How we calculate take-home pay

The order of the steps

1. Salary sacrifice comes off your pay first. It lowers income tax, National Insurance and student loan repayments.
2. A net pay pension comes off before income tax only.
3. A relief at source pension does not change payroll. You pay 80% of the contribution from take-home pay; the provider adds 20%. Any extra relief for higher-rate taxpayers is shown separately as something you claim back.
4. Your Personal Allowance is £12,570, reduced by £1 for every £2 of adjusted net income above £100,000, unless you enter a tax code.
5. Income tax bands are applied to taxable income: the England, Wales and Northern Ireland bands, or the Scottish bands.
6. Employee National Insurance (category A) is 8% between £12,570 and £50,270 and 2% above, on pay after salary sacrifice.
7. Student loans are 9% above your plan threshold, or 6% above £21,000 for a Postgraduate Loan, on pay after salary sacrifice.
8. If you tell us how many children you get Child Benefit for, we work out the High Income Child Benefit Charge from adjusted net income and show take-home pay after it.

What it assumes

• One job, paid the same all year, with no benefits in kind.
• You are under State Pension age and pay category A National Insurance.
• Figures are yearly, rounded to the penny, and divided by 12, 52 or your hours for other periods. Payslips differ slightly; see why your payslip differs.
• Child Benefit is counted for 52 weeks, and the Child Benefit charge percentage is rounded down to a whole number.
• Employer figures assume employer National Insurance category A and a worker eligible for auto-enrolment.
• Your figures stay in your browser. The calculator does not send them to us.

What it does not cover

Self-employment, dividends, savings and property income, more than one job, company directors' National Insurance, benefits in kind and Universal Credit. For these, use HMRC's tools or ask a qualified adviser.

How we check it

Before every update, the calculator is run against hand-worked examples built from the published rules. The build stops if any result is a penny out. The calculator in your browser is also checked against the same engine on 600 random cases.

Case (2026/27)	Hand-worked take-home	Calculator	Result
£30,000, England	£25,119.60	£25,119.60	Match
£30,000, Scotland	£25,154.53	£25,154.53	Match
£60,000, England, Plan 2, 5% relief at source	£40,202.05	£40,202.05	Match
£110,000, England	£72,357.40	£72,357.40	Match
£45,000, England, 5% salary sacrifice	£34,299.60	£34,299.60	Match
£70,000, England, two children (before the charge)	£51,157.40	£51,157.40	Match

Sources

• GOV.UK: Income Tax rates and Personal Allowances
• GOV.UK: Rates and thresholds for employers 2026 to 2027
• GOV.UK: Rates and allowances, National Insurance contributions
• Scottish Parliament: Scottish Rate Resolution 2026-27 (motion S6M-20844)
• GOV.UK: Special rules for student loans
• GOV.UK: High Income Child Benefit Charge
• GOV.UK: Child Benefit rates
• GOV.UK: Salary sacrifice and the effects on PAYE
• GOV.UK: Tax on your private pension, pension tax relief
• GOV.UK: Tax codes, what your tax code means
• DWP: Automatic enrolment earnings trigger and qualifying earnings band 2026/27
• GOV.UK: National Minimum Wage and National Living Wage rates
• GOV.UK: Budget 2025, overview of tax legislation and rates

Tax rates and thresholds are taken from HMRC, GOV.UK and Scottish Government publications. Contains public sector information licensed under the Open Government Licence v3.0.

Changelog

• 20 October 2026: site launched with 2026/27 rates, checked against the sources above.

Found a mistake?

Please email hello@myrealsalary.com with the salary and options you used. We may make mistakes, and rules can change during a tax year, so we record every correction here.

MyRealSalary is an independent website. It is not part of, endorsed by or connected with HM Revenue & Customs, GOV.UK or any other government body.