Understand My NHS Pay
Scan a payslip to see why you're paid what you're paid. Check you're not overpaying tax for free.
Not in the NHS? We're working to support all payslips. Sign up for updates.
How much will I get paid?
This site is free to use - it shows you and checks how much you should be getting paid. The hardest part of understanding a payslip is all the extra bits: your tax code, allowances, pension contributions, and more.
By simply scanning your payslip you'll be guided through how your salary was calculated and can check you are not overpaying tax! Get clarity and potentially save money!
Frequently Asked Questions
Can you read any payslip?
How accurate is it?
How does it work?
Is my data safe?
What about Scotland or Wales?
What if I have more payslips?
What is a tax code?
What is tax-free childcare?
- Your child must be under 12 years old
- Both parents (or the single parent in a single-parent household) must be working and earning at least the National Minimum Wage or Living Wage for 16 hours per week
- Neither parent can earn more than £100,000 (after adjustments) per year
- The childcrae provider must be Ofsted registered
- You must live in the UK
What is the marriage allowance?
Why are tax codes often wrong?
- Job changes: Moving jobs without updating HMRC or without a P45 can lead to an emergency tax code.
- Multiple jobs or pensions: Your tax-free allowance might not be allocated correctly between your incomes. This includes money earned outside of employment (e.g. selling on Etsy or entertaining), and variable income makes it harder for HMRC to adjust tax codes correctly.
- Benefits in Kind: Perks such as health insurance are taxed but might not be included in your tax code, particularly if you start, stop or change the benefits.
- Inaccurate employer reporting: Payroll information is normally sent to HMRC automatically, but if there are problems your employer might need to contact HMRC to correct previous submissions.
We are getting there but not quite yet.
The site can read NHS payslips. Coming soon are military and police payslips.
If you want this site to be able to read your payslips just ask us! Please email support@myark.io.
There might be some small differences because HMRC uses real-time information to provide some information to your employer that we don’t have access to.
Normally the calculations will be accurate to within £1.
You drag and drop, upload or scan your payslip. UnderstandMyPay.com then reads it and then explains how much you will be paid or in other words you salary after tax.
Our tax calculator also checks your tax code to see if you are overpaying tax.
Absolutely - our system needs to process the payslip to detect the text and calculate the deductions, but we don’t retain any of your personal information.
Scotland has different tax rates for higher earners. If your tax code starts with an S for Scotland or a C for Wales then you’re being taxed on those rates.
Welsh tax rates are currently the same as England.
This calculator only works for one payslip right now, but if HMRC are aware you have multiple jobs then your tax codes are normally adjusted to avoid underpaying tax.
This means the calculation should be correct for each payslip, but you’ll normally only receive a tax-free allowance on one of your incomes.
We’ll be adding the ability to add more than one payslip soon.
Your tax code is issued by HMRC to your employer. It determines how much tax is deducted from your salary.
The standard tax code is currently 1257L, meaning the first £12,570 earned each year is tax free.
If your code is followed by W1, M1 or X then you’re on an emergency code and you could be paying more tax than necessary.
There are other codes used if you have multiple jobs or to collect a previous underpayment of tax, such as BR or D0.
Tax-Free Childcare is a government scheme in the UK that helps working parents with the cost of childcare.
For every £8 you pay in to your childcare account the government adds an additional £2, up to a maximum of £2,000 per child per year (or £4,000 per year for a child with a disability).
This scheme can be used to pay for a variety of childcare services, including nurseries, childminders, after-school clubs, and holiday schemes.
The Marriage Allowance allows one partner in a marriage or civil partnership to transfer some of their allowance to their partner, reducing the amount of tax paid by them.
It benefits couples where one partner earns less than the tax-free allowance, currently £12,570 per year.
You could save up to £1,260 per year using the allowance.
You can end up on the wrong tax code, then pay the wrong amount of tax for different reasons such as: