Take Home Pay Calculator UK 2026/27

On a £35,000 gross salary in 2026/27, you pay approximately £4,486 in income tax (basic rate 20% above the £12,570 personal allowance) and £1,786 in National Insurance (8% on earnings between £12,570 and £35,000). That leaves take-home pay of around £28,728 per year — roughly £2,394 per month. Add a pension contribution or student loan to get a more precise figure.

Gross pay is your salary before any deductions. Take-home pay (also called net pay) is what you actually receive after income tax, National Insurance, pension contributions, and student loan repayments have been taken off. For a typical UK employee on £35,000, the difference is roughly £6,272 a year — meaning you keep about 82% of every pound earned at that level.

HMRC calculates income tax on the amount above your personal allowance (£12,570 for 2026/27) at 20%, 40%, or 45% depending on how much you earn. National Insurance is deducted separately at 8% on earnings between £12,570 and £50,270, and 2% above that. Pension contributions made via salary sacrifice reduce your taxable pay before both calculations are made. This calculator applies all three steps and shows the monthly and annual result.

Employees pay 8% National Insurance on earnings between £12,570 and £50,270 per year, and 2% on anything above £50,270. On a £35,000 salary that is roughly £1,786. Self-employed workers pay Class 4 NI at 6% on profits between £12,570 and £50,270, and 2% above — lower than the employed rate because employers also pay NI on top.

Not directly — your take-home pay is lower when you contribute to a pension, but by less than the contribution amount. A salary sacrifice contribution is deducted before tax and NI are calculated, so a 5% contribution on a £35,000 salary (£1,750) only reduces take-home pay by around £1,196 — the rest is tax and NI you would have paid anyway. At higher rate (40%), the saving is even larger.

Student loan repayments are taken at 9% of income above your plan threshold (6% for Postgraduate Loans). For Plan 2 (the most common), the threshold in 2026/27 is £29,385. On a £35,000 salary, you repay 9% of (£35,000 − £29,385) = £505 per year — around £42/month. Plan 1 threshold is £26,900, Plan 4 is £33,795, and Plan 5 is £25,000. Select your plan in the calculator to see the exact deduction.

Scottish taxpayers pay different income tax rates set by the Scottish Government — the starter rate (19%), basic rate (20%), intermediate rate (21%), higher rate (42%), and top rate (48%) — with different band boundaries. This calculator uses England, Wales, and Northern Ireland rates only and will overstate the take-home pay for Scottish taxpayers at most income levels.