How much do you need to earn before tax to reach your take-home target? Enter the amount you want in your bank account and check which deductions apply.
1. Enter your details
The starting numbers are examples. Replace them with your own. Results update below the form.
Money reaching the bank account, after selected deductions.
Leave at 0 if there is no bonus. Included in annual averages, not a prediction of a particular month’s payslip.
Pension contributions — check these percentages
Set to 0 for no employee contribution; maximum 100%.
An additional employer contribution, not the employee’s salary sacrifice.
For relief at source, enter the gross percentage: 5% means 4% deducted plus 1% added by the provider. Extra tax relief claimed from HMRC is not part of the bank-pay target. Check pension arrangements with payroll.
Student loans — noneWhich student loan plan am I on?
Use your funding body and course start date, not the location of your university. Check your Student Loans Company account if unsure.
Plan 1: Student Finance England or Wales, course started before 1 September 2012; or Student Finance Northern Ireland.
Plan 2: Student Finance England, undergraduate/PGCE course started 1 September 2012–31 July 2023; or Student Finance Wales, undergraduate/PGCE started from 1 September 2012. England’s Higher Education Short Course Loans also use Plan 2.
Plan 4: Student Awards Agency Scotland funding, including postgraduate study.
Plan 5: Student Finance England, undergraduate/PGCE course started from 1 August 2023. Advanced Learner Loans follow England’s relevant start-date rules.
Postgraduate: England/Wales master’s or doctoral loan. Tick the separate box; it can apply alongside another plan.
Plus £0.00 annual bonus. Estimated bank pay: £3,000.00 per month / £36,000.00 per year.
Annual salary and bonus
£47,485.97
Income Tax
£6,508.33
Employee National Insurance
£2,603.33
Employee pension deducted
£2,374.30
Student and postgraduate loans
£0.00
Annual bank pay
£36,000.00
Where your gross pay goes
Every slice is part of your pay. Employer contributions and provider tax relief are shown separately below.
75.8%take-home
Take-home pay£3,000.0075.8%
Income Tax£542.3613.7%
National Insurance£216.945.5%
Pension from pay£197.865%
Employer cost — separate from employee deductions
Salary and bonus paid (after salary sacrifice)
£45,111.67
Employer National Insurance
£6,016.75
Employer pension, including salary sacrificed
£3,798.88
Total annual employer cost
£54,927.30
Average monthly employer cost
£4,577.27
Salary sacrifice is moved into the pension, not added to salary twice. Employer NI assumes standard category A and is before any Employment Allowance. Excludes Apprenticeship Levy, benefits, recruitment, equipment, insurance and other overheads. Special NI exemptions and employer sharing of NI savings are not modelled.
Assumptions and official sources
Annualised 2026/27 estimates for a full tax year, standard Personal Allowance and a person below State Pension age. No custom tax codes, taxable benefits, other income, multiple jobs, workplace share schemes or charity deductions in these planning tools. Pension annual-allowance limits and minimum-wage eligibility are not checked. Use the main calculator for SIP, SAYE and GAYE. Estimates are not payroll or personalised tax advice.
Checked 23 September 2026. Your input figures are calculated in your browser; these tools do not upload your salary.
Worked net-to-gross examples
Examples use 2026/27 England, Wales and Northern Ireland rates, no student loans, no pension and no bonus. They are independent of the inputs above. Your own settings can produce different results.
For £2,000.00 per month in bank pay, the estimated basic salary is £28,445.00 per year.
For £3,000.00 per month in bank pay, the estimated basic salary is £45,111.67 per year.
For £4,000.00 per month in bank pay, the estimated basic salary is £64,556.21 per year.
Questions about this calculator
What does net-to-gross mean?
Net pay is the money left after tax and selected deductions. Gross salary is your pay before those deductions. This reverse calculator searches for the basic salary that reaches your net-pay target, holding your chosen bonus and pension settings fixed.
Does the target include my pension?
The target is spendable bank pay, not pension savings. Employee pension deductions reduce it. Employer contributions are shown separately as part of employer cost. Extra relief-at-source pension tax relief claimed from HMRC is excluded from the target.
Will I receive exactly this amount each month?
No. The monthly figure is an annual average. Bonus timing, tax codes, payroll rounding and working for only part of a tax year can change individual payslips. Select Scotland when Scottish Income Tax applies to you.