Police Car Salary Sacrifice Calculator
What a car salary sacrifice really costs you each month after tax, National Insurance and benefit-in-kind tax, and what it may cost your pension. Built for police officers, using 2026/27 rates.
- Free, nothing stored
- England and Wales, and Scotland
- Sources checked 9 October 2026
Start from a worked example, then change the details
Example car: Kia EV3 Air: £552 a month, list price £33,005. Source: The Electric Car Scheme published example, 11 November 2025 (36 months, 10,000 miles). Prices vary: use your own quote.
Your estimate, with both pension cases
Edit details- Take-home drop (pay before sacrifice)
- £428
- a month
- If pension uses reduced pay
- £367
- a month
- Over the lease
- £15,871
- 3 years, pay before sacrifice
- Pension
- −£449
- a year, if reduced pay
Your take-home pay drops by
Pension based on pay before the sacrificemost likely
£428 a month
For a gross sacrifice of £552 a month. About £15,871 over the 3-year lease.
Pension based on reduced pay
£367 a month
For a gross sacrifice of £552 a month. About £13,664 over the 3-year lease.
Why the first figure is higher than most provider calculators: if your pension stays based on pay before the sacrifice, you keep paying pension contributions on that pay. You save no pension contributions, so your take-home pay falls by more. In exchange your pension is not reduced.
First tax year of the lease (2026/27). Benefit-in-kind rates rise each April: see the year-by-year table.
Where the money goes, a month
2026/27. Pluses are savings that soften the sacrifice; minuses are costs. Full pay: pension based on pay before the sacrifice. Reduced pay: pension based on the lower pay.
| Item | Full pay | Reduced pay |
|---|---|---|
| Gross salary sacrifice | −£552.00 | −£552.00 |
| Income tax saved | +£110.40 | +£95.08 |
| National Insurance saved | +£35.42 | +£35.42 |
| Pension contributions saved | £0.00 | +£76.62 |
| Benefit-in-kind tax added | −£22.00 | −£22.00 |
| Take-home pay drops by | £428.18 | £366.88 |
- Pension contribution rate: 13.88% on £52,015.
- Benefit-in-kind tax is worked out exactly at your tax rate: list price × 4% added to your taxable pay. No employee NI is due on it.
What it may cost your pension
Shown both ways. The first is the position in the 2015 regulations and the forces we found; confirm with your force in writing.
Pension based on pay before the sacrifice
No pension change
You build pension on your full pay, as if you had not sacrificed anything. The cost is that you keep paying contributions on that pay: about £61 a month (£2,207 over the lease) more than if your pension were based on reduced pay.
Pension based on reduced pay
£449 a year less
A year of your pension worth £449 less, for life, in today's money. Paid for 25 years of retirement that is about £11,235.
- Each year of sacrifice builds £120 a year less 2015 scheme pension (the pay given up ÷ 55.3), over 3 years of this lease.
- That lost pension would have been revalued by CPI plus 1.25% a year until you retire, which is why the figure at retirement is higher.
- Final pay also sets the 2015 death in service lump sum (3 × final pay), the enhanced ill-health pension and injury awards. A sacrifice in the years that count could lower them.
How to weigh it: on reduced pay you save about £2,207 over the lease, but give up about £449 of pension a year for life. That is why the pension question matters more than the tax saving.
See the effect on your whole pension, and the full breakdown, in the pension calculator. The full report is £47.The pension estimate itself is free. One payment, 14-day refund.
Open the pension calculatorYear by year over the lease
Take-home pay drop a month in each tax year. Benefit-in-kind percentages are the legislated rates; tax bands are held at 2026/27 levels.
| Tax year | Months | BiK | Full pay | Reduced |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 2026/27 | 5 | 4% | £428 | £367 |
| 2027/28 | 12 | 5% | £434 | £372 |
| 2028/29 | 12 | 7% | £445 | £383 |
| 2029/30 | 7 | 9% | £456 | £394 |
| Whole lease (36 months) | 36 | £15,871 | £13,664 |
Compare with a personal lease or PCP
Enter a personal lease or PCP quote for the same car under "Compare" in your details to see which costs less each month, like for like.
Add a comparisonRisks to check before you sign
Tailored to your figures. Scheme terms vary by force and provider.
Worth checking
Leaving early: resignation, dismissal, career break, transfer
If the lease ends early you may pay a termination charge from your net pay. On your figures (months of rental × £552):
- Ending in lease year 1 (5 months)£2,760
- Ending in lease year 2 (3 months)£1,656
- Ending in lease year 3 (1 month)£552
Cumbria's scheme puts the cost on the officer for resignation, retirement, dismissal and redundancy. Kent and Essex charge for resignation and career breaks. Some providers' early termination protection excludes disciplinary dismissals. Moving to another force means leaving your current scheme: ask what happens to the car.
Check this first
Long-term sickness: half pay and nil pay
After six months' sick leave in a year, pay normally drops to half. Your half pay would be about £2,167 a month before tax. Taking £552 from that would leave less than the minimum wage floor most schemes apply (£2,203 a month for a 40-hour week at £12.71). On nil pay there is nothing to sacrifice. Kent and Essex then collect payments from your net pay (no tax saving); Cumbria recovers missed payments on your return or charges early termination.
Worth checking
Maternity, adoption and shared parental leave
Statutory maternity pay uses your average earnings over about weeks 17 to 25 of pregnancy, which a sacrifice lowers. A Home Office circular from 2008, as reported, says occupational and statutory maternity pay are worked out on the reduced salary. Your pension during paid leave builds on assumed pay. If your pay stops, forces collect payments from net pay or recover them later. Ask your force how your scheme handles it before you sign.
Good to know
Mortgage and loan applications
Your payslip gross pay falls by £6,624 a year. Cumbria warns this can reduce what lenders will offer. Some lenders accept pay before the sacrifice with a letter from your employer; ask yours.
Good to know
Business mileage
With a salary sacrifice car, business miles are repaid at the advisory electricity rate (7p a mile with a home charger, 15p public, from 1 September 2026), not the 55p own-car rate. If you claim business miles now, you lose the difference.
Good to know
Who can join
Some forces exclude probationers and anyone under disciplinary or performance procedures, suspended, leaving or on a career break. Check your force's policy.
Take these figures to your force payroll or Federation representative.
Estimate only, using 2026/27 tax, NI and student loan rates for every year and the legislated company car rates. It is not financial or tax advice. Everything is worked out in your browser; nothing you enter is sent or stored.
How it works and where the numbers come from
How the monthly cost is worked out
Your gross pay falls by the sacrifice. Income tax, National Insurance and any student loan are then worked out on the lower pay. The car's list price times the benefit-in-kind percentage is added to your taxable pay, and the extra tax is the benefit-in-kind tax. The difference between your take-home pay before and after is the real monthly cost.
Pension contributions are taken before tax (a net pay arrangement). If your pension stays on pay before the sacrifice, contributions do not change. If it uses the reduced pay, they fall, but only from the next scheme year if your contribution band changes, because the band uses the previous year's pay.
The child benefit charge is worked out on adjusted net income: pay after pension contributions, less the sacrifice, plus the car benefit. It is shown separately because it is usually paid through Self Assessment.
The pension question, in the regulations
Regulation 34(2)(e) of the Police Pensions Regulations 2015 makes a period in which a member "voluntarily surrenders pensionable earnings in whole or in part" a period of assumed pay. Regulation 34(1) then treats the member as receiving the pensionable earnings they would have had. Assumed pay counts for pension building (reg 58(8)) and final pay (reg 159(4)(b)).
Cumbria Constabulary (April 2025) works out officers' pensionable pay "on the notional gross salary before salary sacrifice" and says officers "will not make savings on pension contributions". The 7F forces' provider says officers' contributions use "nominal (pre-sacrifice) salary". HMRC says the employer decides. We found no force saying officers' pensionable pay is reduced, and no Home Office guidance either way on car schemes.
Company car tax rates, 2026/27 to 2029/30
| Car | 2026/27 | 2027/28 | 2028/29 | 2029/30 |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Fully electric | 4% | 5% | 7% | 9% |
| Hybrid 1 to 50g/km, 130+ miles electric | 4% | 5% | 18% | 19% |
| Hybrid, 70 to 129 miles | 7% | 8% | 18% | 19% |
| Hybrid, 40 to 69 miles | 10% | 11% | 18% | 19% |
| Hybrid, 30 to 39 miles | 14% | 15% | 18% | 19% |
| Hybrid, under 30 miles | 16% | 17% | 18% | 19% |
ITEPA 2003 s.139 as amended by Finance Act 2023 s.11, and Finance Act 2025 ss.5 and 6. From April 2028 the range bands for 1 to 50g/km cars go, so every plug-in hybrid in that range pays 18%.
What we could not verify
- Whether your force bases officers' pension on pay before or after the sacrifice. The regulations and the forces we found point one way; your force decides in practice.
- Whether overtime, rest day and public holiday rates use the reduced pay. No force or Federation statement found.
- The text of Home Office Circular 12/2008 (the officers' salary sacrifice framework). Only a press summary was found.
- Whether the planned pay-per-mile charge from April 2028 will be passed on to drivers mid-lease.
- Future tax bands: we hold 2026/27 bands and thresholds for every year of the lease.
Frequently asked questions
Does car salary sacrifice reduce a police officer's pension?
Probably not, but check with your force. The Police Pensions Regulations 2015 (regulation 34(2)(e)) treat a period in which a member voluntarily surrenders pensionable pay as assumed pay, so pension builds on the pay you would have had. Cumbria Constabulary's policy and the eastern region (7F) provider say officers' pension is based on pay before the sacrifice. No Home Office guidance says in terms that car schemes are covered, so ask your force payroll to confirm in writing.
Do police officers save pension contributions with salary sacrifice?
Not if the pension stays based on pay before the sacrifice, which is the position in the 2015 regulations and the forces we found. You keep paying contributions on your full pay, so your take-home pay falls by more than provider calculators that assume a contribution saving. In return your pension is not reduced.
How much does an electric car salary sacrifice cost a police constable?
On our example of a top-scale constable (£52,015) sacrificing £552 a month for a Kia EV3 with a £33,005 list price, take-home pay falls by about £428 a month in 2026/27 if the pension is based on pay before the sacrifice, or about £367 if it is based on reduced pay. Your own figures depend on your quote, pay and tax band.
What benefit-in-kind tax do I pay on an electric car?
The car's list price times the appropriate percentage, taxed at your rate: 4% in 2026/27, 5% in 2027/28, 7% in 2028/29 and 9% in 2029/30 for a fully electric car. No employee National Insurance is due on it. From April 2027 the tax will be collected through your payslip each month.
What happens to my car if I leave the police or am dismissed?
The lease normally ends and you may have to pay an early termination charge. Cumbria's scheme puts the charge on the officer for resignation, retirement, dismissal and redundancy, typically five months' rental in year one, three in year two and one in year three. Some providers' protection excludes disciplinary dismissals.
Does salary sacrifice affect overtime pay?
We could not find any force or Federation statement on whether officers' overtime rates use pay before or after the sacrifice. HMRC says the employer decides and must make it clear. If you work a lot of overtime, ask payroll in writing before you sign.
Is this calculator right for Police Scotland?
It applies Scottish income tax bands and the flat 13.7% Scottish pension contribution rate. The Scottish 2015 scheme has the same voluntary surrender wording (SSI 2015/142 regulation 25(2)(e)). We found no Police Scotland car salary sacrifice scheme.
Is anything I enter stored?
No. The calculation runs in your browser. Nothing you type is sent to us or saved.
Related
- Car salary sacrifice explained The full guide: pension, tax, leaving early, maternity, mortgages and questions to ask.
- Police pension calculator Your whole pension, with the McCloud remedy and lump sum.
- Police salary calculator Take-home pay by rank, pay point and force.
- Take-home pay explained Why your net pay differs from your salary.
Main sources (checked 9 October 2026)
- Police Pensions Regulations 2015, regulation 34
- Cumbria Constabulary salary sacrifice car policy (April 2025)
- Knowles Fleet 7F portal FAQ
- HMRC: salary sacrifice and the effects on PAYE
- HMRC 480 Appendix 2: appropriate percentages
- Rates and thresholds for employers 2026 to 2027
PolicePay.co.uk is independent and not affiliated with any force, the Home Office, the Police Federation or any car scheme provider. We do not recommend providers and take no commission. Figures are estimates, not financial or tax advice. Check your force's policy and your provider's terms before you sign.