Gross to Net & Net to Gross Calculator
Employers pay Class 1 National Insurance at 15% on an employee's earnings above the £5,000 secondary threshold, on top of the employee's own Income Tax and NI (gov.uk). This calculator converts gross to net pay, or works backwards from a net target, including that employer cost.
Two directions, one engine
Choose 'gross to net' to see what a stated salary becomes after tax, or 'net to gross' to work backwards from a target take-home figure to the gross salary that would produce it. Both use the same PAYE Income Tax and National Insurance rules underneath.
What's deducted from gross pay
The employee side follows the standard PAYE method: the Personal Allowance (tapered above £100,000), then Income Tax at 20%/40%/45% across the basic, higher and additional-rate bands, plus employee Class 1 National Insurance at 8% then 2% above the upper earnings limit.
Employer National Insurance and total cost
This calculator also shows employer Class 1 National Insurance, which the employer pays on top of gross salary and which the employee never sees but which is a real cost of employment. The employer NI rate and secondary threshold have changed between the tax years covered here — 13.8% from a £9,100 secondary threshold in 2024/25, rising to 15% from a lower £5,000 threshold from 2025/26 onwards — so the total employer cost for the same gross salary is higher in the later years even though the employee's own take-home pay is unaffected.
Why net-to-gross needs a solver, not a formula
Working out the gross salary that produces a specific net figure isn't a simple reverse formula, because the tax bands and the Personal Allowance taper both depend on the gross amount you're solving for. This calculator iterates to find the gross salary whose take-home pay matches your target, to the nearest pound.
Where this is useful
Net-to-gross is the calculation behind a salary negotiation phrased as 'I need £X in my pocket' — it tells you the gross figure to ask for. Gross-to-net is useful for comparing job offers quoted at different gross salaries, or for a limited company director working out the true cost of paying themselves a given salary once employer NI is added.
A worked example
Say you want £30,000 net a year. Working backwards, a gross salary of roughly £38,000 produces close to that figure once the Personal Allowance, Income Tax and employee NI are applied — the exact number depends on the tax year selected, since employer NI thresholds (which don't affect your own net pay, but do affect the employer-cost figure shown alongside it) shift between 2024/25 and 2025/26 onwards. For that same £38,000 gross salary, total employer cost — salary plus employer NI — is noticeably higher in 2025/26 than in 2024/25, purely because of the lower secondary threshold and higher employer NI rate, even though the employee's own take-home pay doesn't change.
Common mistakes to avoid
A common error is assuming net-to-gross is a simple percentage markup — because tax bands and the Personal Allowance taper are non-linear, the true gross salary for a given net target can only be found by testing candidate salaries, which is what this calculator does automatically. Another is quoting the employer-cost figure as if it were the employee's own salary in a negotiation — it includes employer NI, which the employee never receives or sees on a payslip.
Using this alongside the take-home pay calculator
This calculator and the take-home pay calculator share the same underlying PAYE maths — use this one when you're starting from a target net figure or want the employer-cost view for a limited company director's own salary decision, and the simpler take-home pay calculator when you already know the gross salary and just want the net figure without the extra employer-cost breakdown.
Questions about the gross to net & net to gross calculator
Why does the employer NI rate differ by tax year?
The employer secondary Class 1 NI rate and threshold were changed for 2025/26 onwards — this calculator uses the correct rate for whichever tax year you select.
Is net-to-gross an exact figure?
It's solved to the nearest pound by testing gross salaries until the resulting net pay matches your target — small rounding differences of a few pence are possible.
Does employer NI affect my take-home pay?
No — employer NI is a cost your employer bears on top of your salary, not a deduction from your gross pay, so it doesn't change your own net pay.
Can I use this for a self-employed profit figure instead of a salary?
No — this models employee PAYE (Income Tax + Class 1 NI + employer NI). For self-employed profit, use the Self Assessment tax calculator, which applies Class 4 NI instead.