Two salaries. Two pension levels. A bonus as cash or sacrificed. The same salary on each side of the Scottish border. Pick a comparison, change one number, see what actually lands in your pocket and your pension.
Pension, employer match, bonus, scheme, student loan
Scenario A
Take-home
£48,257
Scenario B
Take-home
£54,057
The difference
Scenario B pays £483/month more after tax.
The £10,000 raise becomes £5,800 more take-home, while your employer pays £11,500 more.
Take-home / yr
+£5,800
Take-home / mo
+£483
Pension / yr
£0
Employer cost
+£11,500
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Want the full picture for one scenario? Open the income tax calculator.
Two job offers. Use Two salariesand add each side's bonus and employer match. A £70,000 job matching 10% can quietly beat a £74,000 job matching 3% — this is the page that shows you why.
How much to put in your pension. Use Two salary-sacrifice levels. Above £100,000 every extra pound you sacrifice is also a pound the personal-allowance taper stops eating, so the multiplier jumps. Slide it up until you're back below £100k and the trap stops biting. (For relief-at-source or net-pay schemes use Two salaries with the scheme dropdown in Advanced.)
Bonus season. Use Bonus: cash vs sacrifice with your base salary and the figure on the letter. Cash bonuses between £100k and £125k are taxed at 60–62% on the margin; sacrificing puts the full gross into your pension instead.
Crossing the border. Use Same salary, two regions. Scotland uses its own bands, so the same gross produces a different take-home before and after a Scottish role.
Same engine as the standalone calculators, on HMRC's 2026/27 rates and the Scottish Parliament's 2026/27 bands. Pension figures assume relief-at-source unless you pick a different scheme.
Contractor or limited-company director? Comparing PAYE to ltd-company income gets messy — this page assumes PAYE on both sides. For salary-vs-dividend extraction, use Director mix instead.