A salary of £32,100 pays £5,468 in income tax and National Insurance in 2026-27
Income tax and employee National Insurance on a salary in the 2026-27 tax year, and how that money splits across public spending, in the same proportions as all UK public spending on services in 2025-26.
Notes
- The starting salary, £32,100, is HMRC's projected middle (median) income among income tax payers in 2026-27.
- Assumes a salary from employment with a standard tax code (1257L) and National Insurance category A. It leaves out pension contributions, student loans, benefits in kind, Marriage Allowance and other reliefs.
- Scotland sets its own income tax rates and bands for earnings. National Insurance is the same across the UK.
- Your tax isn't really earmarked: it goes into one pot with every other tax and with borrowing. The receipt splits it in the same proportions as total spending on services, the method HMRC uses for its Annual Tax Summary.
- Spending shares are for 2025-26, the latest year in HM Treasury's Public Expenditure Statistical Analyses. EU transactions and accounting adjustments are not included.
- Your employer also pays National Insurance on your salary, which is not shown here.
Sources
- HM Revenue & Customs, Rates and thresholds for employers
- GOV.UK, Income Tax rates and Personal Allowances
- HM Treasury, Public Expenditure Statistical Analyses (PESA), Table 5.2
- HM Revenue & Customs, Income Tax Liabilities Statistics, Table 2.4
More on public finances
- A full-time worker on typical pay of £39,863 paid 19.2% of it in income tax and National Insurance in 2025-26
- Debt interest cost 8.8p for every £1 the government raised in 2025-26
- Public spending on services was £1,228bn in 2025-26
- Income tax made up 26.7p of every £1 the public sector raised in 2025-26
- The top 1% of income tax payers paid 27.2% of all income tax in 2023-24
- The government spent 44.5% of GDP and raised 40.1% in 2025-26
- Social protection and health were the largest areas of public spending in 2025-26
- Public sector net debt was 93.3% of GDP in 2025-26
- Spending on debt interest rose by £79bn after inflation between 2020-21 and 2025-26, more than any other area