How to use the Global Income Tax Calculator

Open the tool Skip to how the numbers work

The short version

  1. Pick where you work

    Search one of 31 countries, and a state or province where the rules differ. Or load a worked example from Quick Start.

  2. Enter the pay

    Your gross pay, or the take-home pay you want, a year or a month, and your residency or regime where it changes the tax.

  3. Read the answer

    Take-home pay, income tax and contributions, every line with its source, and up to four jobs side by side.

Nothing is uploaded. Every figure is worked out in your browser. This guide is general information, not tax advice.

The screen

The inputs on the left edit one job at a time; the results on the right set every job side by side. Point at a part in the list to see where it is.

  1. Quick Start and jobs

    Five worked comparisons, save and open, then up to four jobs. Click one to edit it; + Add job copies the one picked.

  2. The job's form

    Salary: where, how much, your status. Household and Details: only what that country uses.

  3. The answer

    One sentence, Show amounts in and Per year or month, then a card per job.

  4. The chart

    The share of gross each job takes home as pay rises (or, with Amount, the take-home itself), with one axis per currency when the jobs' currencies differ.

  5. The tables

    Where the pay goes side by side, then Take-home pay breakdowns, each with ⬇ CSV.

Top right, Tour replays a one minute walk through the page, and Guide opens this page.

Quick Start

Five worked comparisons, four jobs each: Asia hubs, European tech, US states, Same take-home, Southern Europe and Family of four. Each opens from the page's defaults, so none keeps what was on screen.

On a phone, press Full screen under a demo and turn the phone sideways to read it.

One senior engineer, four European cities

  1. Pick an example

    Hover a button to read what it holds. A click replaces every job.

  2. Four jobs, one each

    London, Amsterdam with the 30% ruling, Berlin and Zurich, each with its own country, situation and currency.

  3. Read the answer

    The sentence names the job that leaves the most, in euros here; a card per job gives its take-home, tax and contributions.

  • Then make it yours. Click a job and type over any figure. 💾 keeps the comparison as a file, 📂 opens one.

One job: country, pay and status

Country, State and Province are searchable: type a few letters instead of scrolling. A field shows only where it changes the tax: a US state, a Canadian province, Scotland for the UK.

£85,000 a year in London

  1. Search a country

    Type king and pick United Kingdom. The pay fields take the job's currency, £ here.

  2. Type the pay

    Gross pay, a year or a month. 85,000 a year.

  3. Read the take-home

    £59,857 a year: income tax £21,432 and National Insurance £3,711. The next 1% of pay loses 42%.

  • Your status. Residency, an expat regime (the Dutch 30% ruling, Spain's Beckham regime, Italy's impatriates), a tax class or a scheme: each shows only for its own country.
  • Household and Details. Children, a sole earner's partner, church tax, a pension rate, a student loan. A tab with nothing for the country says so.

From take-home to gross

Switch I know my to Take-home pay and type what you want left. The calculator solves for the gross pay that leaves it, with the same rules.

What gross pay leaves €4,500 a month in Madrid

  1. Choose take-home pay

    The Quick Start's jobs already ask for a take-home; the field says Take-home pay.

  2. Type what you want left

    4,500 a month.

  3. Read the gross pay it needs

    The Gross pay card shows what an employer would have to offer, and the tables break it down as usual.

  • Same take-home, every job. With every job asking for the same take-home, the sentence names the one that needs the least gross pay.

Jobs in different currencies

Every sum is worked out in the job's own currency. Exchange rates only restate it: in the cards and tables when Show amounts in names one currency, and on the chart's axes.

Singapore, Hong Kong (China), Tokyo and Dubai

  1. One axis per currency

    Each currency gets its own gross pay axis, lined up at the exchange rate, so one point across them is the same pay. Hover to read it in each.

  2. Or one currency for all

    Pick a currency in Show amounts in and every job, card, table and the chart read in it on one axis.

  • Today's rate. The page asks a free daily feed for today's rates (the same one the Cost of Living Comparator uses), keeps them for six hours and falls back to the rates it ships with. What this assumes dates them.
  • Ranking. With jobs in several currencies and no display currency picked, the sentence compares them in US dollars.

Take-home pay breakdowns

Every tax, contribution and deduction, with the rule's source and the date it took effect, one job at a time (pick it beside the title). It opens from its chevron.

The European tech jobs, broken down

  1. Open the breakdowns

    Click the title or its chevron.

  2. Every line, its source and its date

    Marked Official (a government page), Secondary (a Big Four, law firm or payroll source) or Assumption (a stated modelling choice).

Part 2

How the numbers work

Where each field enters the sums. All of it is read from the tool's own engine (engine.js), held to 422 worked cases from an independent model.

The model in one picture

Each country's payroll rules turn a year's gross pay into lines: what comes off before tax, the tax on what is left, and the contributions on pay. Take-home is what remains.

Taxable income T = G − Da year, in the job's currency
Take-home N = G − t(T) + Cr − S(G) − Otax on brackets, less credits
  • Gthe gross pay you enter, made a year (a month × 12)
  • Ddeductions and allowances before tax: a personal allowance, contributions that are deductible, an expat regime's exempt share
  • tthe country's (and state's, province's or city's) tax on bands of T
  • Crtax credits: children, low income, a tax reduction
  • Semployee social contributions on pay, each with its own rate and cap
  • Oother deductions from pay: a student loan, a pension share, company health cover
FieldWhat it isIn the mathsRaise it
Country, state, provinceWhich rules apply.Picks t, S and every allowance.swaps the rules
Gross payBefore income tax and employee contributions. An employer's contributions on top are not part of it.G, a year.take-home up, share down
I know myGross pay, or the take-home pay you want.Take-home: the lowest G whose N reaches it, found by a scan then halving to within 0.5.a mode
Residency, regimeResident or not, an expat regime, a flat scheme.Changes D (an exempt share) or replaces t with a flat rate.usually take-home up
HouseholdChildren, a partner with no income, filing jointly.Adds to D or Cr, or splits T (France's parts, Germany's class III).take-home up
Show amounts in, PerThe display currency and period.Divides by 12 for a month and converts at today's rate. The sums never change.no effect on the answer

Marginal rate is the share of the next 1% of pay that goes to tax and contributions: N worked out again at 1.01 × G.

Worked examples

£85,000 a year in London

England, Wales or Northern Ireland, 2026/27 rules, no student loan.

  1. Personal allowanceFull below £100,000£12,570
  2. Taxable, T85,000 − 12,570£72,430
  3. Income tax37,700 × 20% + (72,430 − 37,700) × 40% = 7,540 + 13,892£21,432
  4. National Insurance(50,270 − 12,570) × 8% + (85,000 − 50,270) × 2% = 3,016 + 694.60£3,710.60
  5. Take-home, N85,000 − 21,432 − 3,710.60, 70.4% of gross£59,857 a year
  • The next pound loses 42p: 40% income tax and 2% National Insurance, the marginal rate on the card.

S$180,000 a year in Singapore, on an Employment Pass

Year of assessment 2027. An Employment Pass holder pays no CPF.

  1. ReliefEarned income reliefS$1,000
  2. Income taxResident rates on S$179,000: S$7,950 on the first 120,000, 15% to 160,000, 18% aboveS$17,370
  3. Take-home180,000 − 17,370, 90.4% of grossS$162,630 a year

What it leaves out

What this assumes, under the results, lists the ones your jobs use.

  • Employment income only. No bonuses, equity, benefits in kind, other income, tax treaties or foreign tax credits.
  • A full year in one job. Where a rule changes mid-year, each month is worked out and summed.
  • One place per country where the rules are local: the City of Zurich, Milan, Madrid, Tokyo and Shanghai. Twelve US states are not loaded yet and say so.
  • Exchange rates from a free daily feed, for reading only.

This guide and the tool are general information, not tax advice. Check the figures that matter to you with the tax authority or an adviser before you accept an offer.

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