Home / Calculators / Bonus, Pay Rise & Overtime Calculator 2026/27
In a nutshell
How much of your bonus do you actually keep? UK 2026/27 marginal-rate maths including the 60% trap and student loan deductions.
How much of your bonus do you actually keep?
A £5,000 bonus does not arrive as £5,000 in your bank account. PAYE deducts Income Tax and National Insurance at your marginal rate, not your average rate, so the take-home percentage on a bonus is almost always worse than your normal monthly take-home. This calculator shows that exact split, plus what changes if you sacrifice some of the bonus into pension.
The brutal version: if your bonus pushes you across £50,270 you pay 40% income tax and 2% NI on the bit above. If it pushes you across £100,000, the personal-allowance taper kicks in and you pay an effective 62% on every pound between £100k and £125,140. Salary sacrificing the offending part of the bonus is the cleanest way to neutralise that.
You keep from this extra income
£0
Estimated monthly change: £0
Effective marginal rate marginal rate on the extra pay">0% Tax, NI, loan and HICBC lost £0 Pension added through sacrifice £0 Take-home change after all deductions £0
What this means
Your extra income is currently landing in a relatively normal band, so the main drag is standard tax and NI rather than a special cliff edge.
Why is the marginal rate sometimes higher than 42%?
If student loans, the Personal Allowance taper, or HICBC are in play, the next pound can lose more than basic tax and NI. This calculator works by comparing your full annual position before and after the extra income.
What changes the answer fastest?
The three biggest levers are where your salary already sits in the bands, whether you sacrifice any of the extra income into a pension, and whether the extra income triggers student loan or Child Benefit drag.
CASE 1
Anna — £5,000 bonus on a £45,000 salary
Account manager, salary £45,000, bonus paid in March. Plan 2 student loan, no other deductions.
Inputs
Base salary: £45,000
Bonus: £5,000
Plan 2 student loan
Result
Of the £5,000 bonus, Anna keeps approximately £2,825 in her bank account. The split: £1,000 income tax (20%), £100 NI (2% above NI upper threshold), £450 student loan repayment (9% of the bonus added to income above the threshold), and approximately £625 lost to the £45k → £50k push into higher-rate territory.
Takeaway. A bonus that crosses your salary into the higher-rate band gets brutalised. Sacrificing the entire bonus into pension would cost about £2,800 of lost take-home but add £5,000 to the pension pot — a near-instant 79% return.
CASE 2
Tom — £15,000 bonus pushing salary across £100k
Senior consultant, salary £92,000, year-end bonus £15,000. No student loan. Two children with Child Benefit.
Inputs
Base: £92,000
Bonus: £15,000
HICBC: Yes (£2,212/yr CB)
Result
Take-home increase from the bonus: only about £4,500 of the £15,000 makes it to Tom's bank account. The bonus pushes Tom from £92k to £107k, triggering: 40% higher-rate tax on most of it, 2% NI, the personal-allowance taper (£3,500 of allowance now lost = £1,400 extra tax), and 35% HICBC clawback on the £2,212 Child Benefit.
Takeaway. Tom's effective marginal rate on this bonus is approximately 70%. The cleanest counter-move: ask the employer to pay £8,000 of the bonus into pension via salary sacrifice. Adjusted net income drops back to £99k, the personal allowance is preserved, HICBC drops below clawback, and Tom's real take-home actually increases.
CASE 3
Rachel — 3% pay rise on £62,000
Lawyer in regional firm, gets a £1,860 annual pay rise (3%). No student loan, no Child Benefit.
Inputs
Salary increase: £62,000 → £63,860
Higher-rate taxpayer
Result
Annual take-home increases by approximately £1,067 (about £89/month). Of the £1,860 pay rise, £744 goes to income tax (40%), £37 to NI (2%), and only £1,079 reaches Rachel's bank account before any other deductions.
Takeaway. Higher-rate earners keep about 58p of every pay-rise pound. Test what happens if Rachel uses the entire pay rise as additional pension sacrifice — she gives up £1,067 of new take-home and adds £1,860 to her pension pot. The "no real take-home loss" trick: increase pension by exactly the pay-rise amount and your bank account stays flat while the pot grows.
What's next
What is the marginal cost of your next £1 earned?
Headline tax rates rarely tell the real story. Once you factor in National Insurance, Personal Allowance taper, HICBC withdrawal, Marriage Allowance loss and student loans, your true marginal rate can be 32%, 42%, 62%, or 71%+ — the marginal calculator shows exactly which step you sit on.
Show my true marginal rate →
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How we calculate this — Take-home from a bonus or pay-rise
Method — 2026/27 tax year
Why bonuses feel under-taxed or over-taxed: PAYE applies tax cumulatively across the tax year. A one-off bonus in March uses up almost no remaining allowance; the same bonus paid in April spreads its tax bill across 12 months. Cumulative PAYE eventually corrects either way.
What we compute: the marginal rate that applies to the bonus or pay-rise — the rate on each extra £1, given where it lands in your tax bands. See the marginal-rate band table on the marginal tax calculator page.
Sacrifice option: sacrificing the bonus into pension converts what would have been ~58% take-home (basic-rate, with NI + student loan) into 100% inside the wrapper. We compare both routes side-by-side.
Data sources
Reviewed against 2026/27 thresholds. We update when HMRC publishes rate changes — tracked in the changelog . Found an error? See corrections policy .
About this calculator
Last reviewed: June 2026. Reviewed by the UK Tax Drag editorial team against current HMRC guidance and the 2026/27 UK tax year.
Verified against: gov.uk — Income Tax rates and Personal Allowances (checked on the last review date above).
Source: calculator JavaScript is unminified at /assets/ — see Open methodology for how to verify the math. Updates tracked in the changelog .
Disclaimer: This tool gives a guideline estimate using current published UK rates and thresholds. It is general information, not personal financial, tax, or legal advice. Verify the figures against your own circumstances, the latest gov.uk guidance, and a qualified adviser before acting. UK Tax Drag accepts no liability for decisions made on the basis of these calculations.
Every page is reviewed against the editorial standards, written from primary sources, sourced openly, and corrected publicly. No affiliate revenue. No sponsored content. No paid placements.