Teacher Tax Calculator and Tax Codes

How a teacher's income tax is actually calculated

There is a specific order, and the pension step is the one people miss. Income tax is not charged on your headline salary.

1. Start with gross pay — your pay point plus any TLR or SEN allowance.
2. Deduct your pension contribution — this is why the pension gives full tax relief automatically.
3. Deduct your personal allowance — normally £12,570, indicated by the 1257L code.
4. Apply the tax bands to whatever is left.

National Insurance follows a completely different rule — it is charged on the full £38,400 with no pension deduction. That difference is explained in full on the salary sacrifice page.

Income tax bands for 2026/27

England, Wales and Northern Ireland share one set of bands. Scotland sets its own.

Almost all classroom teachers stay entirely within the basic rate band. A scheme member would need a gross salary of roughly £56,000 before any income reached the 40% rate, once the pension deduction is taken into account. Leadership salaries do cross it — see the leadership pay scale.

If you live in Scotland, six bands apply instead of three and the higher rate starts lower. Those figures and what they cost a teacher are set out in the Scottish teachers' pension and tax guide. For the resulting net figures at every pay point, see teacher take-home pay.

What your tax code means

Your tax code tells your school's payroll how much tax-free pay to give you. The number is your annual allowance divided by ten; the letter describes your situation.

What a wrong code actually costs

This is why it is worth checking. The table shows the same M3 teacher on £38,400 under four different codes.

A BR code applied to a main teaching job costs about £209 a month. A K code can cost considerably more. Neither is necessarily an error — a K code often reflects genuinely owed tax — but both are worth understanding rather than ignoring.

Why teachers get the wrong code

• Changing schools mid-year without the new employer receiving your P45 promptly.
• Supply work alongside a permanent post, where the second income gets a BR code.
• Finishing supply and starting permanent work, leaving HMRC with a stale picture.
• Multiple agencies during a supply period, each treated as a separate employment.
• An estimated underpayment from a previous year being collected through the code.
• Taxable benefits such as a school-provided car or health cover.

How to check and fix your code

1. Find your code on your payslip, P60 or the HMRC app.
2. Check your Personal Tax Account on GOV.UK, which shows how HMRC has built up the code.
3. Look at the employments listed. Old supply agencies still showing as live is a common cause of a wrong code.
4. Confirm no phantom benefits are included.
5. Report the change to HMRC through your Personal Tax Account or by phone.
6. Wait for the coding notice. HMRC issues a P2 to you and updates your school's payroll directly.

The 60% trap above £100,000

Above £100,000 of adjusted net income your personal allowance is withdrawn at £1 for every £2 earned. Combined with 40% tax on the income itself, the effective marginal rate between £100,000 and £125,140 is 60%.

This affects only senior leaders in large schools and trusts. Where it does apply, additional pension contributions are one of the few ways to bring adjusted net income back below the threshold — but annual allowance limits then come into play, which is exactly the kind of decision worth taking regulated advice on.

What teachers can claim tax relief on

Tax relief on work expenses is narrower than staffroom rumour suggests, but a few genuine categories exist.

• Professional subscriptions to bodies on HMRC's approved list, including most teaching unions in part.
• Specialist clothing where it is genuinely protective, such as lab coats or PE kit required by the school.
• Mileage between school sites, though not your ordinary commute.
• Equipment you were required to buy and were not reimbursed for.

Salary after tax by career stage, month by month

Most teachers arriving here want one number: what lands in the bank. The table converts the main scale points into monthly net figures for a scheme member on 1257L outside London, covering the ECT-after-tax question new teachers ask most often.

Figures assume standard tax code, scheme membership at current contribution tiers and no student-loan or salary-sacrifice deductions. Supply teachers should expect different results because agency payroll applies tax codes differently — run your own circumstances through the full take-home calculator rather than relying on averages.