The Salary Calculator

New! Postgraduate Loan Repayment

by Admin

Starting from April 2019, repayment of new Postgraduate Student Loans will be done through Pay As You Earn (PAYE). As The Salary Calculator has just been updated with the April 2019 figures, repayment of postgraduate loans has been added so, if this applies to you, you can see what effect this will have on your take home pay.

These loan repayments are in addition to Plan 1 and Plan 2 student loan repayments, which you may have from undergraduate courses you have studied. Postgraduate loan repayments are calculated as 6% of gross annual earnings over £21,000. More information is available from the Student Loans Company.

Also, so you can see how your loans are being repaid, if you select more than one loan type on The Salary Calculator you will be able to click for a breakdown of how the repayments are distributed to your different student loans.

Because this only comes in to effect from April 2019, in order to see the effect of postgraduate loan repayments you will need to select “2019/20” from the Tax Year drop-down. Head over to The Salary Calculator to check it out!

Tags: 2019, April 2019, Loans, Pay As You Earn, student loan company, student loans, The Salary Calculator

April 2019 tax rates

by Admin

The Salary Calculator has been updated with the tax rates which will take effect from 6th April 2019. There is a significant increase in the tax-free Personal Allowance from £11,850 to £12,500 per year, and outside of Scotland the threshold from 20% basic rate to 40% higher rate income tax has been increased to £50,000. Scottish tax thresholds are different from the rest of the UK, current information suggests that they will not increase as much as the UK rates will.

There have also been increases in the thresholds for Plan 1 and Plan 2 Student Loan repayments, so those paying off their loans will find their repayments lowered in the new year.

You can try out the April 2019 tax rates for yourself by choosing “2019 / 20” in the Tax Year drop-down on The Salary Calculator. You can also see a side-by-side comparison of 2018 and 2019 with the 2018 and 2019 income tax comparison page.

The calculator has been updated with the best information currently available – if any of the details change before the start of the tax year the calculator will be updated to reflect those changes.

Tags: 2019, April 2019, budget, income tax, national insurance, Pay As You Earn, pension, personal allowance, student loan, student loans, tax rates, The Salary Calculator

April 2015 tax rates applied

by Admin

From 6th April 2015, new tax thresholds and personal allowances will apply, and The Salary Calculator has been updated with these new values.

Although the default results are still for the current tax year, when you enter your details into the take home pay calculator, you will see a summary line at the bottom of the results showing how things will change from 6th April. Click on this line and you can see a side-by-side comparison of the 2014/15 and 2015/16 tax years, and a breakdown of how it will affect your take home pay. You can also choose 2015/16 in the tax year drop-down in the normal take home calculator.

The main change this year is an increase in the default personal allowance from £10,000 to £10,600 – which means you can earn an extra £600 without paying any income tax. The default tax code will change from 1000L to 1060L (if your tax code is different, it will probably change for next year to reflect the larger personal allowance). The Student Loan repayment threshold has also increased from £16,910 to £17,335, potentially saving those who are repaying their loans £38.25 per month (although this will also mean it takes longer to repay your loan).

Tags: April 2015, HMRC, income tax, national insurance, Pay As You Earn, personal allowance, student loans, tax rates, The Salary Calculator

Understanding student loans

by Admin

I discovered an excellent article today by Martin Lewis, laying out the facts behind student loans – how they work and how they are repaid. There are a number of common misconceptions about student loans, and this article sets out all the information you would need to understand if you were considering going to university (or sending one of your children). Topics covered include:

• If you take a low paying job after graduation, you’ll only repay a small amount of the loan (or none of it!)
• Monthly repayments under the new loan system are lower than under the previous system
• Your monthly repayments are the same, no matter how high your tuition fees are
• You only start repaying once you leave university and start earning
• You will still be able to get a mortgage

To learn more about all of these and more, check out Student Loans Mythbusting.

You can see how much your student loan will cost each month, and how long it will take to repay, by using the tool on our sister site Loan Tutor.

Tags: Loan Tutor, Loans, repayment, student loan company, student loans

2014 Budget

by Admin

Later today, the Chancellor will deliver his 2014 Budget to parliament, setting out his plans for the next few years. The Budget is the Chancellor’s opportunity to explain his policies and how they will affect the economy as a whole, and also what differences will be felt by ordinary members of the public.

He is likely to make much of the fact that the tax-free personal allowance (how much you can earn without paying income tax) has increased to £10,000 from April 2014, a coalition pledge delivered 1 year early. There is also talk that he might announce plans to raise the threshold for 40% tax (the amount at which you start paying income tax at 40% rather than 20%) in future years. This would probably lower the tax paid by those in middle management positions, say, and those in more senior roles.

The income tax and National Insurance rates which will take effect from 6th April 2014 have already been applied to The Salary Calculator, so you can easily see how your take home pay will be affected by the new tax year. You can also view a side-by-side comparison of 2013 and 2014 so you can see where the differences come from.

Tags: April 2014, budget, Economy, income tax, Pay As You Earn, Pensions, personal allowance, student loans, tax rates, The Salary Calculator