above it |
|---|---|---|
| Plan 1 | £26,065 | 9% |
| Plan 2 | £28,470 | 9% |
| Plan 4 (Scotland) | £32,745 | 9% |
| Plan 5 | £25,000 | 9% |
| Postgraduate | £21,000 | 6% |
Many calculators only offer Plan 1 and Plan 2. If you started an undergraduate course in England from September 2023 you are on Plan 5, and using the wrong plan can be several hundred pounds out over a year.
No pension contribution, no student loan, England:
| Item | Amount |
|---|---|
| Gross salary | £60,000.00 |
| Personal allowance | −£12,570.00 |
| Income tax | −£11,432.00 |
| National Insurance | −£3,210.60 |
| Take-home | £45,357.40 |
That is an effective rate of about 24.4% — even though this is a "40% taxpayer". The 40% applies only to the slice above the higher-rate threshold, not to the whole salary. Confusing the marginal rate with the effective rate is the single most common mistake people make about their own pay.
This is the part most calculators do not explain. Once you earn over £100,000, your personal allowance is cut by £1 for every £2 you earn above it.
So every extra £2 of salary in this range does two things: it is taxed at 40%, and it drags another £1 of previously tax-free income into tax at 40%. The combined effect is an effective marginal rate of 60% — you keep just 40p of each extra pound. Add a Plan 2 student loan and you keep about 31p.
The allowance is fully gone at £125,140, at which point the marginal rate drops back to 45%. This is why pension contributions are unusually effective in this band: a contribution that brings your adjusted income back under £100,000 restores the allowance at a very high effective rate of relief.
Our calculator applies the taper automatically. If a calculator shows a smooth 40% all the way from £100,000 to £125,140, it is wrong.
Scotland sets its own income tax bands and has six of them rather than three: starter 19%, basic 20%, intermediate 21%, higher 42%, advanced 45% and top 48%. National Insurance is identical across the UK, and so is the personal allowance and its £100,000 taper.
Choosing Scotland in the calculator switches the whole band set. A Scottish taxpayer earning £60,000 pays noticeably more income tax than someone on the same salary in England.
Your salary is personal information. This calculator runs entirely inside your browser — there is no account, no analytics on what you enter, and no server that ever sees the number. Close the tab and it is gone. Most salary calculators send your figures to their server; this one has nowhere to send them.
Your band is a marginal rate — it applies only to the slice of income inside that band, not to everything you earn. A higher-rate taxpayer on £60,000 pays 40% only on the part above the higher-rate threshold; the rest is taxed at 20% or not at all.
Because the personal allowance is withdrawn at £1 for every £2 earned above £100,000, so each extra £2 of salary also makes £1 of previously tax-free income taxable. Combined with the 40% rate this gives an effective marginal rate of 60% until the allowance hits zero at £125,140.
Yes. Salary sacrifice and net pay arrangements come out before income tax is calculated, so they lower your taxable income. This is also why they are the standard way of dealing with the 60% band above.
Yes — six bands from 19% to 48%, set by the Scottish Parliament. National Insurance is the same UK-wide.
No. It is an estimate for planning. It does not know your tax code, benefits in kind, other income, or adjustments HMRC may apply to you specifically. Check it against your payslip or HMRC before acting on it. Palarid is not a tax adviser and this is not tax advice.
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