Income & Take-home · 2026/27 tax year
Self employed take-home pay calculator UK 2026/27
Work out exactly what you keep after Income Tax, National Insurance, student loan repayments, and pension contributions.
Annual take-home
£40,268
Monthly equivalent
£3,356
Understanding your results
Take-home is where abstract tax law meets household budgeting. If pension and student loan fields change your result dramatically, that is normal: pensions reduce taxable income before rates apply, while student loans are a parallel deduction on earnings above plan thresholds. Read each line item as a separate policy choice you have made or inherited, not as a single opaque “tax.”
Comparing self-employed take-home to a PAYE friend on the same gross rarely matches emotion with maths. Employers pay secondary NI you do not see; employees get automatic workplace pension contributions. Align comparisons by adding employer pension to the salaried package before stacking it against your freelance net plus whatever you voluntarily save.
Payments on account are not double taxation — they shift when you pay, not how much you pay in the long run. This calculator focuses on the annual liability; cash flow still needs a calendar of January and July instalments. If the monthly take-home figure feels comfortable but January feels catastrophic, the missing ingredient is timing, not the annual estimate.
Marginal relief on Gift Aid and pension carry-forward can change effective rates in ways a general calculator cannot capture. Use this page to stabilise your intuition about bands and student-loan thresholds, then involve an adviser before large one-off contributions or charitable carry-back claims.
Finally, build a habit: each April, reconcile what this model predicted against what HMRC actually charged. The gap is your personal “complexity tax” — student plan changes, dividend income, or rental profit. Naming that gap each year is how freelancers graduate from guessing to governing their numbers.
Disclaimer: This is a guidance estimate based on the 2026/27 tax year. It is not personal tax advice — consult an accountant or HMRC for your specific circumstances.
About this calculator
Take-home pay is what actually lands in your bank account after every deduction. For a sole trader, that means Income Tax, Class 2 and Class 4 National Insurance, plus anything else you commit to before HMRC takes its cut: pension contributions and student loan repayments.
This calculator runs the full picture for the 2026/27 tax year. Enter your annual self-employment profit, optionally a pension contribution (which reduces your taxable income) and your student loan plan if you have one.
Pension contributions are deducted before Income Tax is calculated, which is why they are such an effective way to reduce a self-employed tax bill. Student loan repayments are calculated as a percentage of income above your plan's threshold — Plan 2 kicks in at £28,470, for example.
The monthly figure shown is your gross annual take-home divided by 12. In practice, sole traders usually receive irregular invoices rather than a steady monthly payment, which is why our weekly tax set-aside calculator pairs well with this one — it tells you how much of each invoice to keep aside for HMRC.
Frequently asked questions
Why is my self-employed take-home lower than a salaried friend's on the same gross?
It usually is not, but it can feel that way because you pay your own NI and have no employer pension contribution. On the same gross income, total tax and NI are broadly similar between PAYE and self employed — the main difference is when you pay it.
Do pension contributions really reduce my tax?
Yes. Personal pension contributions are paid from pre-tax income, so a £1,000 contribution reduces your taxable profit by £1,000. If you are a higher rate taxpayer you can claim additional relief through Self Assessment.
Which student loan plan am I on?
Plan 1 is for English and Welsh students who started before September 2012. Plan 2 is for those who started between 2012 and 2023. Plan 5 is for those who started in or after September 2023. Plan 4 is for Scotland. Postgrad is for Master's and PhD loans.
Does this account for payments on account?
No — this is your final annual tax bill. Payments on account are advance instalments toward next year's bill, paid in January and July. They do not change your total tax, just when you pay it.
- Source: GOV.UK – Payments on account
Will I lose any of my Personal Allowance at higher incomes?
Yes. For every £2 your total taxable income goes above £100,000, your Personal Allowance is reduced by £1. By the time profits hit £125,140 you have no Personal Allowance at all — which is why a £100,000–£125,140 band of profit has an effective marginal rate of 60%.
- Source: GOV.UK – Income over £100,000
Does Marriage Allowance change my take-home?
It can, by up to £252 a year. If your spouse or civil partner earns less than the Personal Allowance and you are a basic-rate taxpayer, they can transfer £1,260 of their allowance to you. This calculator does not apply Marriage Allowance — claim it separately if eligible.
- Source: GOV.UK – Marriage Allowance