2026 salary guide · Official rules checked 2026-10-19
Start with the salary you are actually comparing
Use the annual gross salary in your employment offer, before tax or pension deductions. The calculator compares one regular PAYE job over a complete 2026 tax year. It assumes a single Irish resident employee with standard tax credits and Class A employee PRSI. Your result separates income tax, Universal Social Charge and employee PRSI so you can see where the difference between gross pay and take-home pay comes from. It is an estimate for comparison and budgeting, rather than a personalised tax assessment.
A salary offer is only one part of a moving or household budget. After checking this estimate, set aside your own pension contribution and compare rent, bills, transport and regular commitments. An employer pension contribution is a benefit, but it is not cash available for this month's rent. The calculator does not estimate living costs or decide whether a particular job offer is affordable for you.
How PAYE income tax works in this 2026 example
PAYE means Pay As You Earn: an employer deducts income tax through payroll. For the single-person circumstances used here, the first €44,000 of annual taxable income is charged at 20% in 2026 and the balance at 40%. Crossing the band does not make your whole salary taxable at 40%. The calculator first works out the tax in each slice, then applies the included credits. It treats gross salary as taxable pay because pension contributions and other adjustments are outside this model.
In normal cumulative payroll, the calculation takes account of income, bands and credits accumulated since January. Revenue also explains a Week 1 basis, where each pay period is considered separately. This tool is an annual comparison: it cannot reproduce an emergency-tax deduction, a change of payroll basis, unused credits after starting partway through the year or a correction on an individual payslip.
Revenue: tax rate bands · Revenue: how income tax is calculated
Tax credits reduce income tax, rather than gross salary
This example includes a €2,000 personal tax credit and an Employee Tax Credit of up to €2,000. The employee credit is capped at 20% of eligible PAYE income when that annual income is below €10,000. Credits reduce the calculated income-tax bill; the tool never turns unused credit into a negative tax bill or subtracts it from USC or PRSI. The displayed result shows how much of each included credit was used.
Your own Tax Credit Certificate can contain different credits or a different rate band. Marriage or civil partnership, qualifying children, additional jobs and other individual circumstances are not configurable here. Check the certificate and Revenue's guidance when your situation differs from this single-employee example.
USC has its own bands and exemption
Universal Social Charge is calculated separately. This model uses the standard 2026 bands: 0.5% on the first €12,012; 2% on the next €16,688, up to €28,700 in total; 3% on the next €41,344, up to €70,044; and 8% on the balance. Annual income of €13,000 or less is exempt in this example. Above that exemption, USC applies across the full relevant income, rather than only to the amount exceeding €13,000.
The tool assumes standard USC rates. It does not apply reduced rates associated with qualifying medical-card or age circumstances, nor special treatment for particular income types. Those differences matter when comparing the estimate with an actual Revenue calculation.
Revenue: standard USC rates and thresholds · Revenue: calculating USC · Revenue: reduced USC rates
Why the PRSI figure changes during 2026
For the Class A employee in this example, the employee rate is 4.20% until 30 September 2026 and 4.35% from 1 October. Weekly earnings of €352 or less have a nil employee rate. A tapered employee credit applies between €352.01 and €424 a week. These are employee contributions: employer PRSI is not subtracted from the salary shown here.
To estimate a steady full-year salary, the existing model divides annual gross pay into 52 equal weeks, applies the weekly threshold and tapered credit, then weights the earlier rate for nine months and the later rate for three. That is a stated annual approximation. Pay dates, irregular earnings and payroll rounding can produce a different result, particularly close to a threshold. Monthly take-home is annual net divided by twelve, not a forecast of an October payslip.
Check the limits before using your result
No pension contribution, auto-enrolment deduction, bonus, benefit in kind, share award, self-employment income, student repayment or other personal deduction is included. This is not a married-couple, contractor or multi-job calculator. Salary input stays in your browser. If JavaScript is unavailable, the worked €60,000 example below remains readable; enable JavaScript to change the salary.
The rates are fixed to tax year 2026, even when you open this page in another year. Compare a real payslip with your Tax Credit Certificate and Revenue account, and ask payroll about differences in pay periods or deductions. The official source links beside each explanation are the place to check the applicable rules for your circumstances.