Working backwards from take-home pay
Job ads quote gross salaries, but life runs on take-home pay. This calculator flips the usual sum: you say what you want to land in your account, and it finds the gross salary that produces it under the 2026/27 rules for England, Wales and Northern Ireland.
There is no neat reverse formula, because the deductions change shape as income rises. For 2026/27 the moving parts are:
- Personal allowance: the first £12,570 is free of income tax, tapered away above £100,000
- Income tax: 20% basic rate, 40% above £50,270, 45% above £125,140
- National Insurance: 8% on earnings between £12,570 and £50,270, then 2%
All of these switch on at different points, so the calculator does what a spreadsheet solver would do: it tries a gross figure, computes the exact tax and NI on it, and narrows the guess up or down until the resulting take-home matches your target to the penny. Enter your target yearly or monthly, whichever you know; the monthly option is simply multiplied by 12. The result rows then show the gross salary, its monthly equivalent, and the income tax and National Insurance implied by it, plus a take-home check so you can see the whole sum balancing before you rely on it.
Worked examples
The expensive zone above £100,000
Between £100,000 and £125,140 the personal allowance is withdrawn at £1 for every £2 earned, which stacks an effective 60% tax rate on top of 2% NI. The consequence for net-to-gross sums is stark: raising gross pay from £100,000 to £125,140, an extra £25,140, only lifts take-home from £68,557.40 to £78,110.60, a gain of £9,553.20. In that window each extra £1 of take-home costs about £2.63 of salary. If your target lands there, small increases in the take-home you ask for produce outsized jumps in the gross required, and pension contributions become a very efficient alternative to chasing raw salary.
What the answer does and does not include
The calculator models income tax and employee National Insurance on a standard 1257L tax code, nothing else. Pension contributions, student loan repayments, salary sacrifice, benefits in kind and non-standard tax codes all reduce take-home further, so if any apply to you the salary you really need will be somewhat higher. Scotland sets its own income tax bands, so Scottish answers differ too. Use the result to sanity-check job offers and salary targets, then confirm the fine detail with HMRC's estimator or payroll. This is guidance, not tax or financial advice.
Frequently asked questions
How does the calculator find the gross salary?
There is no simple reverse formula, because the personal allowance, tax bands and two NI rates all switch on at different income levels. Instead the calculator repeatedly narrows down the answer: it tries a gross figure, works out the exact 2026/27 tax and National Insurance on it, compares the resulting take-home with your target and adjusts until the two match to within a penny.
Does this work for Scotland?
Not exactly. The calculator uses the income tax bands for England, Wales and Northern Ireland. Scotland sets its own income tax bands and rates, so the gross salary needed for a given take-home is slightly different there, especially on middle and higher incomes. National Insurance is the same across the UK.
Why is the real salary I need probably a bit higher?
The calculator models income tax and employee National Insurance on a standard tax code only. Pension contributions, student loan repayments, salary sacrifice and non-standard tax codes all reduce take-home pay further, so if any of those apply you will need a somewhat higher gross salary to hit the same target.
Why does the required gross jump so much above £100,000?
Between £100,000 and £125,140 the personal allowance is withdrawn at £1 for every £2 earned, creating an effective 60% marginal tax rate before NI. In that window each extra £1 of take-home costs about £2.63 of gross salary, so take-home targets that land there need disproportionately large salaries.
Should I enter a yearly or monthly figure?
Whichever you know. The monthly option simply multiplies your target by 12 and finds the annual gross salary behind it. Real payslips can differ slightly month to month because National Insurance is calculated per pay period rather than annually, but over a year the figures line up.