Plan pension tax relief, net pay pension, relief at source, salary sacrifice, contribution rates, and take-home impact.
Pension tax relief means you are not taxed on the pay you put into a pension, but how you receive it depends on the scheme. Under a net pay arrangement the contribution comes out before Income Tax is worked out, so the relief is immediate and at your own rate. Under relief at source the contribution is taken from pay after tax and the scheme reclaims basic-rate relief for you, which leaves higher and additional-rate taxpayers to claim the rest from HMRC themselves.
Under relief at source the provider adds basic-rate relief to what you pay in. The figures below separate the two.
Of £45,000.00 gross a year: Income Tax £6,486.00, National Insurance £2,594.40, Pension £2,480.64, Take-home £33,438.96.
£2,481 leaves your pay, tax relief adds £620, and £3,101 goes into the pension. That is 8% of the £38,760 of your salary that counts as qualifying earnings.
Saving £140 a month — about 5% of this take-home — becomes £9,265.06 in five years at an example 4%: try the savings calculator.
2026/27 rates, England, Wales and Northern Ireland, no student loan. Open the full calculator to change region, student loan or pension method.
Payslip showing different figures? The payslip checker works out what your pay and tax code should have produced and shows which assumption could explain the gap.
| Tax/source year | 2026/27 |
|---|---|
| Region | England/Wales/Northern Ireland |
| Tax code basis | 1257L where the page uses PAYE defaults |
| Pension basis | No pension deduction unless this example says otherwise |
| Student loan basis | No student loan unless selected in this example |
| What is not decided here | PayBreakdown does not decide payroll correctness, lender approval, benefit entitlement or employer compliance, and does not give regulated financial, mortgage, debt, tax, payroll or legal advice. |
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The figures on this page are worked from pension tax relief, using the values below. Open the calculator if your example salary differs.
This estimate is worked out on £45,000 annual gross. Change any of those and the take-home figure moves; pension method and student loan plan usually move it most. A payslip can differ from any calculator because payroll works pay period by pay period, so a tax-code change, a bonus, arrears or a refund can land in one month and not the next. See how each deduction is worked out.
No. It is an estimate worked from published HMRC and GOV.UK figures for the current tax year, using the assumptions shown on this page. It cannot see your tax code history, benefits in kind or employer payroll rules, so check important decisions against your payslip, official guidance or a qualified adviser.
Yes. Open the linked calculator to change the salary, pension, tax code, region or student loan plan and the figures update as you type.
Last updated 2026-08-27. Checked by Sean Elsmore. Rates last checked against GOV.UK on 2026-08-07. Estimates are for planning and should be checked against official records where the decision matters.