whybother.tax

See how much of your salary disappears in visible and hidden taxes.

Your gross salary (£)

PAYE salary before pension contributions or other deductions.

Currently assuming £8,000 vatable spending, 8,000 miles at 40 mpg, £2,450 Council Tax, £1,600 energy bill, 1 short-haul flight, typical TV licence, VED and home & car insurance.

Green = money you keep • Pink = tax you pay

Gross salary

£36,000

Income Tax

£31,314 after tax

£4,686 tax

National Insurance

£28,971 after tax

£2,343 tax

VAT on spending

£27,371 after tax

£1,600 tax

Fuel duty + VAT

£26,825 after tax

£546 tax

Council Tax

£24,375 after tax

£2,450 tax

TV licence fee

£24,205 after tax

£170 tax

Vehicle Excise Duty

£24,005 after tax

£200 tax

Green levies on energy

£23,861 after tax

£144 tax

Alcohol / tobacco / gambling duties

£22,661 after tax

£1,200 tax

Air Passenger Duty

£22,648 after tax

£13 tax

Insurance Premium Tax

£22,540 after tax

£108 tax

What you actually keep

£22,540 after tax

£13,460 tax

Some fixed bills (council tax, TV licence, etc.) are applied in order and can exceed the small remaining balance at very low incomes — the app shows the total applied and a zero remaining balance for clarity.

37.4%

your estimated all-in tax rate

Nearly 37% of your money goes to tax before you get to spend any of it on the things you actually want.

That’s roughly 2 days a week spent paying tax.

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About & assumptions

This page is rough “pub maths”, not tax advice. It’s designed to show how much of a typical UK salary ends up in visible and hidden taxes.

Uses 2025/26 UK income tax bands and personal allowance taper for England, Wales and Northern Ireland.
Assumes PAYE employment income only — no pension salary sacrifice, no student loan, no benefits in kind.
VAT is 20% on your entered vatable spending.
Fuel duty + VAT are estimated from your annual miles and mpg, with a rough combined duty/VAT assumption of 60 p per litre.
Green levies are approximated as 9% of your annual gas + electricity bill.
TV licence, Council Tax (using average Band D ≈ £2,450), VED, alcohol/tobacco/gambling duties and custom items are taken as annual amounts you enter.
Air Passenger Duty assumes £13 per short-haul economy flight from the UK.
Insurance Premium Tax is 12% of your home and car insurance premiums.
Results are approximate and will not match your payslip or official HMRC calculations.

No tracking, no cookies. Built by a fed-up taxpayer.

Feedback or bug reports: whybothertax@gmail.com (I can’t give personal tax advice.)