Know your real take-home pay
A take home pay calculator answers the only salary question that matters: what actually lands in your bank each month. On £35,000 a year in England, Wales or Northern Ireland, with no pension and no student loan, you keep £28,719.60 a year — £2,393.30 a month, or about 82p of every pound. Add your pension, student loan, tax code and region below for your exact figure, then read on for how the calculation works, what it looks like at other salaries, and why two people on the same salary can take home different amounts.
Your salary isn’t your pay. This take home pay calculator shows what actually lands in your account each month — after tax, National Insurance, pension and student loan, using official 2026/27 rates for England, Wales, Northern Ireland and Scotland.
Pay calculators for your job
General calculators treat everyone the same. Ours are built around real UK pay structures — NHS bands, teacher scales, part-time patterns. Just need the numbers? The take home pay calculator at the top of this page has you covered.
NHS Pay Calculator
Band, pay point, London weighting, pension tiers and unsocial hours — the full NHS picture.
Calculate NHS pay →Teacher Pay Calculator
M1–M6 and Upper Pay Scale salaries with take-home after tax, NI and Teachers’ Pension.
Calculate teacher pay →Pro Rata Calculator
Going part-time? See the exact pro-rata salary, holiday entitlement and take-home.
Work out pro rata →Annual Leave Calculator
NHS and statutory leave entitlement by years of service and hours worked.
Check your leave →
Three steps, no jargon
Enter your pay
Salary, hours or NHS band — whichever you know. Add pension and student loan if you have them.
We do the HMRC maths
Income tax (including Scotland’s six bands), National Insurance, pension tiers and loan repayments, calculated instantly in your browser.
See every deduction
A clear breakdown of where your money goes — per year, per month and per week.
How take-home pay is worked out
Four things come off your salary, in this order:
- Pension first, if you have one. Under the net-pay arrangement your pension comes off before income tax, so it reduces the pay tax is charged on — but it does not reduce National Insurance, which is charged on your gross pay.
- Income tax next, on what is left after pension. The first £12,570 is tax-free for most people (tax code 1257L), then 20% up to £50,270 of taxable pay, 40% above that, and 45% above £125,140.
- National Insurance next, on gross pay: 8% up to £50,270, then 2% above that.
- Student loan last, on gross pay above your plan threshold — £29,385 for Plan 2, £25,000 for Plan 5 in 2026/27. Pension contributions do not reduce it.
Your effective rate — the share of your salary that goes in tax and NI — is 17.9% on £35,000. Your marginal rate — what comes off your next £100 — is 28% (20% tax + 8% NI). That distinction is why a pay rise never leaves you worse off in cash terms, even when it crosses a tax band.
Take-home pay at common salaries
No pension, no student loan, standard tax code, England/Wales/NI rates, 2026/27:
| Salary | Per year | Per month | Kept |
|---|---|---|---|
| £20,000 | £17,919.60 | £1,493.30 | 89.6% |
| £25,000 | £21,519.60 | £1,793.30 | 86.1% |
| £30,000 | £25,119.60 | £2,093.30 | 83.7% |
| £35,000 | £28,719.60 | £2,393.30 | 82.1% |
| £40,000 | £32,319.60 | £2,693.30 | 80.8% |
| £50,000 | £39,519.60 | £3,293.30 | 79.0% |
The share you keep falls as salary rises because more of it sits above the tax-free allowance and in the 40% band. For NHS bands specifically, use the NHS pay calculator — it adds the pension tiers, London weighting and shift pay on top of this same engine.
Why two people on the same salary take home different amounts
The usual reasons, in order of size:
- Pension: a 5% workplace pension on £35,000 cuts take-home by about £117 a month after tax relief, and an NHS pension tier can cut it by more.
- Student loan: Plan 2 on £35,000 takes about £42 a month; a postgraduate loan on top takes more.
- Tax code: anything other than 1257L — a BR code, a K code, or a code with benefits in it — changes the tax line directly.
- Scotland: Scottish income tax bands (19%, 20%, 21%, 42%, 45%, 48%) give a different result from England at most salaries — the Scotland calculator on this site works it out.
- Salary sacrifice: giving up salary for pension, childcare or a cycle scheme reduces tax and NI, but it also reduces pensionable pay if the sacrificed amount would otherwise have counted.
- Bonus and overtime: taxed in the month they are paid, so a bonus month looks much worse than the annual figure suggests.
Tax traps and opportunities worth knowing
- Marriage Allowance: if your spouse or civil partner earns under £12,570, transferring £1,260 of their allowance to you saves up to £252 a year.
- The 60% trap: between £100,000 and £125,140 your Personal Allowance is withdrawn £1 for every £2 you earn, so your effective marginal rate on that slice is 60% before National Insurance.
- Pension contributions: raising your pension contribution by £1,000 a year costs roughly £800 of take-home at the basic rate (and less at the higher rate), because the contribution itself is tax-free.
- Salary sacrifice: the same £1,000 through salary sacrifice also saves National Insurance, so it costs roughly £720 of take-home — but check the pension effect first (see the salary sacrifice note on the NHS pay calculator page).
How we check every figure
Every figure on this page is computed from the 2026/27 rates published by HMRC: the £12,570 Personal Allowance, the 20%/40%/45% bands, the 8%/2% National Insurance rates, the student loan thresholds, and the Scottish income tax bands. The £35,000 anchor (£28,719.60 a year, £2,393.30 a month) is the figure every major UK take-home calculator produces for the same inputs. To check your own result: confirm your tax code is 1257L, confirm whether your pension is taken before tax (net pay) or after tax (relief at source), and confirm your student loan plan — those three answers explain almost every difference between a calculator and a payslip.
Take-home pay, explained
What is take-home pay?
Take-home pay (net pay) is what is left of your salary after income tax, National Insurance, pension contributions and student loan repayments. It is the figure that lands in your bank account each month.
How is take-home pay calculated in the UK?
Pension first (if net pay), then income tax on what is left after pension, then National Insurance on gross pay, then student loan on gross pay above your plan threshold. The order matters — pension reduces taxable pay, but not National Insurance.
How much is £35,000 after tax in the UK?
£28,719.60 a year, or £2,393.30 a month, with no pension and no student loan, on the standard tax code in England, Wales or Northern Ireland in 2026/27. With a 5% pension it falls to about £27,320 a year.
Why is my take-home pay different from the calculator?
The usual reasons are a different tax code, a pension taken after tax instead of before, a student loan plan you did not select, salary sacrifice, or Scottish tax rates. Check those three answers first.
Does the calculator work for Scotland?
Yes — select Scotland and it applies the Scottish income tax bands (19%, 20%, 21%, 42%, 45%, 48%) instead of the England/Wales bands. National Insurance is the same across the UK.
What is the difference between effective and marginal tax rates?
Your effective rate is the share of your whole salary that goes in tax and NI (17.9% on £35,000). Your marginal rate is what comes off your next £100 (28% at the basic rate). Only the marginal rate matters for a pay rise or extra hours.
Is the calculator accurate for monthly pay?
Yes — monthly figures are the annual result divided by 12, which is how most employers pay. A bonus month or an overtime month will differ, because those are taxed in the month paid.
What is the 60% tax trap?
Between £100,000 and £125,140 your Personal Allowance is withdrawn £1 for every £2 earned, so that slice of income is effectively taxed at 60% before National Insurance. Pension contributions and salary sacrifice are the usual ways to soften it.