Bonus tax calculator

Enter your salary and your bonus to see how much of the bonus you keep in the 2026/27 tax year. The calculator also shows the month the bonus is paid, when the deductions on your payslip can look larger than you expect.

Your bonus after tax

£2,160.00

You keep £2,160.00 of £3,000.00 (72%)

Your details

Salary a year

Before tax, per year

Bonus

Before tax

Where you pay income tax England Wales Northern Ireland Scotland

Student loan None Plan 1 Plan 2 Plan 4 (Scotland) Plan 5 Postgraduate loan as well

Pension scheme No pension Workplace, taken before tax (net pay) Workplace or personal, tax relief added by provider (relief at source) Salary sacrifice

You pay % Percent of salary

CalculateReset

Where your bonus goes

	Amount
Bonus before tax	£3,000.00
Taken from the bonus	£840.00
Bonus after tax	£2,160.00
A normal month's take-home	£2,393.45
The month your bonus is paid	£4,311.75

How this was worked out

1. Salary without the bonus: £35,000.00
2. Take-home without the bonus, for the year: £28,721.40
3. Salary with the bonus added: £35,000.00 + £3,000.00 = £38,000.00
4. Take-home with the bonus, for the year: £30,881.40
5. Bonus after tax: £30,881.40 − £28,721.40 = £2,160.00
6. A normal month's take-home: £2,393.45
7. The month your bonus is paid: (£35,000.00 ÷ 12 + £3,000.00) × 12 = £71,000.00 a year; take-home for that year ÷ 12 = £4,311.75 for that one month

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What the calculator assumes

• The 2026/27 tax year, 6 April 2026 to 5 April 2027.
• The salary and bonus you enter are before any deductions, and both come from the same job.
• You have the standard personal allowance of £12,570 through the standard tax code, and no other income.
• You pay the standard rate of employee National Insurance.
• The pension option works as it does in the take-home pay calculator.
• For the month view, you are paid monthly and the whole bonus is paid in one month.

How a bonus is taxed

A bonus is pay. HMRC has no separate rate for it, so it goes through payroll with your salary and is taxed at the rates your salary has already reached. Income tax, National Insurance, student loan repayments and pension can all come out of it.

The main result compares two whole years. The calculator works out your take-home pay for the year on your salary alone, then again with the bonus added. The difference between the two is what the bonus is worth to you once every deduction has been taken.

What you keep depends on where the bonus lands. On a salary in the basic rate band, most of a bonus is taxed at 20% with National Insurance of 8% on top. Above the basic rate band, income tax on the extra is usually 40%, and once pay passes the National Insurance upper limit of £50,270, National Insurance falls to 2%. A bonus that crosses from one band into the next is split, and each part is taxed at its own rate.

A bonus that takes your income over £100,000 costs more than the band rates suggest. For income above that figure, the personal allowance goes down by 50% of the excess, so each extra pound also turns some tax-free income into taxable income. The calculator shows when this happens.

In Scotland the bands and rates are different, from 19% to 48%. National Insurance is the same across the UK.

Why the bonus month looks heavy

Payroll works out deductions one payslip at a time. The second part of the result adds the bonus to a normal month's pay so you can see that payslip next to an ordinary one.

Income tax is usually worked out on your total pay so far in the tax year, measured against the share of your allowance and bands you have built up by that month. A large bonus can take your pay to date past that share, so some of it is taxed at a higher rate in the bonus month. If your pay for the whole year stays within a lower band, the following payslips usually take a little less tax, and by the end of the tax year the total evens out.

National Insurance is worked out on each pay period by itself, against weekly or monthly thresholds, and later payslips do not adjust it. In the bonus month, more of your pay can go above the monthly upper threshold, where the lower rate of 2% applies.

Student loan repayments are also taken each pay period. A bonus can put one month over your plan's monthly threshold even when your pay for the year is below the yearly threshold. In that case you can ask for a refund after the tax year ends. The student loan repayment calculator sets out each plan.

What it leaves out

• Emergency tax codes. A payslip taxed on an emergency code treats the month's pay as if it were paid every month of the year.
• Pension schemes that take nothing from a bonus, or take a different amount. Your scheme rules say which pay counts.
• Other income, such as a second job, rent or savings interest.

To see what your salary alone leaves you, use the take-home pay calculator. The salary sacrifice calculator shows what a pension salary sacrifice does to your take-home pay. Every rate here comes from GOV.UK, and the sources page lists each one with the date we checked it.

Official guidance

• Income Tax rates and Personal Allowances on GOV.UK
• How much National Insurance you pay on GOV.UK
• Emergency tax codes on GOV.UK
• What you pay on a student loan on GOV.UK

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