New Income Tax Checker

chrisbur

The calculator does have problems but do not know if these problems are affecting the OP's calculation without seeing figures.
If you are not in a pension then the result is quite close ( with usual proviso that NI is calculated per pay period not annually)
If you are in a pension then there are problems.
Salary sacrifice you have to use the figure you are actually being paid after the bit of salary you have sacrificed.
If pension is deducted from your gross pay ( confusingly called the net pay arrangement)   then you have to use the taxable gross figure for tax calculation ie your gross less the amount paid as pension, and the total gross for your NI.  Ideally NI calculated for each pay period if there is much variation over the year.
If pension is deducted from your net pay as the site advises (click on the ? and you are advised " This assumes that you pay your pension from NET pay, and thus get tax relief on contributions from HMRC" called the relief at source arrangement.") the calculator first takes your pension deduction from gross instead of net and calculates tax as if it was the net pay arrangement.
For relief at source you need to ignore the pension box and run the calculation as if you are not in a pension, then deduct the pension from the net pay given.

bricksandmortar

Seems to be wrong on NI and student loan conts for higher rate taxpayers with pension contributions. Also ordered in a strange way. Quite a misleading tool, surprised it is on the site!

Markcroberts

I used 5% for pension contribution in an auto enrolment scheme. The resulting £126 the calculator suggests is not correct.

Dazed_and_C0nfused

Markcroberts said:

I used 5% for pension contribution in an auto enrolment scheme. The resulting £126 the calculator suggests is not correct.

How does the calculator know if your employer is using the auto enrolment lower earnings threshold i.e. only earnings above a certain amount are used to calculate your pension contributions.

JoeShmoe99

Does it not work when you have pension contributions over 10% ?

Dazed_and_C0nfused

JoeShmoe99 said:

Does it not work when you have pension contributions over 10% ?

Is the method you use to get money into your pension compatible with the checker?

Mercury97

I've always used the calculator and love it.

However, the take home pay calculator is now giving the wrong output - I've found that it includes a student loan deduction even when I select "I don't have a loan". I guess I'm in the minority given that it's not been highlighted before and fixed. But it's a major issue. If relevant / helpful - I'm using the latest Microsoft Edge web browser.

timray

Mercury97 said:

I've always used the calculator and love it.

However, the take home pay calculator is now giving the wrong output - I've found that it includes a student loan deduction even when I select "I don't have a loan". I guess I'm in the minority given that it's not been highlighted before and fixed. But it's a major issue. If relevant / helpful - I'm using the latest Microsoft Edge web browser.

Yes, I am finding the same issue - it's deducting over £1K per month for student loan repayments even though I don't have a student loan.  This only happens if I enable Advanced Options in the calculator.

ozzypod

There are some problems with this MSE income tax checker:

• £9 not added to the personal allowance calculations resulting in the income tax being a few £ off.
• Salary sacrifice on the pension is enabled by default and can't be disabled - some companies unfortunately don't offer salary sacrifice on your pension.
• The salary sacrifice creates an 'adjusted net income' which is being correctly applied to the income tax bands but it's not being applied to the N.I. tax bands.

You can see a side-by-side comparison of an income with a salary sacrifice pension vs non salary sacrifice pension here and see how the MSE tool is mixing up values from both sides:

• £45k income 5% SS pension vs 5% auto pension - www income-tax-calculator com/calculator/4500000A-P5S-SL2-Y24-25-vs-4500000A-P5A-SL2-Y24-25
• MSE tool £45k income - www moneysavingexpert com/tax-calculator/ - type in 45000/yr, Plan 2 SL, 5% pension to compare

chrisbur

ozzypod said:

There are some problems with this MSE income tax checker:

• £9 not added to the personal allowance calculations resulting in the income tax being a few £ off.
• Salary sacrifice on the pension is enabled by default and can't be disabled - some companies unfortunately don't offer salary sacrifice on your pension.
• The salary sacrifice creates an 'adjusted net income' which is being correctly applied to the income tax bands but it's not being applied to the N.I. tax bands.

If you click on the little question mark by the pension section a box appears that explains that the calculator uses the net pay arrangement and it will not be accurate for salary sacrifice or relief at source.  It would be more helpful if this box was always on show and you did not have to click to see it.
I do not think that the £9 is making a lot of difference as for most £9 a year is is only making  15p a month difference to tax, other roundings used are probably making at least this difference.
I do agree that this is probably the worst calculator ( apart from the HMRC one of course ) on the internet.
EDIT  Very bad phrasing there, I meant that all the calculators on the internet had failings apart from the HMRC one which always gives the correct answer and is excellent.