UK Salaried Individual Tax Planner 2026/27 - Take-Home Pay, Pension & Salary Sacrifice Excel Model

Free take-home calculators fall apart the moment your life gets real.

A bonus. Salary sacrifice. Scottish tax bands. A student loan and a postgraduate loan on top. Suddenly every free template gives you a different number — and none of them shows its workings.

This one does. The Finhenge Salaried Individual Tax Planner is a professionally built Excel model covering every 2026/27 rate for the whole UK, with a full band-by-band audit trail behind every figure. You see exactly how your number was reached — not just what it is.

Plan your salary sacrifice before you commit. The built-in Planned scenario sits beside your Current position and answers the question that actually matters: what does each extra £1 into my pension really cost me? In the loaded example, £3,450 goes into the pension for £1,290 of take-home given up — a cost of just £0.37 per £1. Your numbers will differ; the model shows you yours instantly.

What it handles that free templates don't:

• Scottish and rest-of-UK tax regimes — both computed on every recalculation, side by side
• All three pension scheme types, modelled correctly: salary sacrifice, net pay arrangement, and relief at source (with the band-extension mechanism HMRC actually uses)
• Undergraduate and postgraduate student loans running concurrently — Plans 1, 2, 4, 5 and the 6% postgraduate loan, including Plan 5's first-ever repayments starting April 2026
• Bonuses, pensionable or not, plus other salary sacrifice such as EV car or cycle-to-work schemes
• The £100,000 personal-allowance taper (the "60% trap") — flagged automatically when you're in the zone
• Pension annual allowance (£60,000) monitoring, employer NI pass-back at 15%, and the minimum-wage floor on sacrifice

Audited live, in front of you. A dedicated Health Check tab runs seventeen automated checks every time the model recalculates: independent recomputations of income tax, NI and student loans; payslip reconciliation to the penny; input validation; and planning warnings for the taper zone, annual allowance, minimum wage and the High Income Child Benefit Charge zone. One glance tells you the model — and your inputs — are clean.

Every threshold sourced. Rates come straight from GOV.UK, the Scottish Budget 2026/27 and HMRC's December 2025 Employer Bulletin, with the source noted next to each figure on the Tax Tables tab. When 2027/28 rates are announced, that single tab is the only sheet you'll need to update. There's even a heads-up on the April 2029 salary-sacrifice NI cap, so you can plan the next three years with your eyes open.

Built to be used, not decoded. A Start Here tab gets you running in three steps. Plain-English Explanatory Notes translate the tax rules behind every calculation. All tabs are protected against accidental edits (no password — you stay in control), and only the clearly marked yellow input cells need touching.

Estimates for planning only — not tax, pensions or financial advice.

"What's included" block

• 1 × Excel workbook (.xlsx), instant digital download
• 7 tabs: Start Here · Inputs · Summary · Health Check · Calculation · Tax Tables · Explanatory Notes
• Worked example pre-loaded (£60,000 + £5,000 bonus, 5% salary-sacrifice pension) — replace with your own numbers
• Plain-English guide to the 2026/27 rules, including what changed vs 2025/26
• Free to reuse every payday and for every what-if — no subscription

Who it's for

UK employees on PAYE who want to understand their payslip and plan pension contributions with confidence — especially anyone with a bonus, a workplace pension, Scottish residency, student loans, or income approaching the £100k taper. Also useful for people-managers and HR professionals who field "what would sacrificing more actually do?" questions.

Specifications (metafields or description footer)

• Format: Microsoft Excel (.xlsx)
• Tax year: 2026/27 (6 April 2026 – 5 April 2027)
• Coverage: England, Wales & Northern Ireland + Scotland; NI is UK-wide
• Requirements: Microsoft Excel 2016 or later (Windows or Mac). [Confirm before publishing: state Google Sheets compatibility only if you've tested the import yourself.]
• Delivery: instant digital download after checkout
• Licence: single-user personal licence [adjust to your chosen terms]

FAQ

Is this tax advice? No. It's a planning estimate built on published HMRC, GOV.UK and Scottish Government rates. For decisions that depend on non-standard circumstances, take regulated advice.

Does it work for Scotland? Yes — fully. Both the Scottish and rest-of-UK regimes are computed on every recalculation, and the model applies whichever you select. Scottish bands reflect the 2026/27 Scottish Budget.

I have a Plan 2 loan AND a postgraduate loan. Can it handle both? Yes, simultaneously — the two run concurrently, exactly as payroll deducts them. Most free calculators can't do this.

My pension is "relief at source" — is that modelled properly? Yes, including the 20% provider top-up and the band-extension mechanism for higher-rate relief, with the model's assumption clearly documented.

What happens when rates change next year? Every rate lives on one Tax Tables tab with its source noted. Update that single sheet and the whole model rolls forward.

Can I break it? It's hard to. All formula cells are protected against accidental edits, inputs are dropdown-validated, and seventeen automated checks flag anything that needs attention.

What doesn't it cover? Non-standard tax codes, benefits in kind, Gift Aid, Marriage Allowance, self-employment or rental income, and per-pay-period NI on irregular bonuses. The Explanatory Notes state every exclusion openly.