Bonus tax calculator 2026/27

See what a bonus is really worth once income tax and National Insurance come off it, and how much of it reaches your bank account.

Your salary

Your bonus

Where do you live?

EnglandWalesNorthern IrelandScotland

Your bonus, after tax

£3,848.66

of your £5,000 bonus reaches you over the tax year, from a salary of £40,000 paid monthly.

Bonus before tax£5,000

You keep£3,848.66

Tax and NI£1,151.34

Of your bonus77% kept

Kept £3,848.66Tax £1,000.00NI £151.34

You keep 77% of this bonus. Income tax and National Insurance take £1,151.34 of it. A larger or smaller bonus keeps a different share of itself — the table below prices four sizes on this salary.

National Insurance on the month the bonus lands is £334.17, against £182.83 on an ordinary month. The bonus bears £151.34 of it, charged on that month's own pay against that month's limits and never reconciled — so this part is the same whichever month you are paid it in. A company director is the exception, because a director’s National Insurance is worked out over an earnings period of a whole year, and this answer does not price that. The income tax is not: on a cumulative code it is worked out on the year to date. Paid in the first month of the tax year, that payslip shows £5,713.50 against £2,693.50 for an ordinary one; later in the year the same bonus leaves a different figure on the month and the same total over the year.

Compare bonuses

Different bonuses on £40,000

Bonus	You keep	Tax and NI	Share kept
£1,000	£728.66	£271.34	72.9%
£2,500	£1,898.66	£601.34	75.9%
£5,000 — yours	£3,848.66	£1,151.34	77%
£10,000	£7,748.66	£2,251.34	77.5%

Rules v2026.18 · checked against GOV.UK on 18 September 2026Two independent checks on every rate · 393 of 418 hand-verified cases, all passing, beside 43,041 generated · How we calculate · Changelog

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Questions

Common questions

Is a bonus taxed more than salary?

No. A bonus is taxed at the same rates as the rest of your pay. On £40,000 in England, a £5,000 bonus leaves you £3,848.66, because 77.0% of it survives income tax and National Insurance. What changes is which band the bonus lands in: pay above £50,270 is taxed at 40%, and National Insurance drops from 8% to the lower rate above £4,189 in the month it is paid.

Why did my payslip take more than this from my bonus?

Payroll works out each pay period on its own, so a month with a bonus in it can be taxed as though every month looked like that one. On a cumulative tax code the income tax corrects itself over the following months. National Insurance does not: it is charged on the month the bonus was paid and stays charged, which is what the figures above assume. A company director is the exception — a director’s National Insurance is worked out over an earnings period of a whole year, so this page’s figures do not apply to one. The payslip for that month is shown above.

SourcesIncome Tax rates and Personal Allowances — GOV.UK Rates and thresholds for employers — GOV.UK