What Gross Salary Do I Need for My Target Take-Home?

Most salary calculators go in one direction: you enter a gross figure and they tell you what lands in your bank account. This tool reverses that process. Enter the take-home pay you want — whether that is the monthly amount you need to cover your rent, bills and savings, or an annual figure you have set as a goal — and the calculator works backwards to find the gross salary that produces exactly that net pay.

The maths runs an iterative binary search across possible gross values between £0 and £500,000. At each step, it applies 2026/27 income tax rates (20%, 40%, 45%) and National Insurance contributions (8% and 2%) against the standard personal allowance of £12,570. The search narrows down in 100 steps until the resulting net pay matches your target to within a few pence.

If you have a student loan, the calculator also accounts for repayments. Plan 1 deducts 9% of earnings above £24,990; Plan 2 deducts 9% above £28,470; Plan 4 (Scottish graduates) deducts 9% above £32,745. Because student loan repayments increase your total deductions, the gross salary you need to hit a given net figure is correspondingly higher.

The tax code field defaults to 1257L — the standard code for most UK employees. If HMRC has assigned you a different code (for example, because you have a company car, unpaid tax from a prior year, or are on an emergency BR code), your actual deductions will differ. This calculator applies a simplified version of 1257L regardless of what you type, because calculating arbitrary tax codes requires access to your personal HMRC record.

Your gross salary is the headline figure agreed in your employment contract — the number advertised in job listings and used in affordability calculations by mortgage lenders. Your net salary (or take-home pay) is what you actually receive after all statutory deductions. In the UK, the main deductions are income tax, collected via PAYE, and National Insurance contributions (NICs), both of which are deducted automatically by your employer and paid to HMRC on your behalf.

For 2026/27, income tax applies at three rates. The basic rate of 20% applies to taxable income between £12,570 and £50,270. The higher rate of 40% applies between £50,270 and £125,140. The additional rate of 45% applies above £125,140. National Insurance is charged at 8% on earnings between £12,570 and £50,270, and at 2% above £50,270. Scottish taxpayers pay Scottish Income Tax rates which differ from those above — this calculator uses the England, Wales and Northern Ireland rates.

One important nuance: if your earnings exceed £100,000, your personal allowance tapers away at £1 for every £2 earned over that threshold, creating an effective 60% marginal rate between £100,000 and £125,140. This calculator does not model the taper, so results above £100,000 gross will be approximate. If you are in this bracket, consider speaking with a tax adviser.

Pension contributions can also change your net pay significantly. Salary sacrifice schemes reduce your gross before tax and NI are calculated, meaning every £100 you put into your pension only costs you around £68 if you are a basic rate taxpayer — HMRC effectively subsidises the rest. This calculator does not model pension contributions so that the result stays focused purely on the tax and NI reverse calculation.