UK Income Tax Calculator (Take-Home Pay & Salary Calculator)

On a gross annual salary of £45,000 with a standard tax code (1257L) in England or Wales, you pay £6,486 in income tax and £2,594 in National Insurance, yielding an annual net take-home pay of approximately £35,100 (£2,925 per month or £675 per week).

The standard UK Personal Allowance is frozen at £12,570. You do not pay any income tax on earnings up to this threshold.

Under a workplace salary sacrifice scheme, pension contributions are deducted from gross pay before income tax and National Insurance are computed. A Higher Rate (40%) taxpayer saving £100 into a pension only sees their take-home pay decrease by £58 (saving £40 income tax and £2 National Insurance).

Plan 1 threshold is £24,990 (9%); Plan 2 threshold is £27,295 (9%); Plan 4 (Scotland) is £31,395 (9%); Postgraduate loans threshold is £21,000 (6%). You only pay the percentage on earnings that exceed these annual amounts.

The UK Chancellor reduced the main rate of Class 1 employee National Insurance from 12% to 10% in January 2024, and subsequently cut it further to 8% in April 2024. This saved average UK employees earning £35,000 roughly £900 per year compared to 2023 levels.

1257L is the standard tax code for most UK employees with one job. The number 1257 multiplied by 10 indicates that you are entitled to the standard tax-free Personal Allowance of £12,570 for the tax year.

Marriage Allowance allows a spouse or civil partner who earns less than the £12,570 Personal Allowance to transfer up to £1,260 of their unused allowance to their partner (if the partner is a basic-rate taxpayer), reducing the couple's tax bill by up to £252 per year.

Enter your gross annual salary or hourly wage above: the calculator deducts income tax, Class 1 National Insurance, student loans and pension, then shows take-home pay per year, month and week. Compare the monthly and weekly figures against your actual payslip to spot-check.

Gross salary is everything you earn; taxable income is what remains after your £12,570 Personal Allowance (and any pension contributions made before tax). Only taxable income passes through the 20%, 40% and 45% bands, which is why two people on the same salary can owe different tax.

England, Wales and Northern Ireland use four bands on income above the allowance: 20% Basic to £50,270, 40% Higher to £125,140, and 45% Additional above that. Scotland sets its own starter, basic, intermediate, higher, advanced and top rates. Only the slice of income inside each band is taxed at that rate — a pay rise never leaves you worse off.