Payslip calculator

How the payslip calculator works

This calculator estimates take-home pay from a gross salary, showing the income tax and Class 1 National Insurance deducted for the current tax year. It is useful for checking a payslip, planning a budget, or understanding an offer before you accept it.

Actual payslips can also include pension contributions, student loan repayments, benefits in kind and other adjustments, so use this as a guide. If your payroll looks wrong, our payroll team can review it.

Why the result may not match your actual payslip

The commonest reason is the tax code. This assumes a standard code, and yours may carry an adjustment for benefits in kind, for tax underpaid in an earlier year, or for a second job — any of which changes the tax without changing your salary.

Three more differences account for most of the rest. Student loan repayments depend on which plan you are on, and postgraduate loans are collected on top of an undergraduate one. Pension contributions taken by salary sacrifice reduce gross pay before tax and National Insurance, so they behave differently from ordinary contributions. And directors have National Insurance calculated on an annual basis rather than per pay period, which makes deductions look uneven through the year and still be correct.

Gross to net is not the whole cost

If you are an employer working out what someone costs, add employer's National Insurance and the employer pension contribution to the gross figure. The difference between gross salary and total cost is larger than most people budget for.