Tax year 2026/27
£30,000 after tax
On a salary of £30,000, you take home £25,119.60 a year, which is £2,093.30 a month, in England, Wales or Northern Ireland.
[DRAFT intro, owner to review] At this salary all of your taxable income is in the basic rate band, and all of your pay above the National Insurance threshold is in the main band. It is only just above the Plan 2 student loan threshold, so a Plan 2 borrower repays a small amount, while Plan 1 and Plan 5 borrowers repay noticeably more and a Plan 4 borrower repays nothing.
Take-home pay on £30,000
| Period | Salary | Income tax | National Insurance | Take-home |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Year | £30,000.00 | £3,486.00 | £1,394.40 | £25,119.60 |
| Month | £2,500.00 | £290.50 | £116.20 | £2,093.30 |
| Week | £576.92 | £67.04 | £26.82 | £483.06 |
| Working day | £115.38 | £13.41 | £5.36 | £96.61 |
| Hour (37.5 hours a week) | £15.38 | £1.79 | £0.72 | £12.87 |
Your effective rate is 16.27%: 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.
£30,000 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 intermediate rate band.
- You are £3,795 below the Plan 4 (Scotland) repayment threshold.
Where £30,000 sits in the tax bands
- The first £12,570 is your Personal Allowance.
- £17,430.00 is taxed at the basic rate of 20%, which is £3,486.00.
You are £20,270 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 £31,000, you would take home £720.00 more a year, or about £60.00 a month. The rest goes in income tax and National Insurance.
£30,000 after tax in Scotland
Scotland has its own income tax bands. On £30,000 a Scottish taxpayer pays £3,451.07 in income tax, compared with £3,486.00 elsewhere in the UK, and takes home £25,154.53 a year. That is £34.93 more a year. National Insurance is the same everywhere in the UK.
With a student loan
At £30,000 you would make repayments on Plan 1, Plan 2, Plan 5, Postgraduate Loan. Each row shows that plan on its own.
| Plan | Threshold | A year | A month | Take-home |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Plan 1 | £26,900 | £279.00 | £23.25 | £24,840.60 |
| Plan 2 | £29,385 | £55.35 | £4.61 | £25,064.25 |
| Plan 4 (Scotland) | £33,795 | £0.00 | £0.00 | £25,119.60 |
| Plan 5 | £25,000 | £450.00 | £37.50 | £24,669.60 |
| Postgraduate Loan | £21,000 | £540.00 | £45.00 | £24,579.60 |
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 £1,500.00 a year. How it is set up changes your take-home pay:
- through salary sacrifice, you take home £24,039.60 a year;
- through a net pay arrangement, you take home £23,919.60 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 |
|---|---|---|
| £25,000 | £21,519.60 | −£3,600.00 |
| £30,000 (this page) | £25,119.60 | – |
| £35,000 | £28,719.60 | +£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.