Outside IR35 Take-Home Pay Calculator (2026/27)
See your outside-IR35 limited company take-home for 2026/27, with an optimised salary/dividend split, VAT flat rate, expenses and pension contributions modelled.
Turning your day rate into limited company take-home pay
Working outside IR35 through your own limited company changes the whole shape of your tax bill. Instead of PAYE and employee National Insurance being deducted from your fee as it's earned, your company pays corporation tax on its profit first, then you extract what's left as a combination of a small director's salary and dividends — each taxed under completely different rules, and each affected by the changes that took effect on 6 April 2026.
This calculator models that whole chain for 2026/27: your invoiced fee income, allowable business expenses, VAT (including the flat rate scheme, if you use one), corporation tax at the company's marginal rate (19% to an effective 26.5% under the small-profits and marginal-relief regime), and an optimised salary/dividend split using the £500 dividend allowance and the new 10.75%/35.75%/39.35% dividend rates.
How your fee income becomes take-home pay
- Enter your day rate and billable days to get annual fee income, and add any VAT scheme you're registered under
- Deduct allowable business expenses and any employer pension contributions your company makes directly — these reduce profit before corporation tax
- Corporation tax is charged on the remaining profit at the company's marginal rate for 2026/27 (19% up to £50,000 profit, rising through marginal relief to an effective 26.5% before settling at 25% on profits above £250,000)
- The calculator suggests a small director's salary (typically around the NI secondary threshold, so it counts towards your state pension without triggering employer NI) and extracts the rest as dividends
- Dividends are taxed after the £500 tax-free allowance at 10.75% (basic rate band), 35.75% (higher rate band) or 39.35% (additional rate band) for 2026/27
