Comments on: Pension contributions on The Salary Calculator

By: Paul

Paul — Thu, 02 Sep 2010 17:34:54 +0000

Yes, if you place the cursor on the top field of the advanced options and press “Tab” this will eventually take you down to the pension information fields.

By: admin

admin — Fri, 13 Aug 2010 22:13:00 +0000

Hi KJ,

The pension field is still there but is not in quite the same place. I have tried to tidy up the calculator and have put the pension and overtime fields into an “Advanced” section. Underneath the field where you enter the salary (or the hourly rates) there is now a link “Show advanced options…” – if you click on this you should see it expand to show you the pension field.

By: KJ

KJ — Fri, 13 Aug 2010 22:07:00 +0000

Please could you tell me where the pension field is on the salary calculator?
l have previously used this calculator with the
pension field but it seems to have been removed.

By: admin

admin — Sun, 06 Jun 2010 11:18:51 +0000

Hi Ali,

In my experience, when a company says that they will contribute a certain percentage to a pension, it normally means that they will contribute the same percentage that you agree to contribute, up to a maximum (in this case 13%). In that case, if you chose to contribute only 6% (say), they would also contribute 6%. However, each company handles these things differently so the best thing to do would be to ask the HR or Payroll department to explain it to you.

In my blog post above, I explained that amount contributed to the pension is sometimes not as simple as just a percentage of the gross salary (see above), but if it is then 13% would indeed be £3,900 per year. The tax relief would cover this, but it does mean that your take-home pay does not decrease by £3,900 per year. Use the Salary Calculator to see what difference it would actually make to you each month, although as before you would need to check with your employer to see exactly how they calculate the amount to deduct.

I’m sorry I can’t be more helpful, but because not everyone’s employer handles pension contributions the same way, the Salary Calculator can only give you an indication of what the impact might be.

By: Ali W

Ali W — Sat, 05 Jun 2010 14:50:14 +0000

Your site is fantastic, but if you can help me with this question, i would be really grateful.

Just got a job, i start in 5 weeks, the salary is 30k, and they will contribute 13% pension. I dont kbwo if that means i will have to contribute 13% also?

If it is yes, that would decrease my salary by 3900, would the tax releif cover that?

By: Andrew

Andrew — Wed, 23 Dec 2009 15:28:41 +0000

it would be great if the calculator could deal with salary sacrifice (http://www.hmrc.gov.uk/specialist/salary_sacrifice.htm) pensions, as this affects the amount of NI and I.T. paid

By: admin

admin — Thu, 19 Nov 2009 18:16:19 +0000

That's an interesting thought, John, and I can see a couple of ways to go about it. In a post about new April 2010 tax rates I explained that early next year I'll be updating the calculator. I will see if I could include some kind of indicator then.

By: John Stevens

John Stevens — Thu, 19 Nov 2009 12:23:21 +0000

Found the calculator extremely useful.
However, one of the things I’m trying to do is calculate how much AVC contribution I need to make to keep my taxable pay under the 40% threshold.
It would be really useful if the calculator offered some sort of ‘flag’ to indicate whether the calculation included some tax in the 40% band. Then by increasing the pension % until the flag dropped I could find the answer easily.

Many thanks.