Tax year 2026/27
£20,000 after tax
On a salary of £20,000, you take home £17,919.60 a year, which is £1,493.31 a month, in England, Wales or Northern Ireland.
Take-home pay on £20,000
| Period | Salary | Income tax | National Insurance | Take-home |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Year | £20,000.00 | £1,486.00 | £594.40 | £17,919.60 |
| Month | £1,666.67 | £123.83 | £49.53 | £1,493.31 |
| Week | £384.62 | £28.58 | £11.43 | £344.61 |
| Working day | £76.92 | £5.72 | £2.29 | £68.91 |
| Hour (37.5 hours a week) | £10.26 | £0.76 | £0.30 | £9.20 |
Your effective rate is 10.4%: that share of your salary goes in income tax and National Insurance. Your marginal rate is 28%: that is what you would lose from your next pound of pay.
£20,000 at a glance
- You are a basic rate taxpayer: none of your income reaches the higher rate band.
- You get the full Personal Allowance of £12,570.
- All your pay above £12,570 is in the main National Insurance band, at 8%.
- In Scotland, this salary reaches the basic rate band.
- You are £1,000 below the Postgraduate Loan repayment threshold.
Where £20,000 sits in the tax bands
- The first £12,570 is your Personal Allowance.
- £7,430.00 is taxed at the basic rate of 20%, which is £1,486.00.
You are £30,270 below the point where the higher rate of income tax starts, at £50,270 for someone with the full Personal Allowance. Below that, each extra pound is taxed at the basic rate.
What a £1,000 pay rise is worth
If your salary went up by £1,000 to £21,000, you would take home £720.00 more a year, or about £60.00 a month. The rest goes in income tax and National Insurance.
£20,000 after tax in Scotland
Scotland has its own income tax bands. On £20,000 a Scottish taxpayer pays £1,446.33 in income tax, compared with £1,486.00 elsewhere in the UK, and takes home £17,959.27 a year. That is £39.67 more a year. National Insurance is the same everywhere in the UK.
With a student loan
At £20,000 you are below the threshold for every student loan plan, so you would repay nothing.
| Plan | Threshold | A year | A month | Take-home |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Plan 1 | £26,900 | £0.00 | £0.00 | £17,919.60 |
| Plan 2 | £29,385 | £0.00 | £0.00 | £17,919.60 |
| Plan 4 (Scotland) | £33,795 | £0.00 | £0.00 | £17,919.60 |
| Plan 5 | £25,000 | £0.00 | £0.00 | £17,919.60 |
| Postgraduate Loan | £21,000 | £0.00 | £0.00 | £17,919.60 |
If you have more than one undergraduate plan, you repay once, on the lowest threshold. See student loan plans explained.
With a workplace pension
As an illustration, if you pay 5% of your salary into a pension (your own scheme may differ), that is £1,000.00 a year. How it is set up changes your take-home pay:
- through salary sacrifice, you take home £17,199.60 a year;
- through a net pay arrangement, you take home £17,119.60 a year.
The difference comes from National Insurance, which salary sacrifice reduces and net pay does not. Read salary sacrifice or net pay?
Compared with nearby salaries
| Salary | Take-home a year | Difference |
|---|---|---|
| £15,000 | £14,319.60 | −£3,600.00 |
| £20,000 (this page) | £17,919.60 | – |
| £25,000 | £21,519.60 | +£3,600.00 |
Sources: GOV.UK Income Tax rates, rates and thresholds for employers, Scottish Income Tax, student loan repayments.
Annual figures for 2026/27, standard tax code, no other income. Real payslips can differ slightly. Estimate only, not financial or tax advice. See How we calculate.