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UK Bonus Tax Calculator

Getting a bonus on top of your normal salary changes what you take home, but not by a simple flat percentage. Enter your normal salary and bonus amount to see the extra Income Tax, National Insurance and Student Loan deductions the bonus causes, and how much of it you actually keep.

Your pay details

Your normal gross annual salary, before the bonus.
The one-off bonus or lump-sum payment you are receiving.

Student loan

Select the plan shown on your loan statement. Plan 5 applies from the 2026/27 tax year onwards.
You can have a Postgraduate Loan at the same time as an undergraduate plan.

This calculator assumes you are paid monthly and your bonus is paid together with one normal month's salary, spread as a standard employee (not a company director). It does not model weekly pay, irregular base salary, or multiple bonus payments across different pay periods.

Your bonus at a glance

FigureValue
Tax year2026/27
RegionEngland, Wales or Northern Ireland
Normal annual salary£40,000.00
Bonus£5,000.00
Undergraduate planNo undergraduate loan
Postgraduate LoanNo

How this is worked out

There is no separate "bonus tax rate" in the UK. A cash bonus is simply added to your other earnings and taxed under the same Income Tax bands and National Insurance rates as your salary.

Additional Income Tax is worked out by comparing your total annual Income Tax with and without the bonus. This is accurate for the tax year as a whole because PAYE Income Tax is cumulative and normally self-corrects across the year, even if a single payslip looks different.

Additional National Insurance and Student Loan deductions are worked out differently: they are calculated on the specific pay period the bonus is paid in, assuming your salary is spread evenly across 12 months and the bonus is added to one of those months. National Insurance and Student Loan repayments are not cumulative in the way Income Tax is, so the pay period your bonus lands in genuinely affects the deduction.

This calculator assumes

  • You are paid monthly, with your normal salary spread evenly across 12 pay periods.
  • Your bonus is paid together with one normal month's salary, not split across several periods.
  • You are a standard employee, not a company director (directors' National Insurance is worked out differently).
  • The bonus is a taxable cash payment, not sacrificed into a pension before payment.

Why your payslip may differ

This shows the additional tax, National Insurance and Student Loan deductions caused by the bonus over the full tax year, modelling National Insurance and Student Loan on the pay period the bonus is paid in. Your actual payslip may still differ: it depends on your tax code, whether your employer's payroll uses a cumulative or non-cumulative basis, how much you've already earned and been taxed on this year, exactly when in the year the bonus is paid, and any other deductions or benefits your employer includes.

Pension and salary sacrifice

This calculator treats your bonus as a taxable cash payment with no pension contribution applied to it. If your employer lets you sacrifice some or all of your bonus into your pension instead of taking it as cash, that is a different scenario: sacrificed pay is not treated as your income for Income Tax or National Insurance at all, so the figures here would not apply.

Worked examples

Figures below are generated by this calculator's own engine, using 2026/27 thresholds, England/Wales/Northern Ireland, no student loan.

ScenarioSalaryBonusBonus take-home
£30,000 salary, £2,000 bonus£30,000£2,000£1,458.66
£45,000 salary, £10,000 bonus£45,000£10,000£6,827.66
£95,000 salary, £10,000 bonus£95,000£10,000£4,800.00
Questions

Frequently asked questions

Is my bonus taxed at a higher rate than my salary?
No. There is no separate bonus tax rate. A bonus is added to your other earnings and taxed under the same Income Tax bands and National Insurance rates as your salary.
Why does my payslip show more tax taken off in the month I got my bonus?
Payroll software estimates tax for the whole year based on that month's pay, so a bonus month can look heavily taxed. This normally self-corrects in your following payslips, or at the end of the tax year.
Does National Insurance work the same way as Income Tax on a bonus?
No. National Insurance is worked out separately for each pay period, with no annual correction for most employees, so the pay period your bonus lands in can genuinely affect how much National Insurance is due.
Will a bonus affect my Personal Allowance?
If your total income for the year, including the bonus, goes above £100,000, your tax-free Personal Allowance is gradually reduced, which can increase the tax on part of the bonus. The calculator accounts for this automatically.
Does a bonus count towards my Student Loan repayments?
Yes. A bonus is included in the earnings your Student Loan or Postgraduate Loan repayment is calculated on, in the pay period it is paid.
Is this calculator accurate for Scotland?
Yes, it uses Scotland's own Income Tax bands. National Insurance is set UK-wide and does not vary by nation.
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This calculator provides an estimate of the additional Income Tax, National Insurance and Student Loan deductions caused by a UK bonus for general information only and is not financial or tax advice. It assumes a standard monthly-paid employee and does not reproduce an exact payslip. Individual circumstances can differ; check your payslip or GOV.UK guidance if you are unsure.