Net to Gross Salary Calculator UK 2026/27 — Reverse PAYE / Required Salary

Net to Gross Salary Calculator — Work Backwards from Take-Home

You know the take-home you need — rent, bills, a savings target, or the net figure written into a settlement agreement — so start there. Enter the monthly or annual amount you want landing in your account and this reverse PAYE calculator iteratively solves the gross salary that delivers it under 2026/27 tax, National Insurance, pension and student loan rules. The perfect prep for salary negotiations, job-hunt filters and grossing-up calculations.

How does the reverse salary calculation work?

It runs the normal gross-to-net PAYE calculation repeatedly inside a binary search until the take-home matches your target. Going from gross to net is a straightforward walk down the deduction ladder; going the other way has no direct formula, because the tax system is full of kinks — band boundaries at £50,270 and £125,140, the personal allowance taper from £100,000, NI's rate drop at the upper earnings limit, and student loan thresholds. So the calculator guesses a gross, computes the net, adjusts, and repeats — converging to the penny in a few dozen iterations.

What salary do I need for £2,500 a month take-home?

Target: £30,000 net a year. With no deductions beyond tax and NI, about £36,780 gross gets you there. Ticking Plan 2 raises it to roughly £37,830 — 9% of everything above £29,385 has to be funded too. Adding a 5% salary-sacrifice pension pushes the requirement to around £41,100, but that extra gross is also building your retirement pot. The calculator shows all the deduction lines at the solved salary, so you can see exactly where each pound of gross goes.

Handy reference points for 2026/27 (1257L, no pension or loan):

Take-home / month	Take-home / year	Gross needed
£2,000	£24,000	≈ £28,445
£2,500	£30,000	≈ £36,780
£3,000	£36,000	≈ £45,110
£4,000	£48,000	≈ £64,890
£5,000	£60,000	≈ £85,580

Cross-check the answer in the take-home pay calculator — your solved gross carries across automatically — or see whether a second income would close the gap with the two jobs calculator. Setting the target around a house purchase? Price the monthly cost first with the mortgage repayment calculator.

Net to gross, grossing-up and settlement agreements

"Net to gross" is simply the reverse of a normal payslip: instead of asking what's left after deductions, you fix the amount left and ask what gross produces it. It comes up more often than you'd think:

Grossing-up a fixed net. An employer promising "£40,000 in your pocket", or a relocation or expat package quoted net of UK tax, has to be grossed up to the salary that survives PAYE. Because of the tax bands there is no single multiplier — the gross-up factor rises as you climb the scale.
Settlement agreements. The first £30,000 of a genuine termination payment can be tax-free, but anything above it, and any payment in lieu of notice, is taxed as earnings. If a figure is agreed net, the employer grosses up the taxable slice so you actually receive the promised amount — this calculator gives the gross that lands your target.
Benefits and awards paid net. Where a payer agrees to bear the tax (a net bonus, a tax-equalised assignment), the same reverse calculation finds the gross cost.

Because the reverse solve walks through the real 2026/27 bands, the allowance taper and NI, it handles the awkward middle where a small rise in the net target needs a disproportionately larger gross — most sharply in the £100k tax-trap zone. For the full forward breakdown of any solved figure, jump to the take-home pay calculator or the Income & Tax hub.

Frequently Asked Questions

What salary do I need for £2,500 a month take-home?

For 2026/27 with a standard 1257L tax code, no pension and no student loan, £2,500 a month net (£30,000 a year) requires a gross salary of roughly £36,780. Add a Plan 2 student loan and the requirement rises to around £37,830; add a 5% sacrifice pension on top and it climbs again. The calculator solves your exact combination instantly.

How does a reverse salary calculation work?

There is no closed-form formula for gross-from-net because tax bands, the allowance taper and student loan thresholds all kink the curve. This calculator runs the full forward PAYE calculation repeatedly inside a binary search, narrowing until the resulting take-home matches your target to the penny.

Why does the required gross jump so much above £100,000?

Between £100,000 and £125,140 the personal allowance is withdrawn at £1 for every £2 of income, making the effective marginal rate over 60%. In that zone every extra pound of desired take-home needs roughly £2.60 of gross salary — which is why required-gross curves steepen sharply there.

Should I enter my take-home target before or after pension contributions?

Enter the amount you want left in your bank account. If you set a pension percentage in the options, the solver finds the gross that still delivers your target after the pension contribution is taken — so the answer already funds your retirement saving.

Does the calculation work for Scottish taxpayers?

Yes. Switch the Scottish toggle or use an S-prefix tax code and the solver uses Scotland's six 2026/27 bands (19% to 48%). Because Scottish higher rates bite earlier, the required gross for the same take-home is usually somewhat higher than in the rest of the UK.

Can I use this to set a day rate as a contractor?

It gives you the employed-equivalent gross, which is a useful anchor. Divide the result by around 220 working days for a crude inside-IR35 day rate, but remember umbrella fees, employer NI and holiday pay all come out of a contract rate — most contractors target 20–30% above the employed-equivalent.