IR35 Calculator: Cost of Being Inside vs Outside IR35 (2026/27)
Work out the true cost of IR35 status in 2026/27 – compare inside vs outside take-home, including employer NI, apprenticeship levy, pension and student loan.
How much does IR35 status actually cost you?
IR35 status is not just a compliance label — it changes who pays employer National Insurance, how much tax comes off before you see it, and whether your profit is taxed as employment income or as company dividends. For the 2026/27 tax year, the gap between inside and outside IR35 has widened again: dividend tax rates rose by two percentage points from 6 April 2026 and the frozen income tax and National Insurance thresholds mean more of a rising day rate falls into higher bands every year.
This calculator goes further than a simple day-rate comparison. It models employer National Insurance at 15% above the £5,000 secondary threshold, an apprenticeship levy contribution, pension options and student loan repayments on both sides of the comparison, so the figure you see is a genuine like-for-like cost of status, not just a difference in headline tax rates.
What's included in the cost comparison
- Employer National Insurance at 15% on earnings above the £5,000 secondary threshold, wherever it actually falls in the contractual chain
- Employee Class 1 National Insurance at 8% between £12,570 and £50,270, then 2% above that
- Income tax on the 2026/27 bands: 0% up to £12,570, 20% up to £50,270, 40% up to £100,000, an effective 60% between £100,000 and £125,140 as the personal allowance is withdrawn, then 45% above
- Outside-IR35 routes modelled through a limited company, including the 2026/27 dividend rates (10.75% / 35.75% / 39.35%) and the £500 dividend allowance
- Optional pension contributions and student loan repayments, applied consistently on both sides of the comparison
