How we calculate take-home pay

We start with annual gross pay, then estimate deductions using published annual thresholds.

Income Tax and Personal Allowance

We use the tax code you enter. The standard Personal Allowance is £12,570, reducing above £100,000 of adjusted net income.

Scotland has separate Income Tax bands. Wales and Northern Ireland use the same rates as England for this tax year.

HMRC rates and thresholds · Tax codes.

National Insurance

We estimate employee Class 1 contributions using your NI category and annual thresholds. We support A, B, C, H, J, M, V and Z.

HMRC National Insurance rates.

Student loans

Select one undergraduate plan and, if needed, a Postgraduate Loan. Annual repayments use earnings above each plan’s threshold.

Salary sacrifice reduces these earnings. Relief at source and net pay pension contributions do not reduce the loan earnings used here.

Student loan repayment thresholds.

Pensions

For percentage contributions, qualifying earnings are annual pay between £6,240 and £50,270. You can also enter a gross annual contribution amount.

Relief at source

The scheme adds basic-rate relief. We deduct your net contribution after calculating tax and NI on gross pay.

Relief at source includes only 20% basic-rate relief in this payslip estimate. Extra higher-rate relief and Personal Allowance restoration between £100,000 and £125,140 are excluded. Claim these through Self Assessment, or contact HMRC about claiming without a tax return. Pension tax relief · Adjusted net income.

Net pay arrangement

The contribution reduces pay for Income Tax. NI and student loan earnings stay unchanged.

Salary sacrifice

Your cash salary falls by the exchanged amount. Tax, NI and loan deductions use that lower salary. We do not deduct the exchanged amount twice.

Pension tax relief · Salary sacrifice.

NHS Agenda for Change pay

The NHS pay calculator uses England’s 2026/27 Agenda for Change scales, effective 1 April 2026. Basic pay is full-time salary × contracted hours ÷ full-time hours. A custom amount is also a full-time basic salary.

HCAS and part-time limits

We calculate the full-time High Cost Area Supplement (HCAS) as a percentage of basic salary, subject to the published minimum and maximum. For part-time staff, we scale that result and both limits by contracted hours ÷ full-time hours. This is an estimate: the handbook gives a general pro-rata entitlement, but we did not find an explicit statement about the part-time minimum and maximum. Check your employer’s payroll figure.

Unsocial hours estimate

The optional inputs are average weekly hours already included in contracted hours. The annual premium is full-time annual basic salary ÷ full-time weekly hours × (Saturday and weekday night hours × their premium rate + Sunday and public holiday hours × their premium rate). Rates are expressed as fractions in this formula.

This adds the premium only, without paying basic salary twice. Each hour can appear in only one category. HCAS is excluded from the premium base. We assume the average weekly pattern continues throughout the year and exclude overtime, on-call payments and local arrangements.

NHS Pension tiers

Actual pensionable pay is basic pay + HCAS + the estimated unsocial hours premium. The contribution tier uses this actual annual amount, including for part-time staff. It does not use whole-time equivalent pay. The selected rate applies to all pensionable pay; tiers are not marginal bands.

NHS Pension is included by default using a net pay arrangement. It reduces Income Tax pay but does not reduce National Insurance or student loan earnings. You can opt out in the calculator.

NHS terms and conditions handbook · Unsocial hours rules · NHS Pension tiers.

Income percentiles

Based on HMRC Table 3.1a for tax year 2023/24 (taxpayers only). Not a 2026/27 projection.

The UK income percentile calculator uses all 99 points in the before-tax table’s 2023 to 2024 column. Between published points, we interpolate linearly by income and display an approximate percentile to one decimal place. Below P1 and above P99, we show the boundary without extrapolating. We do not adjust for inflation.

This is total individual income, rather than salary alone, and includes only Income Tax payers. It is not a ranking of households or the whole population. HMRC Table 3.1a.

Rounding and periods

Annual results are rounded to the nearest penny. Monthly estimates divide annual totals by 12. Weekly, daily and hourly estimates use your working pattern.

Daily estimates default to five days a week. You can change this to a whole number from one to seven.

These are annual estimates, not a complete PAYE payroll calculation. Cumulative pay, emergency codes and employer rounding can change your payslip.

Known limits

K codes use a simplified annual additional-pay calculation with a deduction limit. Unsupported tax codes and NI categories produce a clear error.

The calculator does not model benefits in kind, multiple jobs or all Self Assessment adjustments.

Sources

See the source register and update log. Check your payslip or contact your employer if you need an exact payroll figure.