UK PAYE Tax Calculator

Use this calculator to estimate UK PAYE tax and take-home pay from employment income.

What this calculator does

The UK PAYE tax calculator estimates income tax, employee National Insurance, and take-home pay for employment income.

It uses:

• gross annual salary
• tax code or personal allowance assumptions
• income tax bands
• National Insurance assumptions
• pension contribution assumptions, if included

This gives you an estimated annual and monthly take-home pay figure.

UK PAYE Formula

Take-Home Pay = Gross Pay - Income Tax - Employee NI - Pension Contributions

Where:

• Income tax is applied across UK tax bands after available allowance
• Employee NI is calculated separately from income tax
• Pension contributions reduce take-home pay and may affect taxable pay depending on scheme type

Example calculation

If gross salary is 45,000, the calculator estimates tax after allowance, applies National Insurance, then subtracts any pension contribution assumptions.

The result is an estimate of annual take-home pay and a monthly equivalent for budgeting.

When to use this calculator

Use this calculator when you want to:

• estimate take-home pay from a UK salary
• compare job offers with different gross salaries
• check the impact of pension contributions
• understand the difference between income tax and National Insurance

For contractor status questions, use the IR35 Status Calculator.

FAQs

Is PAYE the same as income tax?

PAYE is the system employers use to deduct income tax and National Insurance from wages before paying employees.

Why can take-home pay differ from this estimate?

Actual pay can differ because of tax codes, benefits, student loans, pension scheme type, salary sacrifice, bonuses, and prior income in the tax year.