UK
How PAYE Works in the UK: Personal Allowance, Bands & Take-Home Pay
How HMRC collects income tax through PAYE in 2026: the £12,570 personal allowance, the 20/40/45% bands, tax codes, and how to read your payslip.
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United Kingdom · Tax & Income
UK Income Tax & PAYE Calculators
UK income tax is layered, not flat. PAYE handles the basic deduction from wages using the tax code HMRC issues; National Insurance sits beside it as a separate weekly/monthly contribution; student loan deductions (Plan 1, 2, 4, 5, or Postgraduate) stack on top for graduates; and self-assessment catches anyone with untaxed side income, dividends above the allowance, or income above the £100,000 personal-allowance taper. The calculators in this hub model each layer separately and combined — the PAYE calculator for the standard salary view, the National Insurance calculator for the Class 1 details, self-assessment for the year-end balancing-payment + payments-on-account picture, and capital gains for asset disposals after the annual exempt amount has shrunk to £3,000.
Calculators
PAYE
UK Income Tax + National Insurance on PAYE earnings
National Insurance
Class 1 (employees) and Class 2 + 4 (self-employed) NI for the UK
Self-Assessment
Income Tax + NI Class 4 + payments on account for UK sole traders
UK CGT
UK CGT with £3,000 annual exempt amount and 18%/24% bands
Key terms
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Additional Rate
The top UK income-tax rate of 45%, charged on income above £125,140 in 2026 — the threshold sits at the point the personal allowance has fully tapered.
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CGT Annual Exempt Amount
The slice of capital gains a UK individual can realise each tax year before Capital Gains Tax applies — £3,000 in 2026, down from £12,300 in 2022.
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Higher Rate Threshold
The UK income level above which earnings are taxed at 40% — £50,270 in 2026 for England, Wales and Northern Ireland (Scotland uses a different band structure).
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Marriage Allowance
A UK income-tax transfer that lets a spouse or civil partner earning under the personal allowance pass up to £1,260 of unused allowance to a basic-rate partner.
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National Insurance (NI)
The UK social-insurance contribution funding state pension and welfare benefits, paid by employees, employers, and the self-employed in separate classes.
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Pay As You Earn (PAYE)
The HMRC system for collecting income tax and National Insurance directly from wages — your employer deducts it before paying you.
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Personal Allowance
The UK income-tax-free band — £12,570 in 2026 — applied before any income tax is charged, tapered to zero for incomes above £100,000.
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Self-Assessment
HMRC's annual return for people whose income isn't fully settled through PAYE — the self-employed, landlords, high earners, and anyone with untaxed side income.
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Tax Code
The alphanumeric code HMRC issues each PAYE employee so the employer knows how much personal allowance to apply when calculating income tax.
Guides
UK
UK National Insurance 2026: Class 1, 2 & 4 Rates and Thresholds
How UK National Insurance works in 2026/27: Class 1 employee and employer rates, Class 2 and Class 4 for the self-employed, and the thresholds that drive each.
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UK
UK Tax Codes Explained: 1257L, BR, K, NT and Emergency Codes
What every UK tax code means in 2026: how to decode 1257L, BR, D0, K, NT, S, C and W1/M1, plus how to spot and fix an incorrect code.
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