The 2026/27 figures every estimate uses
These are the PAYE planning inputs the calculation engine reads. The Income Tax, National Insurance and student-loan figures live in one configuration file, and this page interpolates the figures it shows from that file — so for these, the page cannot drift from the results.
- Personal Allowance: £12,570, tapering away between £100,000 and £125,140 of adjusted net income.
- Income Tax outside Scotland: 20% basic rate on the first £37,700 of taxable income — income after the allowance — then the 40% higher rate, with the additional rate starting at £125,140 of taxable income. Scotland runs its own 6-band structure, covered on the Scottish salary calculator.
- Employee National Insurance: 8% between £12,570 and £50,270 of annual earnings, 2% above that, on the annualised Class 1 category A basis.
- Minimum wage bands, statutory pay rates and the NHS pay scales live in their own rules modules, each carrying its own official citation and its own last-checked date — those are listed on the Sources page rather than restated here.
What 2026/27 changed against 2025/26, at your salary
Between 2025/26 and 2026/27 the published figures move the Scottish Income Tax bands and the student loan thresholds; the Personal Allowance, National Insurance and the postgraduate loan threshold are unchanged. So the differences below are zero for anyone outside Scotland with no Plan 1, Plan 2, Plan 4 or Plan 5 loan; the table shows the Scottish and Plan 2 cases beside the standard one, and the loan calculators show the other plans. A table of mostly zeros with two moving components is the story this year.
Both years' figures come from the same published rates the calculators read, applied to the same gross salary on a 1257L code, so any difference is the year's doing and not a pay change. A positive difference is more take-home under 2026/27 rules; a negative one is less. The compare-years tool runs the same comparison on your own salary, pension and loan.
What 2026/27 changed against 2025/26, at your salary| Salary | Take-home 2025/26 | Take-home 2026/27 | Difference | Difference with a Plan 2 loan | Difference in Scotland | What moved |
|---|
| £20,000 | £17,920 | £17,920 | £0 | £0 | +£11 | Income Tax (Scotland) |
|---|
| £25,000 | £21,520 | £21,520 | £0 | £0 | +£11 | Income Tax (Scotland) |
|---|
| £30,000 | £25,120 | £25,120 | £0 | +£82 | +£32 | student loan (Plan 2); Income Tax (Scotland) |
|---|
| £35,000 | £28,720 | £28,720 | £0 | +£82 | +£32 | student loan (Plan 2); Income Tax (Scotland) |
|---|
| £40,000 | £32,320 | £32,320 | £0 | +£82 | +£32 | student loan (Plan 2); Income Tax (Scotland) |
|---|
| £50,000 | £39,520 | £39,520 | £0 | +£82 | +£32 | student loan (Plan 2); Income Tax (Scotland) |
|---|
| £60,000 | £45,357 | £45,357 | £0 | +£82 | +£32 | student loan (Plan 2); Income Tax (Scotland) |
|---|
| £80,000 | £56,957 | £56,957 | £0 | +£82 | +£32 | student loan (Plan 2); Income Tax (Scotland) |
|---|
| £100,000 | £68,557 | £68,557 | £0 | +£82 | +£32 | student loan (Plan 2); Income Tax (Scotland) |
|---|
| £125,140 | £78,111 | £78,111 | £0 | +£82 | +£32 | student loan (Plan 2); Income Tax (Scotland) |
|---|
| £150,000 | £91,286 | £91,286 | £0 | +£82 | +£32 | student loan (Plan 2); Income Tax (Scotland) |
|---|
What actually happens when a year changes
A new tax year is not one number swapped for another. The Personal Allowance, each band width, both National Insurance thresholds, every student-loan plan threshold, the minimum wage bands and the statutory pay rates all move — or pointedly do not, which is how frozen thresholds raise tax without a rate rising. When a new year's figures are published, each one is verified against the official source and recorded with a citation and a retrieval date before it is switched on, and the dates above say when that last happened.
Checking a payslip against a year change
The first payslip after 6 April is the one worth reading closely. Two things explain most surprises there: a tax code carried over from last year while the allowance it encodes has changed, and a pay rise landing in the same month the thresholds moved, so two effects overlap. Rule changes do not all wait for April either — National Insurance has changed mid-year before, on a different schedule from Income Tax, which is why the dates above matter as much as the figures. If the deductions still look wrong after that, the payslip diagnostic works out what your pay and tax code should have produced and lists what could account for the difference.
Last updated 2026-09-02. Maintained by Sean Elsmore. Rates last checked against GOV.UK on 2026-09-02. Estimates are for planning and should be checked against official records where the decision matters.