If you’re wondering how to work out what your wage or salary is after tax in Ireland, you’ve come to the right site.

We use up-to-date information to make sure you get the right figures for your expected take-home pay. This includes tax rates, tax bands and personal allowances.

We’ve built an easy-to-use Irish salary calculator which lets you work out how much money you will get every month with confidence.

We rely on information and rules from the Irish Government to make sure we are accurate.

Our easy-to-use online tool has been designed so that you can get accurate figures you can trust with just some basic information.

What information do I need to have to use your salary calculator?

The main things you will need to work out your take-home pay are the following:

• Your gross salary (the salary you expect to have before tax).
• Your pay cycle (how often you are paid).
• The tax year (this runs from the start of January to the end of December).
• Your age (because tax rates change when you’re over 65 and over 69).
• Your marital or civil partnership status.
• Details of your partner’s age and gross salary if you are married or in a civil partnership.
• The number of children or dependants you have.

We don’t ask you for any personal details such as your name, your email or any other personal details. We are only interested in helping you work out your take-home pay.

How do you work out your pay after tax using our Ireland salary calculator?

We have designed our take Ireland home pay calculator to be as easy to use as possible.

All you need to do to get an accurate figure for your net pay (your pay after tax) is some basic information. Here’s a description of each piece of information we need and why we need it.

Gross Salary

Type in your gross salary into this box. Your gross salary is the amount of money you will receive before any deductions for tax.

You can use the arrows to the left of this box to change the number you’ve put into the system, or just type it in again.

Pay cycle

You can use this drop-down menu to tell the system how your pay is calculated. For most people, this will be the figure for a whole year or a whole month. But we know some people are paid weekly too, so we’ve included that as an option too, and added a five-day option too.

You may be paid hourly. We’ve taken this on board too and allowed you to choose an hourly option. This is based on a standard 40-hour working week. This will help you get a figure from our hourly calculator.

This all means you can actually examine your wage or salary in a variety of ways – for the full year, per month, by week, or by the hour.

Tax Year

A tax year is a specific period of time for tax. In Ireland, the tax year runs from 1st January to 31st December.

To enter the tax year you’re looking for, use the drop-down menu and pick the right one.

You must get your tax year right because tax rates change from year to year.

We’ve built our tool so that you aren’t just trapped looking at this year’s tax. You can use it for every year from 2019 onward.

Age

There’s a drop-down menu for age which allows you to choose between four options – Under 65, aged 65, 66-69, and Over 69. This is because if you are an older person then there are a range of Age Tax Credits that kick in. These tax credits reduce the amount of your income on which you have to pay tax.

Pension Contribution

This box asks you for the amount of pension contribution you make. Our tool needs you to put in this figure as a percentage (%) of your pay.

By law, both you as an employee AND your employer must pay into your pension scheme. Between the two payments, there is a minimum requirement of 8% of the total. All employers must pay at least 3% of this amount, but they can choose to pay more.

If you do not have a number for your percentage pension contribution, then use the 5% figure. This is the standard amount you will be paying unless your employer is paying in more than 3% of your salary into a pension scheme.

Marital Status

Our wage calculator for Ireland also asks about your marital status. This is because the amount of money you can keep without it being taxed changes depending on your marital status. If you are single or widowed, there are set amounts of tax credits. But if you are married or in a civil partnership then there are extra tax credits available. Since 2011, all married couples and registered civil partners are treated in exactly the same way for tax.

When you’re using the online tool to work out your potential tax, if you choose single or widowed then nothing changes on the screen. However, if you indicate you are married or in a civil partnership a new box opens and you’re asked to also give your partner’s age and income. This is because you will be classed together for some tax purposes. So you’ll need your partner’s age and income level if you are married or in a civil partnership in order to get an accurate income tax figure.

Children

There is also a tick box for children. If you have any dependent children of which you are the principal carer, then tick this box. This is because having dependent children means there is some additional tax relief put in place for Irish taxpayers. The amount of tax you have to pay will therefore go down, so it’s important to tick this box if you are eligible.

Show Advanced Options

If you tick the Show Advanced Options box then it will open another set of boxes. This is because there are a few extra tax reliefs in place in Ireland for certain groups of people. The extra tax reliefs are there for people who full into one or more of these categories:

• Home carer
• Blind person
• Dependant relative (if you have one, not if you are one)
• Incapacitated child

If you fit one or more of these groups, there is some additional tax relief put in place for Irish taxpayers. The amount of tax you have to pay will therefore go down, so it’s important to tick these boxes if you are eligible.

How accurate is our Ireland salary calculator?

We use up-to-date information to let calculate your take-home salary or your take-home wage. This means you can use our wage calculator with confidence. It will always be accurate for people paying income tax in Ireland.

Do we hold on to your information after you’ve inputted it?

Absolutely not. We respect data privacy. We’ve built this tool to help you correctly work out your take-home pay. We won’t hold on to any data you share.

And because we don’t ask you for any personal details such as your name, your email or any other personal information. We are only interested in helping you work out your take-home pay.

Is our tool updated regularly?

Our tool is always updated when there is a change in the tax system in Ireland. This is usually done a couple of times per year through a Budget or a financial statement by the Irish government to the Dáil. These announcements will often change tax rates and this can affect your pro rata pay.

FAQs

What is tax?

Tax is money charged by the government to pay for things which the country needs. Income tax is the tax on your wages or salary to do this.

Why are taxes collected?

Modern countries all collect taxes. Tax is collected by governments in order to help create a prosperous, functional, and orderly society.

Ireland’s tax revenue – or the amount taken in tax – is used to pay for essential goods and services such as social security, defence, road and rail infrastructure and education.

What types of taxes are there?

There are different types of taxes. Income tax which is taken from your wage or salary is known as a direct tax.

Indirect taxes are different. They are based on charging you tax for the goods and services you choose to buy. This can include VAT (Value Added Tax) which is applied to a range of things like food, energy, clothing, entertainment and hairdressing. Indirect taxes also include extra charges put on things like alcohol or cigarettes.

How much tax does the Irish Government get?

The total amount of tax will change year on year. But of the total amount of tax raised by the Irish Government roughly 40% of it comes from income tax (according to 2017 figures). This makes income tax one of the most important sources of income for the Irish Government.

Who sets the rate of income tax for Ireland?

The level of income tax is set by the Irish Government in Dublin. They do this by presenting a Budget to the Dáil at least once a year.

What are tax bands?

People pay different rates of tax depending on the amount of money they earn. There are things called tax bands which split income into different groups. In Ireland income is split into two tax bands – lower and higher.

Lower tax is currently paid on income UNDER €40,000 per year for a single person and is charged at 20% in every Euro.

Higher tax is currently paid on income OVER €40,000 per year for a single person and is charged at 40% in every Euro over this amount.

The thresholds for tax bands change if you are married or in a civil partnership, or if you are a one-parent family.

Does tax change?

Governments regularly change taxes in different ways. The reasons governments do this also change. It could be because they might want to spend more or need to spend more. Sometimes there could be a situation where more people are not working and paying taxes. Alternatively, there might be an income tax cut of some kind.

Governments change income tax in different ways. The most obvious one is updating the percentage of tax they take from your income. These are also called tax rates.

Governments can also alter the thresholds between tax bands, or they can alter personal allowances.

All of these things have an impact on the amount of tax the government takes.

What are tax credits?

Tax credits reduce the amount of Income Tax that you pay. The Irish Government will apply them after your tax has been calculated. Everyone has a basic personal tax credit. This amount will increase if you are married or in a civil partnership. There are other tax credits available too.

What are the tax credits in Ireland?

This is a short list of tax credits used to calculate income tax in Ireland.

• Married Person’s or Civil Partnership Tax Credit *
• Age Tax Credit *
• Blind Person’s Tax Credit *
• Dependent Relative Tax Credit *
• Employee Tax Credit *
• Home Carer Tax Credit *
• Incapacitated Child Tax Credit *
• Fisher Tax Credit
• Sea-going Naval Personnel Tax Credit
• Single-Person Child Carer Credit
• Widowed Parent Tax Credit

Our tool covers all the main tax credits (these are marked with a *).

What are tax exemptions?

Tax exemptions are another way of explaining tax credits.

What are tax reliefs?

Tax reliefs are extra amounts of tax-free money you might be eligible for. The main tax reliefs in Ireland are linked to medical expenses, age, and working from home. Our tool does not cover tax reliefs.

What is PRSI?

PRSI (Pay Related Social Insurance contributions) is a social security system in Ireland. You pay PRSI contributions to qualify for certain benefits and the State Pension. The government takes PRSI on top of income tax.

When you turn 66, you will no longer be charged for PRSI. However, usually people over 66 still have to pay Universal Social Charge (USC). This is a tax you pay on your gross income. USC drops when you get to 70. You will need to give your age so that our PRSI calculator is accurate.

Does our net salary calculator include PRSI?

Yes, we include PRSI as well as income tax so that the figure given in our net pay calculator is accurate. You will need to give your age so that our PRSI calculator is accurate.

What is gross pay?

Your wage or salary before income tax or anything else is taken from it is known as gross pay

What is net pay?

Net pay is a phrase that is used to describe the amount of money you have left after you have paid your income tax and other deductions have been taken. Our Ireland take-home salary calculator gives you the net pay figure.