IR35 Calculator
Compare your take-home pay inside and outside IR35 for any day rate, using 2026/27 tax, National Insurance and dividend rates.
Reviewed by Dany, RightSums team · Updated
Runs in your browser. Free, no sign-up.
salary-tax · Daily life · UK
Enter your day rate and the number of days you work. Inside IR35, the calculator assumes you are paid through an umbrella company, which takes its fee, 15% employer National Insurance and the 0.5% Apprenticeship Levy out of the rate before running PAYE on what is left. Outside IR35, it assumes your own limited company pays you a £12,570 director's salary, pays Corporation Tax on the profit and passes the rest to you as dividends, taxed at 10.75%, 35.75% or 39.35% above the £500 dividend allowance.
Accepted inputs
- Day rate
- Days worked a year
- Umbrella fee per week
- Company running costs
Outputs
- Inside IR35 take-home
- Outside IR35 take-home
- Yearly difference
- Line-by-line breakdown
How to use the IR35 Calculator
- Enter your day rate and how many days you expect to bill in a year. 220 days allows for holidays and bank holidays.
- Set the umbrella company's weekly fee for the inside IR35 figure. Most charge between £15 and £30 a week.
- Add your limited company's yearly running costs, such as accountancy and insurance, for the outside IR35 figure.
- Compare the two take-home figures and the line-by-line breakdown to see where the money goes.
Frequently asked questions
What is IR35?
IR35, also called the off-payroll working rules, applies when you work through your own limited company but would be an employee if the client hired you directly. When a contract is inside IR35 you pay broadly the same Income Tax and National Insurance as an employee.
Who decides if my contract is inside or outside IR35?
Public sector clients and medium or large private sector clients decide, and they must give you a status determination statement with their reasons. If the client is a small private sector business, your own company makes the decision. HMRC's Check Employment Status for Tax (CEST) tool can help.
How much more do I take home outside IR35?
At £500 a day for 220 days in 2026/27, this calculator gives £69,224 outside IR35 and £65,620 inside through an umbrella, about £3,600 more a year. The gap is smaller than it used to be because dividend tax rates went up to 10.75% and 35.75% from April 2026.
Why is my umbrella take-home so much lower than my day rate?
An umbrella rate has to cover the umbrella's own costs before you are paid. The umbrella takes its weekly fee, 15% employer National Insurance on pay above £5,000 and the 0.5% Apprenticeship Levy, and only then runs Income Tax and employee National Insurance on the salary that is left.
Does IR35 apply if I work through an umbrella company?
HMRC says the off-payroll working rules are unlikely to apply if you are employed by an umbrella company, because you are already an employee of the umbrella and paid through PAYE.
Are student loan repayments taken inside IR35?
An umbrella company deducts them through payroll like any employer. If a client or agency applies IR35 to payments to your own limited company, they do not deduct student loan repayments, so you pay them through Self Assessment.
Take-home by day rate
Related tools
- UK Take-Home Pay Calculator
Work out your UK take-home pay after Income Tax, National Insurance, pension and student loan for 2026/27, per year, month and week.
- Salary to Hourly Calculator
Convert an annual salary, monthly pay or hourly wage into hourly, weekly, monthly and yearly figures, based on the hours you work each week.