Required salary calculator
Required Salary Calculator 2026/27
Work backwards from your desired take-home pay to find the gross salary you need.Find the gross salary for your target pay.
Your target
If entered, this overrides the annual figure above.
Advanced options
Leading digits × 10 set your personal allowance.
Your result
You need a gross salary of
£38,715To take home ££30,000, you need to earn ££38,715 before tax
Monthly gross
£3,226Weekly gross
£745Income Tax
£4,842National Insurance
£1,937Pension
£1,936Where your money goes
| Band | Yearly | Monthly | Weekly | % of Gross |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Income Tax | £4,842 | £403 | £93 | 12.51% |
| National Insurance | £1,937 | £161 | £37 | 5% |
| Pension | £1,936 | £161 | £37 | 5% |
| Take-home pay | £30,001 | £2,500 | £577 | 77.49% |
How Required Salary Works
Because UK income tax is progressive — different rates apply to different portions of your salary — there is no simple formula to convert a desired take-home figure into a gross salary. Instead, this calculator uses a binary search: it starts with a range of possible salaries, tests the middle value, and narrows down until it finds the gross salary that produces your exact take-home amount.
The search runs up to 50 iterations, each cutting the possible range in half. After 50 iterations the result is precise to within £1. The same 2026/27 income tax, National Insurance, pension and student loan rules used by our main salary calculator are applied at each step.
Frequently asked questions
Why can't I just multiply take-home by 1.2 or something?
UK income tax is progressive — you pay 20% on the first chunk, 40% on the next, and 45% above £125,140. National Insurance has its own bands. A simple multiplier gets increasingly wrong as salary rises, because marginal rates change. The binary search handles this correctly at every income level.
What if I want to include a bonus in my take-home target?
Enter the annual take-home you want after all deductions, including any bonus. The calculator finds the gross salary that produces that figure. If you also have a bonus paid through payroll, use the main salary calculator with the bonus field to check the combined result.
Does this work for Scottish tax rates?
Yes. Switch the region toggle to Scotland and the calculator applies the Scottish starter, basic, intermediate, higher, advanced and top rates instead of the rest-of-UK 20/40/45% bands.
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View →Plan around your required salary
Once you know the gross salary you need, these are the next things people usually look at — from saving for a deposit to checking what credit products they qualify for.
Speak to a mortgage broker
If you know the salary you need, the next question is often what you can borrow. Whole-of-market brokers compare deals from dozens of lenders in one go.
Compare brokers
Save for a deposit
A larger deposit unlocks better mortgage rates. High-interest savings accounts and Lifetime ISAs are popular ways to grow a deposit faster.
Compare savings for a deposit
Credit card eligibility check
At your target salary, see which credit cards you'd be eligible for. Soft search only — no impact on your credit file.
Check eligibility
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