How Much Tax Will I Pay? 2026/27 Income Tax and NI Explained

On a normal salary in 2026/27 you pay no tax on the first £12,570, then 20% income tax and 8% National Insurance on everything up to £50,270, then 40% tax and 2% NI above that. So someone on £30,000 pays £3,486 income tax and £1,394.40 NI — about 16% of their pay in total, not 20%. Scotland uses different income tax rates, starting at 19% and reaching 42% from £43,662.

• The Personal Allowance is £12,570 and is frozen, so pay rises push more income into tax.
• The 40% rate starts at £50,270 in England, Wales and Northern Ireland. In Scotland the 42% higher rate starts earlier.
• National Insurance is 8% between £12,570 and £50,270, then 2% above — and it is the same across the whole UK.
• Your effective tax rate is always lower than your top rate, because the allowance and lower bands come first.
• A wrong tax code is the most common reason your payslip does not match the arithmetic below.

Is it 20% tax on wages?

Not on all of them. Income tax is charged in slices, and only the slice inside each band is taxed at that band's rate. For 2026/27 in England, Wales and Northern Ireland the slices are:

• £0 – £12,570: Personal Allowance, 0%
• Next £37,700 (so up to £50,270): basic rate, 20%
• £50,270 – £125,140: higher rate, 40%
• Above £125,140: additional rate, 45%

National Insurance works the same way but with its own thresholds: 8% on earnings between £12,570 and £50,270, then 2% on everything above. Employees pay it on each pay period's earnings rather than annually, which is why a bonus month can look punishing.

Put together on a £30,000 salary: £30,000 − £12,570 = £17,430 of taxable pay. £17,430 × 20% = £3,486 income tax. NI is charged on the same £17,430 at 8% = £1,394.40. Total deductions £4,880.40, which is 16.3% of gross pay, not 20%.

These figures ignore pension contributions, student loan repayments, salary sacrifice and taxable benefits such as a company car — all of which change the final payslip number.

What salary gets taxed at 40%?

In England, Wales and Northern Ireland, the 40% higher rate begins once your taxable income passes £50,270 — that is the £12,570 allowance plus the £37,700 basic-rate band. Earn £55,000 and only the top £4,730 is taxed at 40%; the rest is taxed at 0% and 20% exactly as before.

Two things move that line:

• Pension contributions and Gift Aid. A personal pension contribution or a Gift Aid donation extends your basic-rate band, so more income is taxed at 20% rather than 40%.
• Losing your allowance. Above £100,000 the Personal Allowance is cut by £1 for every £2 of income, so it disappears entirely at £125,140. Between those two points each extra £1 of salary costs 40p in tax plus 40p on the 50p of allowance you lose — an effective 60% marginal rate, or 62% once the 2% NI is added.

There is another pinch point between £60,000 and £80,000 if you or your partner claim Child Benefit: the High Income Child Benefit Charge claws the benefit back across that band, on top of 40% tax.

For a full breakdown of the most-searched salary of all, see the guide on how much tax you pay on a £50,000 salary.

Tax and NI at common salaries

The table below shows annual income tax and National Insurance for a 2026/27 employee on the standard tax code, with no pension, student loan or benefits in kind. NI is identical UK-wide, so only the income tax and take-home columns differ for Scotland.

Reading across the £60,000 row: the first £12,570 is untaxed, the next £37,700 is taxed at 20% (£7,540), and the remaining £9,730 at 40% (£3,892), giving £11,432. NI is £37,700 × 8% (£3,016) plus £9,730 × 2% (£194.60) = £3,210.60. Total deductions are £14,642.60 — an effective rate of 24.4%.

How much tax will I pay this month?

PAYE spreads everything evenly. Each month you get one twelfth of your Personal Allowance (£1,047.50) and one twelfth of each band, so a steady salary produces the same deduction every month. On £30,000 that is £290.50 income tax and £116.20 NI, leaving £2,093.30 net.

Monthly figures wobble when your pay is not steady. Because most tax codes are cumulative, a bonus or overtime month can push you temporarily into the 40% band and then correct itself later in the year. National Insurance does not work cumulatively, so NI overpaid in a spike month is generally not refunded automatically.

How your tax code changes it

Every figure above assumes the standard code, 1257L, which gives the full £12,570 allowance. Your code changes the answer more than almost anything else:

• BR taxes all of that income at 20% with no allowance — common on a second job.
• D0 and D1 tax the whole amount at 40% and 45%.
• K codes add notional income, usually for a company car, medical insurance or tax owed from an earlier year.
• Codes ending W1, M1 or X are emergency, non-cumulative codes. They treat each pay period in isolation and often over-deduct after a job change.
• Codes ending M or N show Marriage Allowance has been transferred, moving £1,260 of allowance between spouses and saving up to £252 a year.

HMRC also adjusts codes to collect tax on savings interest, rental profits or an underpayment, which is why your deductions can differ from the table even on an ordinary salary. You can see your current code and estimate through your Personal Tax Account on GOV.UK, or check what the letters mean at gov.uk/tax-codes.

Scotland is different

Scottish income tax rates apply to non-savings, non-dividend income — salary, self-employment profit, pensions and rent — if Scotland is where you live. Savings interest and dividends follow the UK-wide rates, and National Insurance is set for the whole UK.

The practical effect: below roughly £30,000 a Scottish taxpayer pays slightly less than someone elsewhere in the UK, and above about £30,000 they pay more, with the gap widening once the 42% rate bites at £43,662. On £50,000 the difference is £1,496 of income tax a year. Between £43,663 and £50,270 a Scottish employee faces a combined marginal rate of 50% — 42% tax plus 8% NI — because the NI threshold has not moved.

Work out your own figure

The table covers round-number salaries on a clean tax code. Real pay packets rarely look like that, so it is worth running your own numbers if you have a workplace pension, a student loan, a company car, a second job or income from savings and property alongside your wage.

Two checks are worth doing every year. First, confirm your tax code matches your circumstances — a stale code from an old job or a benefit you no longer receive quietly changes your deductions all year. Second, check whether a pension contribution or Gift Aid donation moves you back under a threshold such as £50,270, £60,000 or £100,000, where the marginal cost of the next pound of income is unusually high.

What to do next

Enter your salary in the income tax calculator to see your tax and National Insurance split by band, with the Scottish rates included. If you want the monthly and weekly net figure after pension and student loan deductions, use the take-home pay calculator. And if you are hovering around the higher-rate threshold, the worked breakdown in the guide to tax on a £50,000 salary shows exactly where the 40% band starts to bite.