See how pension salary sacrifice affects take-home pay, tax, employee National Insurance and adjusted net income. If adjusted net income exceeds £100,000, calculate a sacrifice scenario that could restore some or all of your Personal Allowance.
2026/27 · England / Wales / NI · 1257L · monthly payroll · no existing pension, employer pension, loan, bonus, benefits or other income. Change the assumptions below. Calculations are educational, not personal financial advice.
Receiving a bonus? Compare its cash take-home and pension effects.
See how a pay rise changes take-home and percentage pension contributions.
It is taxable income before Personal Allowances, less qualifying reliefs. Salary is only part of it: taxable benefits, rent, savings and dividends can also count. Net-pay contributions reduce taxable pay; gross relief-at-source contributions reduce adjusted net income. This simplified tool does not support every income type: rental/property income, savings, dividends and trading income are excluded from the other-income field. HMRC’s adjusted-net-income guidance.
In 2026/27, the standard £12,570 allowance falls by £1 for every £2 of adjusted net income above £100,000. The calculation uses these shared tax-year rules, including Scottish Income Tax. GOV.UK allowances · Scottish Income Tax.
Qualifying salary sacrifice exchanges cash salary for an employer pension contribution and reduces employee NI-able pay. Net pay reduces taxable pay but not employee NI-able pay. Relief at source deducts a net payment and adds provider relief; further relief may need an HMRC claim. The comparison can include that claim using a standard tax code, but it is not immediate payslip cash. Pension methods · Pension tax relief.
Current Tax-Free Childcare and England’s Free Childcare for Working Parents have their own adjusted-net-income rules for each parent, as well as conditions on earnings, children and circumstances. Reaching this calculator’s Personal Allowance target does not establish eligibility. These are current informational links, not historical-year calculations. Tax-Free Childcare eligibility · Working-parent childcare eligibility.
The calculator does not check pension annual allowance, tapered annual allowance, money purchase annual allowance, relevant-earnings eligibility, pension access restrictions, or carry forward. Contributions to other pensions, employer contributions and defined-benefit accrual can matter. Pension “adjusted income” and “threshold income” are not the same measure as adjusted net income. Any resulting pension tax charge is excluded.
Salary sacrifice must not reduce pay below the applicable minimum wage. The optional cash-salary floor is only a scenario constraint, not a legal check. An employer must assess age, hours and pay periods. Existing employee and regular employer pension amounts are held fixed against original salary; scheme rules may differ. The model assumes an effective contractual sacrifice into a registered pension scheme, not a retrospective change.
Other income uses ordinary non-savings Income Tax bands but does not create employee NI or payroll loan deductions. Rental/property income, trading income, another job, savings/dividends, Gift Aid, property-specific tax reliefs, pensioner-specific allowances, other Self Assessment charges and prior PAYE deductions are outside this model. Property income must not be entered as a substitute for an adjusted-net-income-only figure: it would also affect the estimated tax and net income. Non-standard codes show a PAYE estimate; use a standard code for a statutory allowance scenario and check any HMRC adjustments separately. Bonus NI is assigned to one pay period; monthly net is an annual average. Historical years with blended NI rates are estimates.
No employer NI saving is added to the pension. The calculator’s expandable future-changes help explains the announced pension salary-sacrifice reform separately from the selected-year results.
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