What is £100,000 after tax?

2 min read
Last updated 26 Mar 2024

You might be surprised by what’s left of £100,000 after tax.

Of course, it’s still a handsome wage, but what many people don’t know is that when you start earning over £100k, you fall into a 60% tax trap. You gradually lose your tax-free Personal Allowance (which is £12,570 in the 2024/25 tax year). And until you earn £125,140 and lose it entirely, you’ll be paying tax at 60% on your income.

Look, it’s confusing, we know. We’ve written a guide about how it works so take a look to see an example of 60% tax in action.

How much is £100,000 after tax?

You can calculate your earnings by using our Income Tax calculator. Just input a few details and we can calculate the tax you owe and the wage you’re left with after:

Your situation

Tax and profit

Total earnings
£50,000
£1,000 tax-free Trading Allowance
?
Tax to pay
£9,472
£7,286 income tax
£0 class 2 National Insurance
£2,186 class 4 National Insurance
What you’re left with
£40,528

How your income tax is calculated

When you’re self-employed, you have to pay your income tax and national insurance contributions yourself in your annual Self Assessment. Our calculator helps you quickly assess how much you owe.

However you may be eligible for a tax refund when:

You already made tax payments for the year but your annual income ended up less than planned
You have done things that qualify for a tax relief (made private pension contributions, given to charity, etc.)

In your case when you earn £50,000:

Income tax breakdown

You pay no income tax on first £12,570 that you make

You pay £7,286 at basic income tax rate (20%) on the next £36,430

National insurance contributions breakdown

No contributions on the first £12,570 that you make

You pay £2,186 in contributions (at 6%) on the next £36,430 that you make

You pay £0 in NI Class 2 contributions

Tax bill amount £9,472

I want to pay by

Savings frequency

You need to save

£14.22 per day

to pay your £9,471.56 tax bill by 31/1/2026 which is in 666 days

What to do if you earn over £100k?

When you earn over £100k, you’ll be classed as a high earner. But, it’s not until you earn over £150K that you’ll need to do a tax return – or at least this was the place until 6th April 2024.

Before this, HMRC asked high earners to file a tax return to check they were being taxed correctly. They checked whether you were claiming any reliefs that reduced your taxable income. And therefore whether you were entitled to your Personal Allowance.

But this has now changed. As of 6th April 2024, high earners who earn exclusively from PAYE (i.e. their employee salary) no longer need to file a tax return. All your tax is taken direct from your salary. However it’s still worth checking you’re on the correct tax code to avoid being under or over taxed.