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.

UK tax rates at a glance, 2026/27

There is no single UK tax percentage, because different taxes apply to different income. These are the main rates for England, Wales and Northern Ireland in the 2026/27 tax year (6 April 2026 to 5 April 2027).

Your overall rate is lower than your top rate, because the first £12,570 of income is tax-free and each rate only applies to the slice of income inside its band. On the salary table above, a £30,000 salary loses about 16.3% to income tax and National Insurance combined, £50,000 about 21.0% and £100,000 about 31.4%. Scottish taxpayers pay different income tax rates, covered in the Scotland section below.

For more detail see UK tax thresholds, National Insurance rates, dividend tax and corporation tax rates.

Sources: GOV.UK Income Tax rates and Personal Allowances, GOV.UK tax on dividends, GOV.UK Corporation Tax rates and GOV.UK VAT rates.

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 ≈ £4,211
• Take-home: £72,357 a year, or about £6,030 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:

• Up to £3,967 of taxable income: 19% (starter rate)
• £3,968 to £16,956 of taxable income: 20% (basic rate)
• £16,957 to £31,092 of taxable income: 21% (intermediate rate)
• £31,093 to £62,430 of taxable income: 42% (higher rate)
• £62,431 to £125,140 of taxable income: 45% (Advanced rate)
• Above £125,140 of taxable income: 48% (Top rate)

National Insurance and the Personal Allowance are UK-wide. The final position depends on taxable income, allowances, pension deductions and other PAYE information, so use a Scotland-aware calculation rather than relying on a single comparison figure.

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.

What is tax relief?

Tax relief is a reduction in the tax you pay, or an addition to what you put aside, for money spent on something the tax system wants to encourage. It is not the same as an allowance. The Personal Allowance is the amount you can earn before Income Tax starts. Tax relief applies to specific spending or contributions.

GOV.UK lists charity donations, job expenses and private pension contributions among the reliefs that can lower an Income Tax bill. Two that affect most employees:

• Pension tax relief. Private pension contributions are tax-free up to certain limits: relief on contributions worth up to 100% of your annual earnings, within a £60,000 annual allowance. Many schemes give relief automatically. If you pay tax above 20%, you can claim the extra relief through Self Assessment or by contacting HMRC. The worked example above shows the effect for a higher rate taxpayer.
• Job expenses. You can claim tax relief for things you must buy for your job and use only for work, such as a uniform or small tools, as long as your employer has not paid you back. GOV.UK says that from 6 April 2026 to 5 April 2027 you cannot claim tax relief for working from home, although claims for the four previous tax years are still possible.

If you are unsure which reliefs you can claim, a short call with an accountant can show what applies to your pay and expenses. See how RR supports Self Assessment.

Sources: GOV.UK: tax on your private pension and GOV.UK: claim tax relief for your job expenses.

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

Official sources

• GOV.UK: Income Tax rates and Personal Allowances
• GOV.UK: National Insurance contribution rates
• GOV.UK: estimate your Income Tax