UK take-home pay 2026/27: a £5,000 rise is worth £3,600 at £30,000 but only £1,900 at £100,000. Real net pay figures and the 62% marginal rate explained. See our United Kingdom tax calculator for estimated take-home pay calculations.
A £50,000 salary in the UK leaves £39,521 a year in 2026/27, or £3,293 a month, after £7,486 of income tax and £2,993 of National Insurance. Ask for a £5,000 rise on £50,000 and you keep £2,937 of it. Ask for the same £5,000 on £100,000 and you keep £1,900. The salary decides how much of the rise survives, and between £100,000 and £125,140 the answer is barely a third.
Check your own figure with the UK salary calculator.
| Band | Income | Rate |
|---|---|---|
| Personal allowance | £0 to £12,570 | 0% |
| Basic rate | £12,571 to £50,270 | 20% |
| Higher rate | £50,271 to £125,140 | 40% |
| Additional rate | Above £125,140 | 45% |
National Insurance on employment income runs alongside it: 8% of earnings between £12,570 and £50,270, then 2% above that with no upper limit. The employee rates are set out on gov.uk's income tax rates and National Insurance rates pages.
Note where the two systems disagree. Income tax gives you £12,570 of income free and a basic rate band £37,700 wide, so the 40% band starts at £50,270. National Insurance starts at £12,570 as well, but it charges 8% rather than 20%, and above £50,270 it drops to 2% instead of rising. That mismatch is what produces a 28% marginal rate at the bottom, 42% through the middle and 62% in the taper.
| Gross salary | Income tax | National Insurance | Take-home | Monthly | Kept |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| £25,000 | £2,486 | £993 | £21,521 | £1,793 | 86.1% |
| £30,000 | £3,486 | £1,393 | £25,121 | £2,093 | 83.7% |
| £40,000 | £5,486 | £2,193 | £32,321 | £2,693 | 80.8% |
| £50,000 | £7,486 | £2,993 | £39,521 | £3,293 | 79.0% |
| £60,000 | £11,432 | £3,210 | £45,358 | £3,780 | 75.6% |
| £80,000 | £19,432 | £3,610 | £56,958 | £4,746 | 71.2% |
| £100,000 | £27,432 | £4,010 | £68,558 | £5,713 | 68.6% |
Two things in that table are worth pausing on. The step from £50,000 to £60,000 costs £4,163 in extra tax and National Insurance on a £10,000 rise — £3,946 of it income tax, £217 of it contributions — where the step from £30,000 to £40,000 costs £2,800. And National Insurance stops growing much once pay passes £50,270: the top two rows differ by £400 of National Insurance but £8,000 of income tax.
Full workings for £50,000 after tax in the UK and £100,000 after tax sit on the calculator pages.
| Starting salary | New salary | Extra income tax and NI | You keep | Share kept |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| £30,000 | £35,000 | £1,400 | £3,600 | 72% |
| £45,000 | £50,000 | £1,400 | £3,600 | 72% |
| £50,000 | £55,000 | £2,063 | £2,937 | 59% |
| £95,000 | £100,000 | £2,100 | £2,900 | 58% |
| £100,000 | £105,000 | £3,100 | £1,900 | 38% |
| £125,140 | £130,140 | £2,350 | £2,650 | 53% |
The marginal rate at each level tells the story more sharply:
| Salary | Marginal rate on the next £1,000 |
|---|---|
| £30,000 | 28% |
| £60,000 | 42% |
| £100,000 | 62% |
| £130,000 | 47% |
Below £50,270 you pay 20% income tax plus 8% National Insurance. Between £50,270 and £100,000 it is 40% plus 2%. Above £100,000 the income tax rate on the next pound is not 40% at all.
The £95,000 to £100,000 row is the ordinary higher-rate case: 40% income tax plus 2% National Insurance, 42% in total, so 58% of the rise survives and nothing unusual happens. Compare it with the row underneath. The same £5,000 rise costs £1,000 more in tax there, purely because the salary crossed £100,000 and the personal allowance started disappearing.
Your personal allowance is withdrawn once adjusted net income passes £100,000, at £1 of allowance for every £2 of income. Each additional £2 of salary therefore adds £1 of taxable income directly and also pulls £1 of allowance into the 40% band — £1.20 of income tax on £2 of salary, a 60% rate, plus 2% National Insurance, so 62%.
At £100,000 the single person's allowance is still the full £12,570. At £125,140 it is nil, and every pound above that is taxed at 45% instead. The calculator reproduces the whole slope: a £1,000 rise at £110,000 costs £620, and one at £120,000 costs the same.
From £100,000 to £125,140 — a rise of £25,140 — take-home pay goes from £68,558 to £78,111. You keep £9,553 of it, or 38%. That is the most expensive stretch of pay progression in the UK tax system, and it catches people whose pay has only just reached six figures.
It is also why salary sacrifice arrangements are popular at that level. Contributions made from gross pay reduce the salary the taper is measured against, so the money goes to a pension rather than to the 62% rate. Whether that suits you depends on when you need the cash, not on the tax.
The personal allowance has been £12,570 for years, and the higher rate threshold has been £50,270 for as long. Nothing in the 2026/27 rates has changed from the year before. What changes is you.
That is the whole mechanism behind the arithmetic above. If the bands move with your pay, a rise takes you to the same place on the scale. When they are frozen and your pay grows, every rise pushes you further up a scale that is standing still. A £5,000 rise in a year when thresholds rose 5% keeps much the same share as before; the same rise against a frozen threshold keeps less. It is why a £50,000 salary now feels unremarkable rather than like reaching the top decile.
Annual numbers hide how a rise feels. On £60,000 you take home £3,780 a month; the same £5,000 rise, to £65,000, adds £242 a month rather than £417. Budgeting against the gross figure is what makes a promotion feel like a pay cut in practice.
The figures on this page cover income tax and employee National Insurance on a salary, and nothing else. Three things commonly change the final number.
Student loan repayments come off pay above the relevant plan threshold and are not modelled. Pension contributions and salary sacrifice arrangements are not modelled either, and both reduce taxable pay rather than the rate. And Scottish income tax uses a different set of bands for employment income, so the tables here apply to England, Wales and Northern Ireland — gov.uk's Scottish income tax has the rates for Scotland.
It depends where you start. On £30,000 you keep £3,600, or 72%. On £50,000 you keep £2,937, or 59%. On £100,000 you keep £1,900, or 38%. The 28% marginal rate below £50,270 becomes 42% above it, and 62% between £100,000 and £125,140.
It is the withdrawal of the personal allowance above £100,000. You lose £1 of allowance for every £2 you earn, so £2 of extra salary brings £1.20 of income tax — 60% — and 62% once the 2% National Insurance above the upper earnings limit is added. It runs until your allowance is gone at £125,140.
£39,521 a year, £3,293 a month. Income tax is £7,486 and National Insurance £2,993, so £10,479 of the £50,000 goes in tax and contributions.
No. The personal allowance stays at £12,570 and the basic, higher and additional rate thresholds are unchanged, which is what makes a pay rise cost more than the previous one did. Scotland sets its own rates for employment income, which are different again.
UK take-home pay in 2026/27 is a story about thresholds that do not move. A rise from £30,000 to £35,000 costs you 28%, and you barely notice it. The same £5,000 at £100,000 costs you 62%, and you notice it.
The numbers to carry around: £39,521 on £50,000, £45,358 on £60,000, £68,558 on £100,000, and 38 pence kept out of every pound between £100,000 and £125,140. If you are negotiating in that range, the gross figure is a poor guide to what lands in your account.