Home / Calculators / Bonus Tax Calculator UK 2026/27: How Much Do You Actually Keep?
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.
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More about this calculator
This calculator shows that exact split, plus what changes if you sacrifice some of the bonus into pension.
Put simply: 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. Where the employer offers it, sacrificing that part of the bonus into a pension keeps it out of taxable pay, which is one of the routes this calculator compares.
You keep from this extra income
£0
Estimated monthly change: £0
Effective marginal rate 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.
Rates checked on 3 October 2026 against GOV.UK: Income Tax rates and Personal Allowances (2026 to 2027), GOV.UK: National Insurance rates and categories (8% and 2%), GOV.UK: student loan repayment thresholds and GOV.UK: High Income Child Benefit Charge .
CASE 1
Anna — £5,000 bonus on a £48,000 salary
Account manager, salary £48,000, bonus paid in March. Plan 2 student loan, no other deductions.
Inputs
Base salary: £48,000
Bonus: £5,000
Plan 2 student loan
Result
Of the £5,000 bonus, Anna keeps about £2,768. The first £2,270 is taxed at 20% with 8% National Insurance; the other £2,730 takes her pay above £50,270, where income tax is 40% and National Insurance 2%. That is £1,546 of income tax and £236 of National Insurance, plus £450 of Plan 2 student loan repayment (9% of the bonus): £2,232 in all.
Takeaway. Anna keeps about 55p of each bonus pound, an effective marginal rate of 44.6%. If her employer lets her sacrifice the whole bonus into her pension, she gives up that £2,768 of take-home and £5,000 goes into the pension instead.
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 (£2,337/yr CB)
Result
About £7,300 of the £15,000 reaches Tom's bank account. The bonus takes his pay from £92,000 to £107,000: £6,000 of income tax at 40%, £300 of National Insurance at 2%, and £1,400 more because £3,500 of his Personal Allowance is withdrawn above £100,000. It adds nothing to his Child Benefit charge: at £92,000 his adjusted net income is already above £80,000, so the charge already equals all £2,337 of the Child Benefit.
Takeaway. Tom's effective marginal rate on this bonus is about 51%. If his employer lets him sacrifice £7,000 of the bonus into his pension, his adjusted net income stays at £100,000 and he keeps his full Personal Allowance: he takes home about £4,640 of the bonus and £7,000 goes into the pension, so that pension money costs him about £2,660 of take-home. Reducing the Child Benefit charge would need adjusted net income below £80,000.
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 about £1,079 (about £90 a month). Of the £1,860 pay rise, £744 goes to income tax (40%) and £37 to National Insurance (2%).
Takeaway. Higher-rate earners keep about 58p of every pay-rise pound. If Rachel sacrificed the whole rise into her pension, she would give up the £1,079 of extra take-home and £1,860 would go into her pension instead, so her take-home would stay where it was before the rise.
Illustrative examples for education only, not personal advice. Figures are rounded and use 2026/27 rates.
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 28%, 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 works cumulatively. In month 1 you have only one-twelfth of the year’s allowance and bands, so a large April bonus can be taxed at a higher rate that month, with any over-deduction corrected through later payslips; a March bonus is taxed against the whole year’s cumulative bands. With a normal cumulative code, the year’s total tax comes out the same.
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: taken as cash, each £1 of bonus leaves 63p for a basic-rate taxpayer repaying a Plan 1, 2, 4 or 5 student loan above its threshold (20% tax + 8% NI + 9% loan), or 58p for a higher-rate taxpayer with no loan (40% tax + 2% NI). Sacrificed into the pension, the whole £1 is paid in, and it is taxed when drawn apart from any tax-free lump sum. 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: October 2026. Reviewed by the Editor against current official guidance for 2026/27.
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 .
Spotted an error? Report it . Confirmed errors are corrected under the corrections policy .
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.
Pages are checked against the primary sources listed on each page and reviewed by the Editor; corrections are logged in the changelog . Pages are drafted with the help of AI tools (how AI is used ). No affiliate revenue. No sponsored content. No paid placements.
UK Tax Drag is an independent publication by Finsolve Consulting Limited, not affiliated with or endorsed by HMRC, GOV.UK or any government body.