£12,000 after tax at a glance
| Yearly | Monthly | Weekly | |
|---|---|---|---|
| Gross pay | £12,000 | £1,000 | £231 |
| Tax-free allowance | £12,570 | £1,048 | £242 |
| Income tax | £0 | £0 | £0 |
| National Insurance | £0 | £0 | £0 |
| Take-home pay | £12,000 | £1,000 | £231 |
£12,000 is at or below the £12,570 personal allowance, so no income tax or employee National Insurance is deducted and every pound is take-home pay.
The working, step by step
Step 1: take off the personal allowance. The first £12,570 carries no income tax, which leaves £0 of taxable income.
Step 2: apply income tax. There is no taxable income, so no income tax is due.
Step 3: apply National Insurance. Employee National Insurance starts at £12,570 a year, so none is due.
Step 4: what is left is yours. £12,000 minus £0 minus £0 = £12,000.
What £12,000 works out at per hour
On a standard 37.5 hour week across 52 weeks, that is 1,950 hours a year: £6.15 an hour before tax and £6.15 after tax and National Insurance. On a 40 hour week the gross figure is £5.77 an hour. The hourly rate ladder works the other way, from an hourly rate to a yearly figure.
£12,000 after tax with a student loan
At £12,000 no student loan repayments are due on any plan, because the salary is at or below every threshold (Plan 5 starts at £25,000, Plan 1 at £26,900, Plan 2 at £29,385 and Plan 4 at £33,795).
What changes the number
A workplace pension. Pay 5% into a pension and £600 goes into your pot, while take-home falls to around £11,400 under a net pay or relief at source scheme, or £11,400 under salary sacrifice, which also saves National Insurance. The contribution costs less than its face value because it reduces the pay you are taxed on. The pension contribution calculator compares the methods.
Your tax code. 1257L is standard. Company benefits, an earlier year's underpayment, a second job or the Marriage Allowance all change it, and each 10 points of code is worth about £20 a year in tax at the basic rate. The tax code checker explains yours.
Living in Scotland. Scottish income tax on £12,000 is about £0 against £0 in England, so take-home is around £12,000, about £0 a year less. Scotland has a 19% starter rate on the first slice of taxable income, a 21% intermediate rate and a 42% higher rate from £43,662. The Scottish income tax calculator shows the band-by-band figure.
Thresholds and the value of a pay rise
At £12,000 you have £38,270 of headroom before the higher rate threshold at £50,270. Each extra pound up to that point is taxed at 20% plus 8% National Insurance, so you keep about £100 of the next £100 you earn. Above £50,270 the rate becomes 40% plus 2%, so the keep falls to £58. The marginal tax rate calculator shows what your next pound costs, and the pay rise calculator values any offer after deductions.
Is £12,000 a good salary in the UK?
£12,000 is below the median for UK taxpayers, at around the 8th percentile of incomes, as the income percentile calculator shows. What it buys depends on where you live and on your employer's pension contribution, which can add several thousand pounds a year of pay that never appears on a payslip. The income percentile calculator places any salary against other UK earners.
Work out your own figure
The tables above are the clean case. If you pay into a pension, have a student loan, live in Scotland, work part time or receive a bonus, the number moves. Open the take-home pay calculator to run your own figures; it covers pension schemes, all student loan plans, Scottish rates, tax codes and National Insurance categories, and nothing you type leaves your device.