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Umbrella Company Pay Calculator For 2026/27 Tax Year

Rates apply from 6 April 2026. This includes the £12.71 National Living Wage and employer National Insurance at 15%.

Working through an umbrella company inside IR35? Your assignment rate is not what you take home.

Employer costs come off first. Then income tax, National Insurance, and any student loan or pension.

Enter your rate below. You get a full breakdown of every deduction, with nothing hidden. These are the same rates we run our own payroll on. That payroll is audited by SafeRec against HMRC records, every payslip, every week.

See exactly where your money goes

Enter your details into our umbrella pay calculator, and get a detailed estimate of how much pay you can take home within seconds: no complicated math, no guesswork, just a simple breakdown of your earnings.

Enter Income Details

Deduct Student Loan

Your Calculation Results

Hours
0.00
Rate
0.00
Gross Income
0.00
Fee/Margin
0.00
Employers NI (National Insurance)
0.00
Apprenticeship Levy
0.00
Gross Pay
0.00
Student Loan
0.00
Postgraduate Loan
0.00
Employees NI (National Insurance)
0.00
Tax
0.00
Net Pay
0.00
Your tax code, student loan plan and pension choices change the result. So does your National Insurance category. This is not financial or tax advice. For a figure specific to you, speak to our team or your accountant.

Frequently Asked Questions

This is the question we hear most often. Your assignment rate is not a salary.

It covers employer National Insurance, the apprenticeship levy, and the umbrella margin. Those are employer costs, and they still come out of the assignment rate.

Your own income tax and National Insurance apply after that.

Retention depends on your rate. The higher you earn, the more of it falls into the 40% band, so the percentage drops.

Assignment rate Typical retention
£150 per day around 71%
£250 per day around 66%
£350 per day around 62%
£450 per day around 59%
£600 per day around 57%

Those figures assume a standard tax code, no pension contribution and no student loan. Your own figure will differ.

Be wary of any provider quoting a retention rate well above the band for your rate. Genuine PAYE cannot beat the tax tables.

“The whole back-office team work hard to ensure that all our contractors are paid without fail every Friday, even if there might be an issue with late timesheets.”

John Dudgeon, Director

Three costs come off your assignment rate before you see gross pay. The umbrella margin, employer National Insurance at 15%, and the apprenticeship levy at 0.5%.

Your own income tax and National Insurance come after that.

The calculator applies them in that order. Full walkthrough: how umbrella take-home pay is worked out.

Inside IR35, your own limited company is not an option for that assignment. An umbrella is the standard route.

Your take-home is the same as any PAYE employee on the same rate. The figure above is that number.

Not sure which side you fall on? Read IR35 legislation.

Outside IR35, a limited company usually pays more. Salary and dividends are taxed more favourably than PAYE.

Inside IR35, that advantage disappears. The calculator above shows the umbrella figure.

The decision comes down to your IR35 status, not the numbers. Full comparison: umbrella or limited company.

An umbrella rate can look higher than an agency PAYE rate for the same job. It has to cover employer costs the agency would otherwise carry.

Take-home often ends up in a similar place. Compare the two figures, not the headline rates.

Full breakdown: agency PAYE compared with umbrella.

The calculator uses 2026/27 rates, effective 6 April 2026.

  • Personal allowance: £12,570
  • Basic rate: 20% on income between £12,571 and £50,270
  • Higher rate: 40% on income between £50,271 and £125,140
  • Additional rate: 45% above £125,140
  • Employee National Insurance: 8% between £12,570 and £50,270, then 2% above
  • Employer National Insurance: 15% above the £5,000 secondary threshold
  • Apprenticeship levy: 0.5%
  • National Living Wage: £12.71 per hour, from 1 April 2026

The personal allowance reduces by £1 for every £2 earned above £100,000.

We update these figures every April.