Salary deductions
What comes out of your salary, and in what order
Pension, tax, National Insurance, student loan and net-pay deductions, in sequence.
Last reviewed 22 August 2026
The usual order
Most payslips follow a familiar sequence: pension contributions under a net pay or salary sacrifice arrangement reduce the pay that gets taxed, then income tax and National Insurance are deducted, then student loan repayments, then anything taken from net pay such as share schemes or season ticket loans.
The order matters. A pension contribution taken before tax reduces your taxable pay, so its cost to your take-home is less than the headline percentage.
Student loans are a percentage above a threshold
Repayments are a fixed percentage of income above a plan-specific threshold, not a share of the loan balance. Different plans have different thresholds, and postgraduate loans use their own rate.
Because the threshold is applied to income rather than to your loan, a pay rise increases the repayment even if the balance is nearly cleared.
Net-pay deductions
Deductions taken after tax do not reduce your tax bill. In our calculators these are entered as other deductions and reduce the final take-home figure only.
Calculators for this topic
This guide explains how the rules generally work. It is not tax advice, and your own position depends on your full circumstances — you may wish to seek professional advice.