England & Wales · 2026/27
£30,000 after tax
A salary of £30,000 in England, Wales & Northern Ireland leaves £25,119.60 a year — £2,093.30 a month. The next £100 you earn is taxed at 28%.
- Take-home a year
- £25,119.60
- £2,093.30 a month · £483.07 a week
- Total deductions
- £4,880.40
- 16.3% of gross pay
- On your next £100
- 28%
- You keep £72 of the next £100
- Cost to employ you
- £33,750
- Includes £3,750 of employer NI absent from your payslip
- The wedge
- 25.6%
- Share of that cost that never reaches you
What matters at £30,000
This salary sits in the basic rate, and the single most useful number on the page is the 28% marginal rate — 37% if you are repaying a Plan 2 student loan, which starts at £29,385 and so is already running here.
The next thing that changes is the higher rate at £50,271, which is £20,271 above this salary. Crossing it does not change the tax on anything you already earn, only on the pounds above it.
A workplace pension is worth more than it looks here for a reason that has nothing to do with the pension itself: relief comes at your marginal rate, so every £100 contributed costs you £72 of take-home rather than £100.
Where the money actually goes
Your payslip shows £30,000 going in and £25,119.60 coming out. It does not show the £3,750 your employer pays in National Insurance on top — money spent to employ you that you never see. Counting it, the job costs £33,750 and 25.6% of that never reaches you.
- Take-home £25,119.60 74.4%
- Your NI £1,394.40 4.1%
- Income tax £3,486 10.3%
- Employer NI £3,750 11.1%
The arithmetic, step by step
| Step | Applied to | Rate | Amount |
|---|---|---|---|
| Gross pay | — | — | £30,000 |
| Personal allowance | tax-free | 0% | −£12,570 |
| Taxable income | — | — | £17,430 |
| Basic rate | £17,430 of it | 20% | £3,486 |
| Income tax | — | — | £3,486 |
| National Insurance — main rate | £17,430 of it | 8% | £1,394.40 |
| National Insurance | — | — | £1,394.40 |
| Take-home pay | — | — | £25,119.60 |
Adding the deductions gives £4,880.40, and £30,000 less that is the £25,119.60 take-home above. National Insurance is charged per pay period rather than annually, so a month containing a bonus can pay more than this.
£30,000 a month, a week, an hour
| Period | Gross | Deductions | Take-home |
|---|---|---|---|
| A year | £30,000 | £4,880.40 | £25,119.60 |
| A month | £2,500 | £406.70 | £2,093.30 |
| Four-weekly | £2,307.69 | £375.42 | £1,932.28 |
| Fortnightly | £1,153.85 | £187.71 | £966.14 |
| A week | £576.92 | £93.85 | £483.07 |
| An hour (37.5h week) | £15.38 | £2.50 | £12.88 |
A four-weekly payroll pays £1,932.28 thirteen times a year rather than £2,093.30 twelve times — the same annual total, arriving in smaller and more frequent amounts. Hourly assumes 37.5 paid hours a week for 52 weeks.
The rate on your next £100
At £30,000 the rate on further pay is 28%, so the next £100 you earn is worth £72 in your hand and £28 to the Exchequer. An hour of overtime at the implied rate of £15.38 is worth £11.08. Those are the figures a take-home total cannot give you, and they are what a rise, a bonus or a pension contribution is actually priced at.
A £1,000 rise on this salary is worth £720 in your hand — 72.0% of it — or £60 a month. It costs your employer £1,150.
What is close to £30,000
£30,000 sits between two things that matter. £615 below you is the Plan 2 repayment threshold, and £3,795 above you is the Plan 4 (Scotland) repayment threshold — so this salary is already past one change and approaching another.
| What changes | At | From here | |
|---|---|---|---|
| Plan 2 repayment threshold | £29,385 | −£615 | passed |
| Plan 1 repayment threshold | £26,900 | −£3,100 | passed |
| Plan 4 (Scotland) repayment threshold | £33,795 | +£3,795 | ahead |
| Plan 5 repayment threshold | £25,000 | −£5,000 | passed |
| Postgraduate Loan repayment threshold | £21,000 | −£9,000 | passed |
Measured against the 2026/27 parameters for England, Wales & Northern Ireland. Distances are on gross pay before any salary sacrifice, because that is the figure every one of these thresholds is tested against.
- £29,385 — Plan 2 has just started biting: 9% of the £615 above the threshold, which is a small amount now and grows with every rise.
- £26,900 — Plan 1 takes 9% of the £3,100 above its threshold. It is not a tax, but it leaves the same pay on the same day.
- £33,795 — Plan 4 (Scotland) has not started. A borrower pays nothing until £3,795 more, and then 9% of the excess.
- £25,000 — Plan 5 takes 9% of the £5,000 above its threshold. It is not a tax, but it leaves the same pay on the same day.
- £21,000 — Postgraduate Loan takes 6% of the £9,000 above its threshold. It is not a tax, but it leaves the same pay on the same day.
If your pay moved
A swing of ten per cent either way from £30,000 does not cross a single band: the rate on further pay stays at 28% across the whole range from £27,000 to £33,000. That makes this an unusually predictable place to be paid, and it means the arithmetic below scales — a rise of any size in that range is worth the same proportion in your hand.
| If pay moved | Gross | Take-home | Change | Next £100 taxed at |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| −10% | £27,000 | £22,959.60 | −£2,160 | 28% |
| −5% | £28,500 | £24,039.60 | −£1,080 | 28% |
| +5% | £31,500 | £26,199.60 | +£1,080 | 28% |
| +10% | £33,000 | £27,279.60 | +£2,160 | 28% |
What a pension contribution buys here
There is no threshold within reach below £30,000, so a pension contribution here is not about ducking under anything — it is simply the ordinary trade. Sacrificing £1,500 costs you £1,080 in take-home, because 28% of it was never going to reach you anyway, and puts the full £1,500 into the pot. That is £1,500 of saving for £1,080 of spending power — a ratio of 1.39 to one, and it is the same ratio for every pound until the next band.
With a student loan
A Plan 2 loan takes 9% of everything above £29,385 — which at £30,000 means £55.35 a year, or £4.61 a month. It is not a tax, but it leaves the same pay on the same day, so it belongs in the rate you use to decide anything: it moves your next £100 from 28% to 37%.
| No loan | Plan 2 loan | |
|---|---|---|
| Take-home a year | £25,119.60 | £25,064.25 |
| Take-home a month | £2,093.30 | £2,088.69 |
| Repayment a year | — | £55.35 |
| Rate on your next £100 | 28% | 37% |
Which plan, and what each one takes
4 of the five repayment thresholds are behind £30,000 and 1 is still ahead — Plan 4 (Scotland) at £33,795. Which plan you are on is not a choice, and the difference between them at this salary is £484.65 a year, so it is worth knowing which one your payslip is deducting.
| Plan | Starts at | Repaid a year | A month | Your next £100 |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Postgraduate Loan | £21,000 | £540 | £45 | 34% |
| Plan 5 | £25,000 | £450 | £37.50 | 37% |
| Plan 1 | £26,900 | £279 | £23.25 | 37% |
| Plan 2 | £29,385 | £55.35 | £4.61 | 37% |
A postgraduate loan is repaid alongside an undergraduate one rather than instead of it, so someone with both pays both.
£30,000 elsewhere in the UK
Income tax is devolved to Scotland; National Insurance is not. At £30,000 the two regimes differ by £34.93 a year in take-home and 1 percentage points at the margin — and neither gap is constant, because the two sets of bands cross each other rather than running parallel.
| Where you live | Income tax | Take-home | Difference | Next £100 taxed at |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| England & Wales | £3,486 | £25,119.60 | — | 28% |
| Scotland | £3,451.07 | £25,154.53 | +£34.93 | 29% |
National Insurance is identical everywhere in the UK, so the whole difference is income tax.
Questions people actually ask
How much is £30,000 a year after tax?
£25,119.60 a year — £2,093.30 a month. That is after £3,486 of income tax and £1,394.40 of National Insurance on the 2026/27 rates for England, Wales & Northern Ireland.
How much is £30,000 a month after tax?
£2,093.30 if you are paid monthly. A four-weekly payroll pays £1,932.28 thirteen times a year instead, and a fortnightly one pays £966.14.
What is the tax rate on £30,000?
Two different numbers, and confusing them is the usual mistake. Your effective rate — total tax and NI over gross pay — is 16.3%. Your marginal rate, on the next £100 you earn, is 28%. The marginal one is what decides whether a rise or a pension contribution is worth it.
What does £30,000 cost my employer?
£33,750. On top of your salary they pay £3,750 of employer National Insurance, which never appears on your payslip. Of that total, 25.6% goes in tax and National Insurance rather than to you.
How much is £30,000 after tax with a student loan?
£25,064.25 on Plan 2 — £55.35 a year less. Repayment is 9% of everything above £29,385, and it pushes the rate on your next £100 from 28% to 37%.
How far is £30,000 from the higher rate?
£20,271. The higher rate starts at £50,271 in England & Wales, and only the income above that point is taxed at the higher rate — the pounds below it are unaffected.
What is £30,000 after tax with a student loan?
£25,064.25 on Plan 2 — £55.35 a year in repayments, which takes the rate on your next £100 from 28% to 37%.
One PAYE job, standard tax code, 2026/27 rates, employment income only. What this does and does not model →