How do I calculate my pay?

Ok, so to start the ball rolling…
First question, how is my pay calculated?
For those of us receiving a payslip from our employer, we are paying two types of taxes. Income Tax 20% and National Insurance 12%. In reality, we are paying a whopping 32% tax!
On top of this, our employer also pays 13.8%, if you work for a large company, the chances are your employer is also paying an additional 0.5% under the new apprenticeship levy too.
So, how do we calculate our pay, lets start with National Insurance, we’ll use a monthly salary of £2000. National Insurance calculation has thresholds that represent different percentages.
↑ 2%
Upper Earnings Limit
If we earn above £3750 per month, the national insurance contribution reduces to 2%
↑
12%
↓
Primary Threshold
Anything we earn between £680 per month and £3750 per month, the national insurance contribution is 12%
↓ 0%
Anything under the Primary Threshold £680, the percentage is 0%, or nil if below £490.
Our salary of £2000, this amount is less than £3750, so we don’t have to worry about the 2% calculation, all we need to do is take our salary £2000 minus the £680 Primary Threshold, which leaves £1320. We then times this by 12% £158.40 employee national insurance contribution.
Try it with your payslip, do you get the same answer?
If so, we’ll move onto tax.
Thanks for reading!
Jo Marshall
Yorkshire Payroll Services Ltd
26th January 2018

