UK Tax Calculator 2026/27

What this tax calculator covers

Use the tax calculator at the top of the page to get an estimate in seconds. Pop in your annual income, tell it whether you're employed or self-employed, and pick your nation, and it works out the two big deductions most people care about: income tax and National Insurance. What's left is your estimated take-home pay for 2026/27.

Tax in the UK isn't one single charge. It's a stack of separate rules that bite at different income levels, and the rules aren't identical across the four nations. This page is the broad starting point. Once you know roughly where you stand, the more specialised tools linked further down will give you the exact figure for your circumstances, whether that's a salaried payslip, a self-assessment return, or a Scottish income tax bill.

How UK tax is calculated

The headline formula most people want is simple to state:

Take-home pay = Gross income - Income Tax - National Insurance

The detail sits inside those two deductions. Income tax in England, Wales and Northern Ireland works on a banded, or "slice", system. Everyone starts with a tax-free Personal Allowance of £12,570. You pay nothing on income up to that point. Above it, your taxable income is sliced into bands and each slice is taxed at its own rate:

• Basic rate (20%) on the first £37,700 of taxable income - that's income between £12,570 and £50,270.
• Higher rate (40%) on taxable income from £37,700 up to £125,140 - income between £50,270 and £125,140.
• Additional rate (45%) on anything above £125,140.

Only the slice inside each band is taxed at that band's rate. A common worry is that earning a pound more pushes your whole income into a higher rate. It doesn't. Cross into the 40% band and only the pounds above the threshold are taxed at 40%; everything below keeps its lower rate.

The second deduction is National Insurance. For employees (Class 1), you pay 8% on earnings between the Primary Threshold of £12,570 and the Upper Earnings Limit of £50,270, then 2% on everything above £50,270. So NI as a formula is: 8% of the slice from £12,570 to £50,270, plus 2% of anything over £50,270.

One nuance worth flagging: employee NI is worked out per pay period - weekly or monthly - not cumulatively across the year like income tax. An annual-income tax calculator gives a close approximation, but your real monthly payslip applies the monthly thresholds, so a one-off bonus in a single month can be deducted more heavily than an annual estimate suggests.

The hidden trap above £100,000

If your income climbs over £100,000, your Personal Allowance is reduced by £1 for every £2 above that line. By £125,140 it's gone entirely. The effect is a punishing band of effective tax between £100,000 and £125,140 - you lose allowance and pay 40% on the income, so each extra pound is taxed far more heavily than the headline 40% suggests. If you're near that threshold, a pension contribution that brings your adjusted income back under £100,000 can be unusually valuable.

2026/27 income tax rates and bands

These are the figures the tax calculator uses for England, Wales and Northern Ireland, checked for the 2026/27 tax year. You can confirm them on the official source: gov.uk income tax rates.

The Personal Allowance is reduced by £1 for every £2 of income over £100,000, disappearing completely at £125,140.

National Insurance at a glance

For employees on Category A (the standard category), the 2026/27 Class 1 NI figures are:

The self-employed pay Class 4 NI instead, at 6% on profits between £12,570 and £50,270 and 2% above that - a lower main rate than employees. If that's you, the self-employed tax calculator handles both your income tax and Class 4 NI together.

Worked example: a nurse on £45,000

Take Priya, a senior nurse in Manchester earning £45,000 a year, employed and taxed in England. Here's how the tax calculator reaches her take-home figure step by step.

Income tax: Her Personal Allowance is £12,570, so taxable income is £45,000 - £12,570 = £32,430. That sits entirely inside the basic-rate band, so it's all taxed at 20%:

• £32,430 × 20% = £6,486 income tax

National Insurance: She earns above the Primary Threshold but below the Upper Earnings Limit, so 8% applies to the slice between £12,570 and £45,000:

• (£45,000 - £12,570) × 8% = £32,430 × 8% = £2,594.40 NI

Take-home: £45,000 - £6,486 - £2,594.40 = £35,919.60 a year, or roughly £2,993 a month before any pension or student loan deductions.

A second example: a £60,000 earner crossing into 40%

Now take Daniel on £60,000. His taxable income is £60,000 - £12,570 = £47,430. The first £37,700 is taxed at 20% (£7,540), and the remaining £9,730 falls in the higher-rate band at 40% (£3,892). Total income tax: £11,432. His NI is 8% on the slice up to £50,270 (£3,016) plus 2% on the £9,730 above it (£194.60), giving £3,210.60. He keeps roughly £45,357 of his £60,000 - and crucially, only the income above £50,270 was taxed at 40%, not the lot.

Scotland is different - don't assume one UK rate

If you live in Scotland, your income tax is set by the Scottish Parliament and uses more bands with different rates - starter, basic, intermediate, higher, advanced and top - applied to non-savings income. The £12,570 Personal Allowance is still UK-wide, and National Insurance is unchanged across the UK, but the income tax slices and rates differ. A Scottish taxpayer on a higher salary generally pays a little more income tax than someone on the same salary in England. If that applies to you, use the dedicated Scotland tax calculator rather than the England figures, and confirm the bands at gov.uk. Property tax is also devolved: Scotland charges LBTT instead of England's stamp duty, and Wales charges LTT.

Choose the right tax calculator for you

This page is a hub. The estimate above is a useful first pass, but for an exact figure tailored to your situation, the specialised tools do more of the heavy lifting:

• Income tax calculator - if you only need the income tax slice broken down across the bands.
• Salary calculator - for a full payslip view including pension and student loan, with monthly and weekly take-home.
• National Insurance calculator - to isolate just your NI, employed or self-employed.
• Self-employed tax calculator - income tax plus Class 4 NI on your profits.
• Self-assessment tax calculator - if you file an SA100 and want to estimate the bill due by 31 January.

How to reduce the tax you pay

There are legitimate, well-trodden ways to bring your bill down:

• Pension contributions get tax relief at your marginal rate and reduce your adjusted net income - especially powerful if you're near £100,000 (protecting your Personal Allowance) or just over £50,270 (clawing income back out of the 40% band).
• Salary sacrifice for pensions or other benefits lowers both your income tax and your National Insurance, because the sacrificed amount never counts as earnings.
• Marriage Allowance lets a non-taxpayer transfer part of their Personal Allowance to a basic-rate-paying spouse, cutting the couple's bill.
• Claiming allowable expenses if you're self-employed reduces the profit you're taxed on - keep records of genuine business costs.
• ISAs shelter savings and investment returns from tax entirely, with a £20,000 annual allowance.

Common mistakes people make

• Assuming a higher band taxes everything. It doesn't. Only the slice inside each band is taxed at that band's rate, so a pay rise always leaves you better off overall.
• Applying England's rules in Scotland. Scottish income tax has its own bands and rates. Using the wrong calculator can overstate or understate your bill.
• Forgetting NI is per-pay-period. A bonus paid in one month can be hit harder than an annual estimate implies, because that month's earnings spike through the thresholds.
• Being caught on an emergency tax code. Starting a new job without a P45 can put you on a temporary code that over-deducts. It usually corrects itself, and any overpayment is refundable.
• Ignoring the £100,000 allowance taper. Income between £100,000 and £125,140 carries a much higher effective rate because the Personal Allowance is being withdrawn at the same time.
• Missing payments on account. If you're self-assessed, HMRC may ask for advance payments towards next year's bill - a nasty surprise if you weren't expecting it.

These figures are estimates for guidance only and are not personal tax or financial advice. Your exact position depends on your full circumstances; check with HMRC or a qualified adviser before acting.

How much tax will you pay? Examples by salary

Want a quick tax estimator without typing anything in? The table below shows roughly how much income tax and National Insurance comes out of common UK salaries for the 2026/27 tax year (England, Wales and Northern Ireland), what you keep per month, and the effective percentage of your wages that is actually taxed. Scotland uses different income tax bands — see the Scotland section above.

So on a £20,000 wage you pay about 7.4% in income tax, rising to roughly 10.4% once National Insurance is added — nowhere near the headline 20% basic rate, because your first £12,570 is tax-free. The more you earn, the higher the percentage of tax you pay, as more of your income crosses into the 20% (and then 40%) band. To see your own figure to the penny — yearly or per month — enter your salary in the calculator above.

Tax on savings interest works differently. Interest from savings is taxed under separate rules, with a tax-free Personal Savings Allowance on top of the allowance you get against your wages. If you are really after an interest tax calculator, use our savings interest tax calculator or check your Personal Savings Allowance instead.

Related calculators

Once you've used the tax calculator above, these tools take you further: work out your full payslip with the salary calculator, break down just the income tax with the income tax calculator, or estimate your return with the self-assessment tax calculator.