Second Job Tax Calculator (2026/27)

Two jobs tax calculator: how your tax is split

With two jobs, your Personal Allowance (£12,570) is normally used entirely against your main job through a 1257L tax code, and your second job is taxed at a flat 20% under a BR code. If your combined income pushes you into the higher-rate band, the second job should carry a D0 code instead. Enter both incomes below to see the real take-home across the two jobs, and use the tax code checker if the codes on your payslips look wrong.

Work out the tax on your second job

Enter your earnings from each job into the calculator above to estimate your combined Income Tax and National Insurance for 2026/27. Use your annual gross figures from each employer (before any deductions) for the closest result, then read on to understand why the split between your two jobs looks the way it does.

How tax works across two jobs

HMRC does not tax each job in isolation. It adds your jobs together and treats the total as one stack of income, then works out the tax due on that whole amount. The catch is that your tax-free Personal Allowance can only sit against one source of income at a time, so one job gets the allowance and the other usually does not.

For 2026/27 the standard Personal Allowance is £12,570. Whichever job HMRC treats as your main employment normally gets a tax code of 1257L, which spreads that £12,570 across the year tax-free. Your second job is typically given a BR code, which stands for Basic Rate: every pound from that job is taxed at 20% with no allowance attached, because the allowance is already being used elsewhere.

The formula the calculator follows is straightforward in plain words:

• Total income = Job 1 pay + Job 2 pay
• Taxable income = Total income − Personal Allowance (£12,570)
• Income Tax = 20% on the first £37,700 of taxable income, 40% on taxable income from £37,700 to £125,140, and 45% above that

So the higher-rate threshold bites at £50,270 of total income (£12,570 allowance + £37,700 basic-rate band). If your two jobs combined push you over £50,270, part of your income is taxed at 40% - and that is exactly where the BR code on a second job can leave you owing money, which we cover below.

Why your second job is often taxed at BR

Seeing 20% taken from the whole of your second wage can feel like a penalty, but the BR code is usually correct. Your Personal Allowance is finite. If job one already uses all £12,570, there is nothing left to set against job two, so job two is taxed from the first pound. The BR code simply applies basic rate without re-giving an allowance you have already had.

The system works cleanly when both jobs together stay inside the basic-rate band. It goes wrong when your combined income crosses £50,270. A BR code only ever charges 20%, so if part of your second job should be taxed at 40%, the code does not collect enough and you can end up underpaying - which HMRC later recovers, often by changing your code to D0 (all income at higher rate) or through a Self Assessment bill.

Tax and National Insurance on combined income

National Insurance behaves differently from Income Tax, and this is where two jobs can actually work in your favour. NI is worked out per job, per pay period - it is not pooled across employments the way Income Tax is. Each job gets its own Primary Threshold of £12,570 a year (£1,048 a month) before employee Class 1 NI starts.

For 2026/27, employee National Insurance is charged at 8% on earnings between £12,570 and £50,270, and 2% above £50,270. Because each employer applies the threshold separately, a second job paying under £12,570 a year often attracts no NI at all, even though the same income added to your main salary would have been charged at 8%. That quirk can make two modest jobs slightly cheaper on NI than one combined salary of the same total.

How the calculator works

The second job tax calculator adds your two gross salaries, applies a single £12,570 Personal Allowance against the total, and runs the combined figure through the 2026/27 Income Tax bands. It then estimates National Insurance on each job separately, reflecting how PAYE actually treats multiple employments. The result is a realistic picture of your overall tax position - not just the deduction shown on one payslip.

If you want to dig into a single salary in isolation, the salary calculator breaks down one job's take-home pay, and the income tax calculator shows the band-by-band tax on any total income. For the NI side on its own, the National Insurance calculator applies the thresholds for a single employment.

Worked example: a second job under the higher-rate threshold

Take Priya, a teaching assistant earning £30,000 in her main job, who takes a weekend retail job paying £8,000 a year. Her combined income is £38,000.

• Job 1 (£30,000, code 1257L): £30,000 − £12,570 allowance = £17,430 taxable at 20% = £3,486 Income Tax.
• Job 2 (£8,000, code BR): all £8,000 taxed at 20% = £1,600 Income Tax.
• Combined Income Tax = £5,086.

Check it against the total: £38,000 − £12,570 = £25,430 taxable, all within the basic-rate band, £25,430 × 20% = £5,086. The BR code got it exactly right because Priya never crosses £50,270.

National Insurance: Job 1 charges 8% on (£30,000 − £12,570) = £1,394.40. Job 2 pays £8,000, which is below the £12,570 threshold, so it attracts no NI. Priya's total NI is £1,394.40 - less than the £2,034.40 she would pay if the same £38,000 came from one job.

Worked example: when a second job tips you into higher rate

Now take Daniel, who earns £45,000 in his main job and adds a £10,000 freelance-style PAYE role, for £55,000 combined.

• Correct tax on £55,000: £55,000 − £12,570 = £42,430 taxable. The first £37,700 at 20% = £7,540; the remaining £4,730 at 40% = £1,892. Total Income Tax due = £9,432.
• What PAYE collects with a BR code on job two: Job 1 pays £6,486 (£32,430 × 20%), and Job 2 pays just £2,000 (£10,000 × 20%) = £8,486 collected.

That leaves £946 of tax uncollected, because £4,730 of Daniel's income should have been taxed at 40% but the BR code only charged 20%. HMRC usually fixes this by switching the second job to a D0 code (40% on everything) or adjusting his main code mid-year. Either way, the shortfall is real - which is why crossing £50,270 with two jobs deserves a closer look. The tax code calculator helps you sense-check which code each employer is using.

2026/27 rates and thresholds

These are the figures the calculator applies for England, Wales and Northern Ireland. Scotland sets its own Income Tax bands - see the note beneath the table.

Source: gov.uk Income Tax, checked for the 2026/27 tax year. The Personal Allowance also tapers away once total income exceeds £100,000 - reduced by £1 for every £2 over that figure - which matters if two well-paid jobs combine into six figures.

Regional difference: Scotland

If you live in Scotland, your second job is taxed using the Scottish Income Tax bands, which include starter, basic, intermediate, higher, advanced and top rates rather than the three rUK bands. The Personal Allowance is still the UK-wide £12,570, and National Insurance is identical across the UK, but the rate applied to your combined earnings differs. The BR-code mechanics work the same way, so a Scottish second job is still typically taxed without an allowance - just at Scottish rates. Use the dedicated Scottish figures rather than this page's rUK table if your main home is in Scotland.

Splitting your personal allowance between two jobs

You do not have to leave the whole £12,570 on one job. If both jobs pay steadily and neither uses the full allowance, you can ask HMRC to split your Personal Allowance across them - for example, giving each job part of the tax-free amount so you stop overpaying month to month. This is most useful when your main job pays less than £12,570, leaving spare allowance that the BR code on the second job would otherwise ignore.

To change it, contact HMRC (online via your Personal Tax Account, or by phone) and explain your earnings from each employer. HMRC reissues the tax codes so the allowance is shared sensibly. It will not change the total tax you owe over the year, but it stops a chunk of pay being held back unnecessarily each payday, which matters if money is tight.

How to reduce the tax on a second job

• Pension contributions: paying into a workplace or personal pension reduces your taxable income and can keep your combined earnings below £50,270, sparing the 40% band.
• Check the right job holds the allowance: the £12,570 should sit on your higher, more reliable salary - not a small, irregular second job where you might not use it all.
• Use the trading allowance for self-employment: if your "second job" is actually self-employed work rather than PAYE, the first £1,000 of trading income can be tax-free, and the maths is different again. The self-employed tax calculator covers that case.
• Keep your tax code under review: a wrong code is the single most common reason people over- or under-pay on two jobs.

Common mistakes with two jobs

• Assuming a second job is "taxed more". It is not penalised - it just gets no allowance, so the full amount is taxed where your first job's lower slices were tax-free. The overall tax on your total income is the same as if it came from one job.
• Ignoring the higher-rate crossover. If your jobs together exceed £50,270, a BR code under-collects and you can face an unexpected bill. Watch this whenever a pay rise or extra hours nudge you over.
• Forgetting NI is per job. A second job under £12,570 pays no NI, but two jobs each just over £12,570 each start paying - sometimes a surprise on the second payslip.
• Both jobs accidentally using 1257L. If a new employer applies a full allowance by mistake, you get the tax-free amount twice and underpay heavily. Check both codes early in the tax year.
• Emergency tax on a new second job. Starting work without a P45 can trigger an emergency or wrong code; once HMRC has your details, it corrects and refunds any overpayment through your pay.

These figures are estimates for guidance only and are not personal tax or financial advice. Your exact position depends on your tax codes, pension contributions and circumstances - check with HMRC or a qualified adviser.

Related calculators

To go further, try the income tax calculator for a full band-by-band breakdown of your combined income, the National Insurance calculator to model NI on each employment, and the tax code calculator to confirm the code each of your employers should be using.