What does this rate actually take home?
Free tool · Contractors
Put in a day or hourly rate and see what it leaves you with on PAYE, through an umbrella, through your own limited company and, in construction, under CIS — side by side, on 2026/27 rates.
The same headline rate means very different money depending on how it is paid. An umbrella rate has the employer's National Insurance, the apprenticeship levy and a margin taken out before your own tax; a limited company pays corporation tax before you draw dividends; CIS takes a deduction on account that is squared up at the end of the year.
This calculator runs all of them on the same inputs so the difference is visible. It is a comparison, not a status decision: which route is available to you depends on how the work is actually done, and that question comes first.
Rates are the 2026/27 figures for England, Wales and Northern Ireland. Scottish income tax bands differ and are not modelled here.
Take-home comparison
Where this leads
The things people ask before they ring
No. Every result is on the page as soon as you press the button. If you want a copy, you can email it to yourself, and we only follow up if you tick the box that says we can.
No. It compares money, not status. Whether a limited company or a self-employed route is open to you depends on how the work is actually done, and that is settled first. HMRC has its own tool for checking employment status.
An umbrella rate is the whole cost of employing you. The umbrella pays employer National Insurance, the apprenticeship levy, its pension contribution and its margin out of it before your own tax. A PAYE rate is your gross pay, with the employer's costs on top.
Because the CIS deduction is tax paid on account. Your actual income tax and Class 4 National Insurance are worked out at self assessment, and the difference comes back to you or is paid then. The rate changes your cash flow during the year, not the final figure.
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