£20,000 after tax
Take-home pay
£17,921.40
On a salary of £20,000 (20k) you take home £17,921.40 a year in the 2026/27 tax year. That is £1,493.45 a month or £344.64 a week.
A £20,000 salary gives £17,921.40 a year after tax, which is £1,493.45 a month or £9.19 an hour on a week of 37.5 hours. All of the taxable pay is in the basic rate band, and the salary is below every student loan threshold, including the postgraduate one.
| England, Wales and Northern Ireland | Scotland | |
|---|---|---|
| A year | £17,921.40 | £17,961.07 |
| A month | £1,493.45 | £1,496.76 |
| A week | £344.64 | £345.41 |
| A working day | £68.93 | £69.08 |
| An hour (37.5 hours a week) | £9.19 | £9.21 |
| Amount | |
|---|---|
| Salary | £20,000 |
| Income tax | £1,484.20 |
| National Insurance | £594.40 |
| Take-home pay | £17,921.40 |
How this was worked out
- Salary: £20,000
- Personal allowance: £12,570. Payroll applies it as tax code 1257L, which gives £12,579 of tax-free pay.
- Taxable income: £20,000 − £12,579 = £7,421
- Basic rate: £7,421 × 20% = £1,484.20
- Income tax: £1,484.20
- National Insurance: (£20,000 − £12,570) × 8% = £594.40
- Take-home pay: £20,000 − £1,484.20 − £594.40 = £17,921.40
Tax on £20,000 step by step
The personal allowance of £12,570 leaves £7,421 of this salary open to income tax. Charged at 20%, that produces a bill of £1,484.20 for the year.
Employee National Insurance of 8% on pay above £12,570 comes to £594.40. Take both away and £17,921.40 is left. Your employer also pays £2,250 of employer National Insurance, which the business pays on top of your salary.
Scotland on a salary of £20,000
The Scottish figure is £17,961.07 a year after £1,444.53 of income tax. The Scottish starter band at 19% is full at this salary, and the rest of the taxable pay meets the Scottish basic rate, which matches the rate used elsewhere. The result is a Scottish advantage of £39.67.
The salary after tax table shows that this gap stays the same on each salary up to the point where the Scottish intermediate rate begins.
Loans, pensions and a raise
The postgraduate loan starts at £21,000, a thousand pounds above this salary. It takes 6% of pay above that line, so a postgraduate borrower on £20,000 repays £0. The page for the threshold salary still shows no repayment.
Five per cent of £20,000 is a thousand pounds a year. Because tax and National Insurance relief come back on it, that contribution costs £720 of take-home under salary sacrifice and £800 under net pay or relief at source.
A raise of a thousand pounds would add £720 and take the yearly figure to £18,641.40, with no loan repayment yet on any plan.
| Plan | Repayment a year | Take-home a year |
|---|---|---|
| Plan 1 | £0 | £17,921.40 |
| Plan 2 | £0 | £17,921.40 |
| Plan 4 (Scotland) | £0 | £17,961.07 |
| Plan 5 | £0 | £17,921.40 |
| Postgraduate loan | £0 | £17,921.40 |
| Type of scheme | Take-home a year |
|---|---|
| Salary sacrifice | £17,201.40 |
| Net pay | £17,121.40 |
| Relief at source | £17,121.40 |
Try other figures in the take-home pay calculator.
Questions
How much tax is taken from £20,000?
Income tax is £1,484.20 and employee National Insurance is £594.40 in England, Wales and Northern Ireland. In Scotland income tax is £1,444.53 and National Insurance is the same.
What is £20,000 a week after tax?
The weekly take-home is £344.64, or £345.41 for a Scottish taxpayer. Both figures use the standard tax code and leave out pensions and loans.
How does £20,000 compare with the median?
It is £19,039 less than the median full-time salary in April 2025, which the Office for National Statistics put at £39,039. That makes £20,000 a little over half the median.