£15,000 after tax

On £15,000 a year you take home £14,321.40, which is £1,193.45 a month. PAYE taxable pay is £2,421 after the standard tax code's free pay. The income tax and National Insurance bills are both small, and no student loan plan shown here takes a repayment at this level.

How this was worked out

1. Salary: £15,000
2. Personal allowance: £12,570. Payroll applies it as tax code 1257L, which gives £12,579 of tax-free pay.
3. Taxable income: £15,000 − £12,579 = £2,421
4. Basic rate: £2,421 × 20% = £484.20
5. Income tax: £484.20
6. National Insurance: (£15,000 − £12,570) × 8% = £194.40
7. Take-home pay: £15,000 − £484.20 − £194.40 = £14,321.40

The small taxable slice

The standard tax code gives £12,579 of annual PAYE free pay. That leaves £2,421 taxed at the basic rate of 20%, for a bill of £484.20 across the year. This payroll free pay differs slightly from the statutory Personal Allowance of £12,570.

Employee National Insurance uses its own threshold of £12,570 and charges 8% on pay above it at this salary. That adds £194.40, and the two deductions together take less than five per cent of £15,000.

Each extra pound earned above this level loses 28% to tax and National Insurance outside Scotland. A thousand pound raise would therefore add £720 and lift take-home to £15,041.40.

Scotland on £15,000

In Scotland every pound of the taxable slice falls in the starter band, which covers the first £3,967 of taxable pay at 19%. Scottish income tax is £459.99, and the Scottish take-home of £14,345.61 is £24.21 higher.

The starter band is not yet full at £15,000, so the Scottish advantage keeps growing with pay until the band is used up. A Scottish raise of a thousand pounds adds £730, a little more than the same raise gives elsewhere in the UK.

Loans and a five per cent pension

No undergraduate plan and no postgraduate loan takes anything from £15,000. The lowest threshold, for a postgraduate loan, is £21,000, and the page at that salary shows a borrower there with nothing yet to repay.

A five per cent salary sacrifice pension leaves £13,781.40. Net pay and relief at source both leave £13,721.40, which is £60 less, because only salary sacrifice also cuts National Insurance. The methodology explains how each scheme treats the contribution.

Try other figures in the take-home pay calculator.

Questions

How much is £15,000 a week after tax?

The weekly figure is £275.41 in England, Wales and Northern Ireland. A Scottish taxpayer gets £275.88, a little more because of the starter rate on the taxable part of pay.

How much tax do I pay on £15,000?

Income tax is £484.20 a year outside Scotland and £459.99 in Scotland. Employee National Insurance adds £194.40 on £15,000 in every part of the UK.

How far is £15,000 below the median salary?

It is £24,039 less than the median full-time salary in April 2025, which stood at £39,039 according to the Office for National Statistics. That puts £15,000 at under two fifths of the median.

Other salaries

• £10,000 after tax
• £16,000 after tax
• £18,000 after tax
• £18,600 after tax

These are whole-year estimates for 2026/27, with category A National Insurance and a tax code based on the allowance available at this income. The England, Wales and Northern Ireland baseline has no pension contribution or student loan; Scotland is shown separately. The full statutory Personal Allowance is £12,570. The tax code used for this estimate gives £12,579 of annual PAYE free pay, including any reduction in the allowance due to income. This is the payroll amount used in the calculation. Annual totals and rounded monthly or weekly figures can differ by pennies.