Do Apprentices Pay Tax and National Insurance?

Yes, apprentices in the UK do pay income tax and National Insurance on the same basis as any other employee, but most first-year apprentices earn too little to actually owe either. For the 2025/26 tax year, income tax only applies once you earn more than £12,570 in the year, and National Insurance only kicks in once your weekly pay passes £242. With the apprentice minimum wage set at £8.00 per hour from April 2026, a lot of first-year apprentices sit just under both lines.

The Income Tax Threshold

Every UK worker gets a Personal Allowance, the slice of annual earnings that carries no income tax. For 2025/26 (6 April 2025 to 5 April 2026), that allowance is £12,570, and it stays at the same level into 2026/27.¹

Stay below £12,570 across the year and you owe zero income tax. Go over, and you pay 20% on each pound above the allowance up to £50,270. That 20% basic rate covers the vast majority of apprentices, since even well-paid apprentices in their later years rarely earn above the higher-rate threshold.¹

In practical numbers: an apprentice earning £15,000 pays 20% on the £2,430 above the allowance, which comes to around £486 for the year. At £18,000, the annual bill is roughly £1,086.

The National Insurance Threshold

National Insurance is a separate deduction that works on a different threshold and a different timeframe. Class 1 employee NI starts once your weekly earnings pass £242 (equivalent to £1,048 a month or £12,570 a year). Between £242.01 and £967 per week, the employee rate is 8%; above £967, it drops to 2%.²

The important difference from income tax: NI is calculated per pay period, not on your annual total. Earn £250 in one week and you pay 8% on the £8 above the threshold, or 64p. Earn £230 the next week and nothing is deducted, even if your yearly total will eventually cross £12,570. Apprentices with variable hours often pay NI in busy weeks and nothing in quiet ones.

Each qualifying week still counts toward your National Insurance record, which builds entitlement to the State Pension and benefits such as Maternity Allowance.

Will You Actually Owe Anything in Your First Year?

From April 2026, the apprentice minimum wage is £8.00 per hour. This rate applies if you’re under 19, or if you’re 19 or over and still in your first year of apprenticeship.³

An apprentice working 30 hours a week at £8.00 an hour earns £240 a week, or about £12,480 across the year. That sits just under both the Personal Allowance and the weekly NI threshold, so income tax and National Insurance both come out at zero. At 37.5 hours a week the annual total climbs to roughly £15,600, which pulls some income tax into the picture, but the amounts stay modest.

Once you’ve finished your first year and you’re 19 or over, the apprentice rate no longer applies and you move to the standard National Minimum Wage for your age group.³ That pay bump is usually the point at which apprentices first see meaningful tax and NI deductions on a payslip.

How the Deductions Are Taken

You don’t file anything yourself. Your employer runs the numbers through Pay As You Earn (PAYE), taking income tax and National Insurance out of your gross wages before the money reaches your bank account.⁴

PAYE runs off a tax code that tells payroll how much tax-free pay you’re entitled to. The standard code for 2025/26 and 2026/27 is 1257L, matching the £12,570 allowance. Scottish residents have an “S” prefix (S1257L) and Welsh residents a “C” prefix (C1257L).⁴

Every pay date, you should get an itemised payslip listing your gross pay, income tax, National Insurance, any pension contribution, and your take-home pay. Look at it. The most common problem for a new apprentice is being placed on the wrong tax code, which means paying too much (or occasionally too little) tax.

Emergency Tax and Getting a Refund

If your apprenticeship is your first job and you don’t have a P45 from a previous role to hand your new employer, you may be put on an emergency tax code. The system then works out your tax from a single pay period rather than spreading your Personal Allowance across the year, and the deduction is often higher than what you actually owe.⁵

HMRC usually straightens this out within about 35 days of your start date, once it has your employment details. If you do have a P45, give it to your employer immediately and you’ll avoid the issue.⁵

If you did overpay during the year, HMRC sends a P800 tax calculation after the tax year ends. You can claim the refund online, which typically clears in about five working days, or ask for a cheque, which takes around six weeks.⁶

If You Live in Scotland

Scottish income tax rates differ from the rest of the UK, though the £12,570 Personal Allowance is identical. Scotland uses more bands, including a 19% starter rate on earnings from £12,571 to £15,397 and a 20% basic rate from £15,398 to £27,491.⁷

For most apprentices the difference is small. If you earn under about £30,300, you pay slightly less income tax in Scotland than elsewhere in the UK. National Insurance rates are the same across the whole UK regardless of where you live.⁷

Other Deductions on Your Payslip

Tax and NI aren’t the only things that can come out of your gross pay, so a deduction you weren’t expecting isn’t automatically a mistake.

All employers must offer a workplace pension. Automatic enrolment typically applies to workers aged 22 or over who earn above £10,000 a year, so many first-year apprentices sit below that line and aren’t enrolled by default. Apprentices in later years with higher pay often are. The minimum employee contribution is usually 5% of qualifying earnings (which includes tax relief), and the employer adds at least 3%. You can opt out, but you’d give up the employer contribution.⁸

Student loan repayments can also apply if you studied before your apprenticeship. On a Plan 2 loan (the common type for those who started university from 2012 onwards), repayments begin when annual earnings exceed £28,470, at 9% of earnings above that threshold, collected through PAYE. Most apprentices earn below this level, so student loan deductions rarely appear, but it’s worth checking in later years as your pay rises.

Council Tax and the Apprentice Disregard

Council tax is charged on your property rather than your earnings, but there’s a rule that matters to apprentices. You can be “disregarded” when the council counts adults in your household if your employer confirms you earn no more than £195 per week and your training leads to a qualification accredited by Ofqual or the Scottish Vocational Education Council.⁹

Being disregarded doesn’t remove you personally from the bill; it changes the household calculation:

A 25% discount if you live with one other adult who isn’t disregarded, or if you’re the only person liable and everyone else in the household is disregarded.
A 50% discount if every adult in the household is disregarded, for example a flat shared entirely by apprentices and full-time students.

You apply through your local council, not HMRC, and you’ll need a letter from your employer confirming your earnings and training. Watch the £195 weekly limit as your pay increases: once you cross it, the disregard ends and the household bill can rise. Tell the council promptly when your circumstances change so you don’t get billed for back payments.⁹

1
GOV.UK. Income Tax Rates and Personal Allowances
2
GOV.UK. National Insurance Rates and Categories – Contribution Rates
3
GOV.UK. National Minimum Wage and National Living Wage Rates
4
GOV.UK. Income Tax – How You Pay Income Tax
5
GOV.UK. Emergency Tax Codes
6
GOV.UK. If Your Tax Calculation Letter (P800) Says You’re Due a Refund
7
Scottish Government. Scottish Income Tax 2025 to 2026 Factsheet
8
GOV.UK. Joining a Workplace Pension
9
GOV.UK. How Council Tax Works – Who Has to Pay